Drug taking may be a problem in English football, but Tim Springett wouldn't recommend random testing
A further wave of revelations of professional footballers in England testing positive for drugs is, predictably, leading to a clamour for the football authorities to get tough on drug use and follow the example set by the International Amateur Athletics Federation. It is to be hoped that, instead, the FA and their international counterparts learn from the IAAF’s mistakes.
The Brazilian league is structured so it's nearly impossible for the big clubs to lose dominance, but Brian Homewood notes that Fluminense have remarkably been relegated
If you want to meet somebody worse off than yourself, get on the next flight to Rio and go and talk to any Fluminense supporter. Fluminense fans have just gone through the agony of seeing their team accomplish the unprecedented feat of getting relegated from the first division of the Brazilian championship for the second year running.
Tottenham's way of playing may not historically yield success, but Tim Broadfoot argues that it entertains
Tottenham may not win many trophies (around one a decade) but they more than make up for it with their famous playing methods.
Aside from the bad memories it holds, Roy Chuter examines why Heysel is not safe enough to stage major football matches
Of all the places you’d think you have a right to expect to find the latest planning and technology, and where the lessons of eighties disasters would have been most thoroughly learnt, the Heysel Stadium has to be top of the list. But for many of the Irish fans who visited the redeveloped stadium in November, it was obvious that problems remain.
Where have all the interesting characters in football gone?
Strange times when you find yourself agreeing with a well-worn cliché, but there simply aren’t the characters in the game anymore. What other explanations can there possibly be for television’s continued obsession with John Burridge? Over the past 12 months he has been beamed into living rooms, firstly in the Tyne Tees region, then nationwide, sporting comedy sideburns, singing, asking Fabrizio Ravanelli if he liked fish and chips and, more recently, embracing his old mum on Match of the Day.