Dear WSC
I enjoyed the articles on the links between football and rap (WSC 204). One important connection has been overlooked, however. In a slightly surreal interview on Liverpool’s official site from 2001, Dr Dre reveals himself as a fan of the (his words) “cool cats in red”. At the time of the interview, Dre’s Liverpool favourite was Michael Owen, though he says he was first attracted to the Reds by John Barnes. “He was bad,” Dre explains. “Kinda reminded me of Magic Johnson.” He goes on to describe Robbie Fowler and Jamie Redknapp as “old school” and Czech midfielder Patrik Berger as “the bomb”. How long will it be before Eminem admits that Tomas Repka is a role model?
Sam Beckwith, Prague, Czech Republic
Having watched Conference football since 1997, Hereford United fan Richard Butler is eager for his team to escape non-League and once again compete with their Welsh rivals
Could Hereford’s gates increase significantly if they made it back into the Football League?
When we first broke into the Fourth Division in the 1970s, the club regularly drew crowds of 10,000, an astonishing figure for a town Hereford’s size, and we would once again be the only League club for about 50 miles in any direction. But sadly, 25 years of mostly mediocrity has made many folk cynical about the club. However, council plans for redevelopment of the “Edgar Street Grid” are in the pipeline, which could secure the long-term future of the club and may even mean a new stadium.
Team Bath made headlines with their FA Cup run in 2002 and now the university side are racing up the non-League pyramid. Matthew Brown explains how they do it
Last season a football club called Team Bath FC generated a vast swathe of media coverage when they became the first university side for 122 years to play in the latter stages of the FA Cup. As they progressed through five qualifying rounds to the first round proper, the Bath students spawned a rash of nostalgic features about the long-ago, pre-professional days when footballers were educated gentlemen and universities were at the hub of the national game.
Some unexpected names are shining in the FA Youth Cup these days. Gavin Willacy explains why lower-division teams are suffering hammerings as the result of an educationl initiative
Anyone who glanced at the FA Youth Cup results this winter might have wondered just what was going on. Second Division Hartlepool lost at home to Chester-le-Street, who then put five past Port Vale; Stevenage Borough thrashed Oxford United 6-1 away; Hayes beat QPR; Crawley Town won at Bristol Rovers
Nowhere is the women’s game more buoyant than in Germany. Margot Dunne reports on the homecoming for the World Cup winners and the hopes for a full-time league
Six months ago, all the average German male knew about women’s football could be written on the back of a beer mat with a blunt bockwurst. But all that was before October 12 last year when Nia Künzer’s golden goal in the final against Sweden shot her country to World Cup glory. The team returned from America and were overwhelmed by the kind of frenzied reception to which their male counterparts grew accustomed in recent decades. The trophy was paraded in front of thousands of screaming fans in Frankfurt; there were chat show appearances for coaches Tina Theune-Meyer and Sylvia Neid; and endless magazine covers featured the new world champions in all their fresh-faced wholesomeness. Journalists voted them “Team of the year” at Germany’s Sports Personality Awards – a title bestowed the previous year on Rudi Völler’s men.