The oldest club in the League have never been in the Premiership and probably never will be, so their last top-flight season is one for Martin Naylor to savour

On hearing the words “Neil” and “Warnock” a de­cent percentage of football fans would grimace and mutter an obscenity. But the current Sheffield United manager is remembered with fondness by Notts County supporters for the back-to-back play-off wins that took us into the top division for what will surely be the last time in our long history.

Read more…

He was a World Cup star for Bulgaria, but totally bewildered by two years playing for Reading. Roger Titford recalls the man with football’s most famous wig

Borislav Mihailov is the greatest footballer in the history of Reading FC, according to the most objective of criteria. No one else in the club’s record books can boast of a World Cup semi-final appearance or more than 100 caps, many as captain of his country. Yet, in a recent internet poll, fans selected him as the most inept or underachieving player of all time.

Read more…

Steve Menary looks into investing in football clubs

Football has provided a poor return for City investors, but for fans the stock market is an opportunity. Go to a stockbroker and for a flat fee as low as £12.50 you can buy shares in your club, whether they are listed on the Stock Exchange, the Alternative Investment Market (AIM) or Ofex, the less regulated third level of the UK stock markets.

Read more…

In the past four years the number of supporters’ trusts in  the lower divisions has rocketed. As Matthew Brown reports, eyes are now cast higher, for fan involvement even at the FA

Supporters Direct is the government-funded body that helps establish supporters’ trusts. Its annual conference at the end of October was hailed by its organisers as a moment for celebration. When it was set up four years ago only a handful of trusts existed and few had any real influence in their clubs, let alone board representation. Now, there are 122 supporters’ trusts at clubs in England, Wales and Scotland, 59 of which hold equity. At 39 clubs trusts are represented on the board and at eight (two in the League and six non-League) supporters have ownership or control.

Read more…

Four years ago this month, Sunderland were second in the Premiership – and as Harry Pearson writes, some fans are still struggling to come to terms with the spectacular collapse since

It’s probably the fact that it is 70 or so years since one of the region’s teams could justifiably lay claim to being the best in the country that leads football fans in the north-east of England to spend their lives permanently teetering on the brink of exasperation. It doesn’t take much to tip them over the edge. Santa hats may predominate at the Sunderland Stadium of Light, but the mood is as much restive as festive. When yet another pass is pinged out of midfield and across the touchline a bloke sitting in the row behind me in the East Stand groans loudly: “I’ve paid £23 for a bucket of shite,” he says. The big scoreboard above the North Stand shows that six minutes and 28 seconds have been played.

Read more…