Despite what the media may have you believe, Spain still has a real problem with racism, as Phil Ball explains

On Sunday October 11th, in the Santiago Bernabéu in Madrid, 85,000 people turned up for an anti-racism festival of football – perhaps the biggest sporting event yet in the European Year Against Racism. Cantona, Hugo Sanchez, Hagi, Karembeu, Higuita… you name them, they were out there, doing their bit. On the Monday, the headline in Spain’s football tabloid Marca was, predictably “El futbol gana por amplia goleada al racismo” (Football scores a huge victory against racism). Unfortunately, this is complete crap.

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A new video has been released in favour of Everton staying at Goodison Park. Andy Burnham examines the club's big decision

Peter Johnson was a Liverpool season ticket holder. It is rumoured he travelled down to Wembley with the Liverpool squad for the 1986 FA Cup Final.

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Referees are often the focus of derision, but is it right that players should get away with dishing out so much abuse?

Imagine a school football match ten, 15 years ago. As a matter of course players in both sides will copy three things they have seen footballers do on television: forwards will stand in front of the goalkeeper with their arms outstretched; the star midfield player will trudge away with hands on hips and head down when a decision has gone against him; and everyone, but everyone will spit (and effect not to notice when it dribbles down their shirt).

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Tuesday 2 Rio Ferdinand is dropped from the England squad for the Moldova game after being arrested for drink driving. His mum blames it on alcopops still in his system from the day before when he'd celebrated his England call up with West Ham team-mates. If we're reading Glenn's complex moral code correctly, Rio would have been OK if he'd only beaten his girlfriend. Scottish Secretary Donald Dewar criticizes the SFA for not postponing their World Cup match against Belarus due for Saturday, the day of Princess Diana's funeral, saying, "The government wants Saturday to be a day of remembrance not a day of sport." "Colin Hendry is out and big Donald would be a welcome addition to the back four," chirps the SFA's Jim Farry.

Wednesday 3 Scotland's match is moved to Sunday afternoon after it is established that FIFA weren't opposed to the rescheduling. The Rangers players in the squad had threatened to pull out if the match went ahead on Saturday, their decision possibly not unconnected to the fact that the club's vice-chairman Donald Finlay has led the calls for Jim Farry to resign. In the First Division Nottingham Forest lose their 100% record with a 3-1 home defeat against Manchester City.

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Dear WSC
For those readers who may have heard York City chairman Douglas Craig spouting off on a Radio One/Radio Five programme about the Fabian Society’s ‘Football United’ report, please permit me to fill in a few background details. Mr Craig is the former chairman of the York and District Conservative Association and close friend of Tory MP and club president, John Greenaway, a self-confessed Arsenal fan.  He remains the only Football League chairman not to endorse the CRE ‘Kick Racism Out Of Football’ initiative and describes City supporters who campaign for the club to back down and sign as “interfering left wing do-gooders”.  Who better, then, to comment on a report by a socialist organization? The BBC confirmed when I spoke to them that Mr Craig was only used because they knew they’d get the desired negative response.  This may be all well and good for the purposes of the feature but it is infuriating to hear someone express such myopic opinions without the chance to refute and counter some of their comments. To hear a man who tells his own club’s supporters to stay away if they don’t like what they see on a Saturday afternoon, belittling the report because he claims the authors don’t realize that football is “a business”, is just laughable. But then everybody loves a clown…
Odge, Scarborough

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