The Miracle of Bern was a massive commercial success in Germany, and its London viewing was a sell-out. Errol Lawrence, who despises many other samples of sport on the big screen, believes it could be the best film ever of its kind

Soenke Wortmann’s The Miracle of Bern stopped over in London at the end of November to open the annual German Film Festival. The film has become a huge commercial success in Germany and won praise across Europe and such is its reputation that the film’s single screening in London was a sell-out, attracting a polyglot audience of native Germans, students, film buffs and even the odd football fan.

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We boast about the Premier League being 'the best league in the world', but  the domestic superiority of England's elite clubs is not reflected in their European form

At least once a year there are rumours of a breakaway “Atlantic League” or some such, a competition for the dom­inant clubs in smaller football countries where the domestic title is only ever contested by at most three teams. The next time it’s floated expect to hear that Arsenal, Manchester United and Chel­sea have been approached about joining, on the grounds that they, too, would get stronger competition from, say, Porto, Anderlecht and Ajax than from any of the other 17 clubs in the Premiership.

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Barney Ronay considers the way that a piece of squat, ugly technology, once a source of condescension, changed English football

Desperate times call for desperate publicity stunts. In 1990, with the battle for control of the skies be­tween BSB and Sky TV at its most feverish, camera-shy media mogul Rupert Murdoch took the unusual step of paying a surprise visit to the home of Sky’s millionth UK subscriber. Awkwardly posed in raincoat and inch-thick specs, Murdoch smiled for the cameras with an arm around the shoulders of his hosts, a family of five torn from their expensively assembled tea-time viewing to stand outside in the cold next to a laconic billionaire.

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Haydn Parry looks at Gillingham's recent ups and downs

What’s the current state of the relationship between Gillingham fans and the club’s owner?
Paul Scally brought a much needed businessman’s approach when he took us out of receivership in 1995 and has had nothing but relative success since, with the rise to Division One for the first time. Priestfield has also been transformed and is no longer a Victorian curiosity-cum-health hazard. But he has a propensity for PR gaffes: banning for life the unofficial supporters’ club president and maintaining the feud in his programme notes; or changing the home kit from blue to white – a de­cision swiftly reversed after the fans got restless.

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Dear WSC
After “sick as a parrot” and “early doors”, it seem we must now brace ourselves as another football cliche takes root. Ap­parent­ly, no one in the game can now re­fer to the patently obvious without reach­- ing for a little spurious gravitas by des- cribing it as “well documented”. In case it is not yet well documented just how irritating this affectation has become, I thought I’d get the ball rolling.
Jeffrey Prest, via email

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