Stories | When Saturday Comes

Bite your tongue

Nick Miller reports on Ken Bates’s decision to ban critical supporters from Leeds United games

To put things delicately, Ken Bates’s tenure as chairman of Leeds United has been interesting. It was difficult to imagine a way he could top appointing his godson’s father as manager, banning journalists for having the temerity to ask whether he actually owned the club (before eventually admitting that he did) and calling Leeds fans who disagreed with his methods “morons”. However, Bates arguably outdid himself in March, after a group of fans were barred from Leeds games, simply for speaking out.

Tuesday, May 1st, 2012 - The Archive

Breach of trust

Relations between club and fans are fraught at Arsenal, where a new stadium has left some feeling short-changed, reports Matthew Bazell

A lot of accusations have been levelled at Arsenal fans recently, claiming we are a spoilt bunch of ingrates who have no right demanding better from our team. We are told we should be happy where we are because things could always be worse. I do not go to games any more, partly because modern-day prices are a rip-off, but when I put myself in the position of Arsenal season ticket holders I came to the conclusion that, if I spent that kind of money for admission, I too would be incredibly demanding.

Tuesday, May 1st, 2012 - The Archive

Character building

The fortunes of Sheffield Wednesday and the club’s former chairman, Dave Richards, have differed wildly in the past 20 years, writes Tom Hocking

When Bert McGee, who had been the Sheffield Wednesday chairman since the mid-1970s, stepped down in 1990, it was left to a local businessman and fan of the club, Dave Richards, to continue his predecessor’s good work. Over the following two decades, Richards’s rise in football was as meteoric as Wednesday’s fall. The contrast has been so remarkable it prompted the Guardian’s David Conn to call Wednesday “the picture of Dorian Gray in Sir Dave Richards’s attic”.

Tuesday, May 1st, 2012 - The Archive

System failure

MPs want the way football is governed to change, but the game’s authorities are happy to protect their own financial interests over the needs of fans, writes Andy Green

Every political party’s manifesto at the 2010 general election contained commitments to reform the game. The coalition agreement included a clear promise that: “We will encourage the reform of football governance rules to support the co-operative ownership of football clubs by supporters.” Sports Minister Hugh Robertson, with some justification, called football “the worst governed sport in this country, without a shadow of a doubt”.

Tuesday, May 1st, 2012 - The Archive

Loco motion

Alex Lawson on the role of train travel in football

In the 1970s and 80s Football Specials were used to ferry fans to away games by rail in a bid to contain hooliganism. Supporters’ organisations and the British Transport Police have been investigating the idea of restoring the services in the wake of frequent arrests of fans travelling on regular trains. At the height of hooliganism, spare carriages and redundant trains were used to transport huge numbers of fans. But the Specials became a focus for problems and were largely scrapped in the early 1990s as privatisation made organising services across the networks more difficult.

Tuesday, May 1st, 2012 - The Archive