Dan Brennan looks back at the antics of the hot-headed former Rangers player. Until his move to Russia, no SPL player could rest easy, not to mention the Glaswegian suburbs
Last summer, Dutch midfielder Fernando Ricksen checked himself into the Sporting Chance clinic, a rehab centre founded by Tony Adams, for help with his drink problem and with “anger management”.
Football in Mexico has recently enjoyed a mutually beneficial relationship with another great national passion. This is now under severe threat. Martin del Palacio Langer explains
When, in March, the International Board – FIFA’s rule making body – banned players from wearing masks during matches, the footballing world barely batted an eyelid. After all, only a couple of players had ever done it in international matches, notably Ecuadorian Iván Kaviedes at the 2006 World Cup.
Five years ago a brand new stadium arrived in Darlington, even if Faustino Asprilla didn’t. This visit of play-off contenders to play-off hopefuls reveals a lot about life in League Division Two. Ian Plenderleith was there too
South Korea and Portugal built a number of stadiums for major international football tournaments that now sit underused and half-empty on match days, but at least they had their World Cup and Euro days in the sun. In Darlington, the 25,000-seat 96.6 TFM Arena has never been full to capacity and it probably never will be. It’s destined to spend its days under the eternal grey clouds of England’s fourth division.
Tottenham fans seemed to be enjoying their trip to Andalusia when the policing suddenly turned nasty. Steve Davies was there and tries to understand why the situation took a turn for the worse
“Why are the police hitting people who haven’t done anything?” asked my seven-year-old son, who I had taken to Seville to see Spurs.
Hooliganism in the city that is hosting the Champions League final is getting worse. Unfortunately, as Paul Pomonis reports, government action seems sure to be ineffective
Speaking in the aftermath of the police death in Sicily in February, Giorgios Orfanos, Greece’s minister for sport, unfavourably compared the measures the Italian government had just announced with his own anti-hooligan policies. “Our decisions have been much more radical than a league shutdown. As a result, football-related violence in Greece cannot even compare with what is going on in Italy,” he said, adding: “For the last three years the number of sport-related violent incidents has been dropping… We have an ongoing problem and we’re dealing with it aggressively.”