A season ruined by a controversial points deduction. David Wangerin writes
A club unable to balance their books is nothing new to football; start with Chelsea and work your way down. In the case of Scarborough, though, there has been no Russian tycoon to underwrite their bid for glory and overspending problems have left the club languishing in administration for the past several years. This was converted into a Company Voluntary Arrangement (CVA) last May, just before the Conference’s AGM.
Agents or club chairmen – who are most disliked? Polling even worse are the growing subset who step from one job to the other. As one agent who helped bankrupt a club faces jail in Switzerland, Dan Brennan looks at the puzzling trend
Letting a football agent take control of your club might sound a bit like handing a burglar a spare set of keys to your house and telling him where the family silver is kept. That is certainly how it must now feel to supporters of Servette, the venerable Swiss club that went bankrupt two years ago and were forced to begin life again in the third division.
A minor indiscretion is set to cost AFC Wimbledon their chance of promotion. Robert Jeffery explains how the good disciplinary record of an ineligible player made matters worse, while Scarborough have had their troubles, too
There’s nothing AFC Wimbledon fans love more than a bit of drama. The years of fighting proposed moves to Dublin, Gatwick, Milton Keynes and God knows where else; the glare of publicity as the club took their first tentative steps in the Combined Counties League; the early flurry of trophies and promotions.
The Northamptonshire marriage has already made it into (and out of) the Football League; now an east London club with roots in four others are riding high in the Conference. David Stubbs watches the battle of the mergers
There’s always that great Saturday afternoon matchday sense you get that you’re approaching a stadium. Suddenly, as you walk into the station, you realise you’re part of a steadily growing crowd. The pace has quickened, with everyone walking with a slightly cocky, anticipatory gait. You squeeze on to the District Line, a hitherto empty carriage now bulging. Then, two stops down, everyone ups and pours out of the carriages en masse. Everyone, that is, except you. For the stop is Upton Park. They’re all off to West Ham v Watford, whereas you are heading further up the line, towards Dagenham East. And now, as the train pushes on, you’re alone in the carriage, except for another bloke and a dog. And they’re getting off at Upney.
The A-League’s second season was punctuated by shocking tackles and bizarre rows, but also by huge crowds and entertaining matches. Mike Ticher believes that football is proving a success Down Under
Say what you like about the A-League, you cannot accuse it of thinking too small. In the first season, Melbourne Victory finished seventh out of eight. Second time out they gambled on a move to the vast Telstra Dome and were rewarded with a gallop to both domestic honours in front of preposterously large crowds. On February 18 they thumped Adelaide United 6-0 in the Grand Final (having also finished top of the league) before 55,436, a record for a club game in Australia. For that they could thank five goals from Archie Thompson, a referee who looked kindly on an early characteristic lunge by Kevin Muscat and a self-destructing Adelaide team who lost their captain Ross Aloisi after a similar challenge.