John Williams of the Sir Norman Chester Centre for Football Research previews some of the main findings of the 1997 Carling Premiership survey due to be published next month

You know that smug Carling poster ad, with the guy with his head in his hands contemplating the message of his son’s catastrophic defection to (gulp) rugby? The words a father most dreads hearing? Forget it. Much worse is to learn that your offspring has resisted the obvious charms of your own footballing heroes for another football club.

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  Roger Titford analyses your replies to our annual readers' survey from WSC No 126

With the help of the Sir Norman Chester Centre for Football Research we have analyzed the first 800 odd questionnaires to come back. So, without further ado, here’s what a hundred focus groups-worth of you had to say.

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Believe it or not, some English footballers ply their trade in China. Alistair Berg looks are the select few to make the journey to te newly professional league

The Revolving Palace Hotel in Foshan has an English resident. An array of sports clothes, sweatshirts and shorts are hanging out to dry in his room where the main focus of attention is Star TV, the Murdoch corporation’s Asian satellite, whose numerous football programmes are studied with professional interest. John Pickup, a former League professional at Wigan and Chester, is one of two foreign footballers, the other a Cameroonian, playing with Foshan football club, currently eleventh in the Chinese second division.

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China could qualify for the World Cup, and Haydn Parry credits their success to their surprise training schedule in England

A balmy morning in Mitcham, deepest South London, and the air is punctuated by coarse groans in Cantonese. This is the training ground of Crystal Palace, the latest stop in a very low profile, ten-day tour of England by the International squad of the People’s Republic of China. The game behind closed doors is not going well – two-nil down at halftime to a fresh faced bunch of ‘Eaglets’ keen to impress Steve Coppell, who is pacing the sidelines.

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The art of photography at football grounds could be a dying art, says Tony Davis

At a time when football is getting the most media coverage it has ever had, freelance photographers are finding it nigh on impossible to work at grounds thanks to restrictions placed by the big clubs.

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