José Mourinho can count himself lucky that he doesn't answer to Real Madrid's president. Phil Ball reports

Can’t somebody just ban Real Madrid, for ever? Their behaviour since the resignation of president Florentino Pérez in February has defied all codes of both sporting and business practice – an assault on basic decency so serious that it is only surpassed in surrealism by the fact that no one saw fit to do anything about it. Arrogance and a certain disrespect for others have always been the hallmark of Real Madrid CF, traditionally a curious mixture of market-led imperialism and the worst type of insularity. But the recent goings-on have stretched the club’s credibility to limits beyond the known galaxy, from where many of their players were originally rumoured to have come.

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Female football fans in Iran have been denied their kicks by the religious authorities, inspiring, as Simon Creasey explains, a film by a director acclaimed elsewhere but whose work is unseen at home

In March this year security forces stopped 50 women attempting to enter Tehran’s Azadi (“Freedom”) stadium to watch a football match between Iran and Costa Rica. Some of the women were beaten – one had her leg broken – and they were eventually ferried away in a bus escorted by the military.

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The current Middle East crisis has plunged Lebanon back towards chaos and badly damaged a football culture that had been a symbol of renewal after decades of strife. Hassanin Mubarak reports

On July 3, the Lebanon squad played a warm-up game at the Amin Abdel Nour International Stadium in Bhamdoun, a popular tourist area in the mountains east of the capital, Beirut. Their opponents were Iraqi club side Kirkuk, from a volatile city in the north of Iraq ravaged by sectarian violence. The Iraqi club’s officials had hoped to use the training camp as preparation for the new 2006-07 Iraq league season, while the Lebanese were gearing up to host the fourth edition of the West Asian Football Federation (WAFF) Championship, a tournament featuring part of the “Axis of Evil”, Syria and Iran, as well as former member Iraq. A few days after this match, won 2-0 by Lebanon, planes and missiles ranged over the country, killing more than 600 civilians and wounding thousands, with more than a million displaced from their homes.

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The team from Northern Ireland that play in the Republic are more used to international competition than most and well worth a famous UEFA Cup victory over opponents who take too much for granted. By Robbie Meredith

It may have been a common experience for Everton and Sheffield Wednesday fans, but for the first and perhaps only time in my life I’d really like to know what Niclas Alexandersson is thinking. The captain of IFK Gothenburg is wandering across the pitch at Derry City’s Brandywell ground, carrying a set of training bibs for his team’s pre-match warm-up, and is looking disconsolately up into the rickety main stand. Maybe he’s wondering what has happened to the Franz’n’Sepp show he witnessed first-hand in Dortmund, Berlin, Cologne and Munich as the right-back in Sweden’s underwhelming World Cup team.

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A few years ago reserve games contained a smattering of stars and small clubs could mix it with the internationals, pulling in decent crowds. But rule changes have ended that, as Gavin Willacy explains

This season sees English football take another step towards the sanitised uniformity epitomised by America’s major leagues. Again, it is being driven by the Premier League. For the first time, every Premiership club will only play against fellow top flight clubs at reserve-team level. That sounds logical, but it is far from necessary.

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