Simon Cotterill wants only the best for his children – and that includes a choice of which country's football team to represent

So, I’ve reached that time of life. I’m starting to think about reproducing. And, already, I’ve started to live my own unfulfilled dreams through my as-yet-unconceived children. Those dreams are football dreams. Now, of course, if my future sons or daughters were to decide they didn’t want to become professional footballers I would still feed, clothe and even love them. But first I, and to a lesser extent my partner, am determined to provide them with every possible opportunity to fulfil my dreams.

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Gary Howard looks back at the 1949-50 Division Two season

The long-term significance
The post-war boom in football attendances reached a peak in 1949-50. On December 27, 1949, a record aggregate of 1,272,155 spectators watched the 44 League games, an average of 28,193. Even a rail strike in London didn’t hamper fans’ enthusiasm – 100 Brentford fans hired aeroplanes to take them to Hull. Second Division Tottenham were the best-supported team in the country, a feat achieved only once since, by Manchester United in 1974-75. Spurs went on to win the League title the next season. They quickly declined after that, but were revived in the late 1950s under the management of Bill Nicholson who had been a wing-half in their back-to-back title winning teams of 1949-51.

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Dear WSC
I read with interest Paul Joyce’s article concerning the rebranding of SSV Markranstadt as RB Leipzig in WSC 273. Only this summer it was rumoured that my club Southampton would be saved from extinction by becoming co-opted into the Red Bull sporting portfolio. While the team colours, fitting snugly with the brand, would not need to change the adding of the Red Bull moniker seemed a step too far. Surely something would be lost in fusing a global brand, with all its focus-grouped values and marketing spin, to a football club; an act of historic vandalism similar to replacing stained glass windows in a church with double glazing while nailing a satellite dish to the spire. The internet debate suggested, however, that many Saints supporters were happy to trade naming rights in exchange for the club’s survival. The same supporters had several years previously reacted angrily against a corporate branding of St Mary’s Stadium as simply the “Friends Provident Stadium” with the ensuing negative publicity resulting in a U-turn with the addition of St Mary’s to the title. Corporate patronage is not as new as we would like to imagine. The P in PSV Eindhoven stands for Philips, as in the Dutch electrical giants,  with the club’s home games at the Philips Stadion. Indeed, many clubs have benefited from long-term relationships with business which may be far preferable to other ownership and financing options; a quick glance around the leagues reveals several fates far worse than “Red Bull Saints”. Football may be just a game to some but following our team is about being part of a community, feeling a connection with the friends and strangers stood next to us at the ground. It is a thread linking us to people looking out for the score on a TV screen or in a newspaper on the other side of the world. Brands by their nature seek to harness and transform these feelings to translate them into profit, in the process sullying the very spirit of our club. Barcelona’s motto is “more than a club”. Every clubs motto should be “more than a brand”.
Neil Cotton, Southampton

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Despite three play-off semi-final defeats on the trot, the early 1990s were heady times for Merseyside's third team. Karl Sturgeon recalls

“Tranmere,” Johnny King once said, “will never be able to compete with Liverpool and Everton. They’re big liners like the Queen Mary, but I see Tranmere like a deadly submarine.”

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Gunther Simmermacher explains how the pressures of hosting a World Cup may be getting to South Africa

Even by the standards of South African football, the appointment of Brazilian coach Joel Santana to lead the national team, Bafana Bafana, at the 2010 World Cup was an eccentric decision. In April 2008 Carlos Alberto Parreira, the 1994 World Cup-winning coach, quit as South Africa coach to be with his ailing wife. South African Football Association (SAFA) president Molefi Oliphant asked him to recommend a successor. Parreira suggested Santana, then at Flamengo.

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