The World Cup has had to expand to the point where it can be too much of a good thing, believes Philip Cornwall, who thinks the European Championship is now perfection

It’s part of the calendar of the football fan’s life. One summer is dominated by the World Cup; then there’s a quiet year; but now the European Champ­ionship circus rolls in, in many ways a less cumbersome, more accessible (closer if you want to go; always in our time zone if you don’t) and so more perfect tournament than the global event. Euro 2004 offers a steady stream of daily matches stretching for a fortnight, then a less intense but more important final week, finishing on a Fourth of July that will be cele­brated so wildly in one country that visiting Americans will complain about the fireworks. The tournament’s rise, creating a two-rather than four-year cycle, has ensured the eclipse of the international friendly, making them training grounds for the games that truly decide coach’s jobs.

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As a teengager Neil Forsyth stood on a terrace which had seen European semi-finals and a final and where, amid the swearing, the snowballs and the cheers, it turned out that everybody knew his name

Where in Europe lies the road that plays host to two European Cup semi-finalists at two separate home grounds? The answer is Dundee, where Dundee’s Dens Park Stadium lies just 100 yards from Dundee United’s Tannadice Park. In April 1984, United raced to a 2-0 first-leg lead against Roma at Tannadice before capitulating in the return leg amid intimidation and appalling refereeing, leaving Liverpool to defeat the Italians in the final. And Dundee? Ach, who cares?

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One man has changed the face of sponsorship in non-League football. Craig Ellyard explains the Victor Gladwish phenomenon

In the world of non-League football, Victor Gladwish is making as big an impact as Roman Abramovich has done in the Premiership. In a matter of months Gladwish has become non-League football’s biggest financial benefactor, his clout being felt all the way from the south coast up to east Yorkshire.

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A century of football history has been needlessly cast aside for some, while for others the reorganisation of the non-League game is long overdue. John Carter reports

 T he glum knot of red-and-black-clad fans huddled in the main stand intrigued spectators at the Isthmian League play-off game between Bedford and St Albans. Could they be rossoneri supporters nostalgic for the atmosphere of the San Siro while visiting relatives in the south midlands? In fact the gloomy little group were from Lewes, in Bedford to watch their own team take on the hometown Eagles. Unfortunately the players were back at Lewes’s ground beating Kingstonian. Until late the previous day Isthmian League of­ficials insisted the Rooks would indeed be playing Bedford, contrary to all other indicators. It took a Football Association announcement to override their stubbornness and correct the error. To date there’s been no word of any apology from league officials.

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Ori Lewis reports on the day that an Arab-Israeli side from a town of less than 22,000 people won the national cup and qualified for Europe, thus making a bold statement about uniting Arabs and Jews in Israel along the way

The night of May 18, 2004 will be marked in Israeli history books as a milestone for the country’s Arab minority, a sector that has long complained of institutional discrimination and that over the years had never been repaid fully for agreeing to become loyal citizens of the Jewish state.

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