While some stadiums are shut, others are furiously debated. Robert Shaw reports on problematic preparations for 2014
With the Homeless World Cup played in September in Brazil some of the country’s clubs might have felt entitled to stage their own version. The stadium-building and renovation programme for the 2014 World Cup has already left several clubs without a home ground as work begins in earnest to prepare the 12 venues.
Only minutes from the London 2012 site lies a very different sort of sporting venue. Ian Aitch visits the Old Spotted Dog
As any true football fan knows, even the sight of five ten-year-old kids playing three-and-in is enough to make you watch back over your shoulder as you walk across the park. So, as you can imagine, moving so close to a real football ground that an errant shot of Geoff Thomas proportions could end up in your back garden is the kind of thing that makes you divert the walk to the corner shop, just so you can admire the floodlights peeking up from behind the fence.
Bratislavia’s oldest club don’t seem to be missing their brief period of domestic success and European glory. James Baxter explains
Anyone who has registered MSK Žilina‘s progress to the group stages of this season’s Champions League may also recall that the last team from Slovakia to get this far was Artmedia Bratislava, in 2005-06. But, while Žilina fans have been in bitter dispute with their club over ticket prices for home games in the competition, FC Petržalka 1898, as Artmedia are now known, are experiencing life outside Slovakia’s top division and, so far, seem to be enjoying it.
James Eastham takes up the story of a club with big backing but a low profile, currently making a big splash in Ligue 2
Data emerged a couple of years ago revealing that the French eat just under a billion tonnes of yoghurt a year. If some of those consumers are buying Danone, the nation is unwittingly contributing to the success of one of France’s newest football clubs. Evian Thonon Gaillard made headlines in August when they won their opening three league games to briefly head the Ligue 2 table. Their start was all the more impressive because it came just a few short months after the club had taken its place in the second tier by winning last season’s National (third division) title.
Saul Pope looks at two footballers who may go on to represent their adopted countries, and the concerns this has provoked
With Euro 2012 qualification in full swing, Russia will be hoping to join close neighbours and hosts Ukraine at the finals tournament. If they manage to qualify, it will be the first time the two have appeared at a major tournament together. There may be another first, as both sides could feature naturalised black players – Senegalese defender Papa Gueye for Ukraine, and Brazilian forward Welliton for Russia.