The J League started to flourish after two seasons, recalls Mike Tuckerman
The long-term significance
The Japanese championship had been contested by the sports division of large companies until the creation of the J.League in 1993. Verdy Kawasaki, from an industrial city in the greater Tokyo area, had won the last two titles under the old system when they were attached to the Yomiuri media conglomerate. Under their new name they also took the first two J.League titles. However, they began a steady decline after losing the Championship play-off in 1995, a crippling wage bill and declining attendances bringing about a relocation to the capital in 2001 as Tokyo Verdy. Kawasaki has since acquired another professional club, Frontale, who were J.League runners‑up in 2006. Yokohama Marinos’ 1995 title was the club’s sole domestic success in their original incarnation. An economic downturn saw the Nissan-backed Marinos merge with city rivals the Flügels at the end of 1998, to form the Yokohama F. Marinos.
Dear WSC
I write to you concerning Simon Creasey’s fascinating article Parting Shots (WSC 259), in which Ignacio Palacios-Huerta of the London School of Economics describes that, in penalty shootouts, the team that taking a penalty first wins 60.5 per cent of the time. He then goes on to say that the team kicking first “has a 21 per cent greater probability of winning the shootout”. I don’t cast doubt on Mr Palacios-Huerta’s abilities as a statistician, but it is possible that he meant 21 per cent more probability of winning. If Team X has a 60.5 per cent probability of winning, then Team Y therefore has a 39.5 per cent probability. Team X’s probability is [(((60.5 / 39.5) -1) x 100) =] 53 per cent greater than Team Y’s of winning the shootout. Or, in other words, that Team X wins 21 per cent more matches means that their chances are 53 per cent better than Team Y’s for any given shootout. We can be sure that this is precisely what was going through Rio Ferdinand’s head after extra time in Moscow.
Patrick Finch, Eskilstuna, Sweden
Al Needham remembers Jimmy Sirrel, Nottingham’s second most famous football manager, who died last month
It’s very easy to see Jimmy Sirrel, who died on September 25 at the age of 86, as someone who worked in the shadow of Brian Clough; a decent enough manager who did his best with extremely limited resources, but could only look on while his neighbour on the other side of the Trent took the glory. That is not the case at all. Sirrel was just as important to the ’Pies as Clough was to the Garibaldis.