Is a British Olympic football team really feasible? Neil Forsyth isn't convinced
“GB Bid needs Olympic team” screamed the BBC website headline, followed by an urgent appeal for the formation of a British football team for the 2012 London Olympic Games. The date? August, 2003. “Can you imagine”, suggested a bamboozled Craig Reedie, British Olympic Association (BOA) chairman, “running an Olympic Games in Britain without a British football team?”
One step forward and two steps back? Darron Kirkby wonders where West Ham are going next
West Ham’s promotion killed off supporters’ hopes that somebody would buy chairman Terence Brown’s 38 per cent share in the club. Despite his low profile, Brown has become one of the least popular chairmen in football during his 12 years in charge. The atmosphere at the Boleyn Ground has been poisonous since relegation two years ago with the crowd all too eager to barrack either Brown or manager Alan Pardew when things go wrong. The latter’s insistence on playing people out of position and his questionable tactics have even led to the crowd singing “We are the West Ham claret and blue army”, omitting his name.
Why are French club owners smiling so much? That'd be the massive cash windfall they're getting from Canal Plus, says Ben Lyttleton
Lyon president Jean-Michel Aulas made a good point during the protracted negotiations with Chelsea over the transfer of Michael Essien. Not only did his club not want to sell their best player to a Champions League rival, he said, but they did not need to.
Steve Menary wonders when it became so difficult to simply build a stadium
Why can no one build a national stadium in this country without the entire project becoming a total embarrassment? A date has finally been set for a £20 million high court dispute between two firms rebuilding Wembley and this showdown will take place next April – a month before the first FA Cup final at the rebuilt stadium.
It's the same old story, and we're getting tired of hearing it
Technology is moving on apace in all directions but not fast enough. Through the summer we scanned the science pages in the hope that during the six-week break between seasons someone might have invented a device that would be of immense value to football supporters everywhere. What is urgently required is a filter for TV sets that could be set up to give the sensitive viewer the option of bleeping out certain phrases when they crop up in a football broadcasts. (Of course there is always the option of watching TV with the sound off and the radio on, but that risks exposure to Alan Green.)