As Wimbledon’s bid to move to Buckinghamshire collapses, WISA’s Ian Pollock looks at the whole sorry mess and asks where football goes from here
“To laugh or to cry, that is the question.” OK, it’s hardly Shakespeare,but the last couple of months at Wimbledon FC have provided enough to fill a good drama, or at least a pantomime.
Football’s best images are those which are integral to the game, believes Ian Plenderleith who finds artistic celebration but also pointless commercial exploitation in this month’s internet review
Football’s lords and masters forever fret about the image of the game, forgetting it has been making its own images for over a hundred years and needs no help from the charlatans behind misguided marketing strategies. This month’s guide takes you to some of the best and worst places online to forage around for football’s colourful heritage.
David Beckham has done a lot for hairdressing but he’s also brought curlers into fashion. Philip Cornwall considers our changing approach to free-kicks
Free-kicks are about hope. Most chances in a football match arise too late for firm emotions to attach themselves before they are taken or lost. But the attacking free-kick is a transparent opportunity to score yet one which you, your neighbour and the players are given plenty of time to contemplate.
Blair Liddell on moving to Cumbernauld and rowing with UEFA
How did the move to Cumbernauld affect Clyde’s gates?
Initially, 30,000 fans rolled up in our first ten games at Broadwood, mainly curious Cumbernauldians plus lapsed supporters crawling out of the wood-work. But league reconstruction put paid to any chances of us building on that and our new support dwindled fast. The season we narrowly avoided relegation to the third, our average home gate was 600. We still have a hard-core support from the wilderness years and not all are holed up in the south-east of Glasgow as is commonly supposed. The biggest disappointment is despite our good form over the last three to four seasons, average crowds have stalled at around the 1,200 mark.
Dear WSC
Re Ged Naughton’s query (Letters, WSC 197) as to why the grass was always darker green during the cup final on ITV, the answer is simple: the grass is always greener on the other side.
Andy Hargreaves, Southampton