It is not only the FA Cup that mixes minnows with giants: county cups do so, too. Gavin Willacy champions these wrongly neglected events

Having despatched Northern League Second Division strugglers Prudhoe, Newcastle United face the University of Northumbria in the cup ­quarter-finals. This is not fantasy football, FIFA 08, or Football Manager. It’s the Northumberland Senior Cup, one of the many county cups that feature Premier League giants taking on not only players who are unknown outside of their front doors, but whole teams that few people have even heard of. In the midst of the 21st century sports business world, they are as much of an anachronism as the Boat Race, the ­Varsity Match or cricket festivals.

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Sion's mecurial chairman has been through 18 managers in five years – including himself. Paul Joyce examines the chaos

Christian Constantin’s two spells as president of Swiss team FC Sion have been nothing if not colourful. After taking charge of the side from the Valais region in 1992, the autocratic Constantin guided Sion to two league titles and three Swiss Cup victories in five years. Yet the 130 transfers that took place in this period left the club fatally overstretched. Constantin quit in 1997 after Sion failed to qualify for the Champions League, leaving debts of 13.4 million Swiss francs (then £5.5m). Unable to recover, Sion were demoted to the third tier in June 2003.

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Six months after winning La Liga, Bernd Schuster has been sacked by Real Madrid. Phil Ball thinks it was always a mismatch

And so Bernie Schuster is gone – he of the porn moustache and the Pringle sweaters. Sacked by Real Madrid, by “mutual agreement” five days before the clásico at the Camp Nou, he has walked off after 18 months with a paltry €7 million (£6.6m), and is currently taking calls on his mobile for his next job, from the leafy confines of Madrid’s swankiest golf course.

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Carlos Queiroz's move home from Manchester United has not gone well. Phil Town reports on a national team suddenly in crisis

Despite a series of nearly-got-theres during five years as Portugal coach, by the summer of 2008 Luiz Felipe Scolari had overstayed his welcome and wanted out to lusher pastures. Perhaps seduced by his two successive World Cup wins at Under-20 level (1989 and ’91) and by his association with Manchester United’s successes in recent years, but apparently ignoring his indifferent previous spell as national coach (ten wins from 23 games between 1991 and ’93), the Portuguese Football Federation (FPF) put their faith in the Mozambique-born Carlos ­Queiroz, at the time a popular choice. 

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There's a new man at the helm at Arsenal, and he's all the way from the US of A. Ian Plenderleith checks out Ivan Gazidis

Those questioning the appointment of Arsenal’s new chief executive Ivan Gazidis, who comes directly to the club from his post as Major League Soccer’s deputy commissioner, may see it as a risky move from a small-time league on a tight budget into the big-time world of football’s rich elite. Those who have seen Gazidis at work over the past decade will take the more generous view that Arsenal have landed an intelligent and articulate man largely responsible for steering MLS from near-bankruptcy to being an expanding, viable concern. With Arsenal at a crucial juncture both as a football club and a sports business, the steadily radical Gazidis could be the perfect fit.

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