Well, OK, it will be 20 years in May since Wimbledon won the FA Cup, but Robert Jeffery and fellow fans are celebrating early as some key artefacts have at last come home, ending their Buckinghamshire exile

 As scenes of triumph go, Morden Library in south London does not seem the most likely venue. Wimbledon fans, however, will take any glory they can get their hands on – which is why, one evening in February, former players, local dignitaries and a group of randomly chosen supporters gathered to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Dons’ FA Cup victory over Liverpool and, more significantly, the return of the club’s honours from Milton Keynes.

Read more…

A journeyman pro in his adopted country, Junior Agogo became a star back in Ghana, even getting the better of Didier Drogba – before returning to League One. Chris Taylor reports

The host country’s Cup of Nations campaign was looking like it was coming unstuck. It had taken a last-minute goal to overcome Guinea in their first match and now, in their second, Ghana were labouring to make headway against the debutant Namibians, who had been hit for five in their opening encounter against Morocco. But when Quincy Owusu-Abeyie crossed from the right, Ghana’s powerhouse centre-forward was on hand to flick the ball into the net from four yards out. Junior Agogo’s goal proved to be the winner and in that moment he went from the popular spearhead of Ghana’s attack to national hero and sex symbol.

Read more…

The fuss over the timing of Ghana 2008 helped put the tournament centre-stage around the world – and those watching can only have been impressed, writes Alan Sharif Duncan

There can be no turning back now for African football. Largely overlooked a decade ago as little more than the continental confederation’s nativity play, the Africa Cup of Nations is being transformed into something of a global sporting phenomenon. While there will be those who will mourn its relative loss of innocence to a world of sponsors, TV rights and unprecedented western media scrutiny, Ghana 2008 was, in terms of the quality of football alone, a timely coming of age – two years before South Africa hosts the World Cup.

Read more…

The Premier League have misjudged the market in China once already, Dominic Fitzsimmons writes

China, the world’s most populous country and one visited by Premier League clubs each year, may seem to be prime territory for Game 39, but a pay-TV deal that has effectively taken the “world’s biggest league” off the air in the world’s biggest TV market has undermined its popularity. By pricing ordinary fans out of a chance to watch matches, the deal may undermine Richard Scudamore’s new scheme.

Read more…

The US market is not exactly enthralled with the prospect of another foreign football circus passing through town as they see plenty of them already. Mike Woitalla reports from the land of opportunity

Forgive us if the prospect of English Premier League games in the United States didn’t get us all giddy. We’ve got so much soccer here already that a couple more games just wouldn’t be a very big deal. In 2007, the USA hosted more than 60 matches between foreign clubs. Include games that pitted visiting clubs against American teams and the figure passes 100. Besides the touring clubs, 40 national-team matches – not including the USA’s own 12 games – took place on our soil in 2007. And that’s not counting when Haiti, Fiji and China played against club teams.

Read more…