Paul Ashley-Jones is hopeful that the competition can become as big as that in Scotland – just without the elite few dominating it
What were the aims of the LoW when it began? Have they been achieved?
The principal aim was to have a league that covered the whole of Wales and this was achieved. With the UK having long been criticised in international circles for having four represenative teams it was felt Wales needed a league to justify retaining the national side.
Dear WSC
While I was not one of the 100,000 “strange folks” that travelled to Phoenix Park to welcome the Irish team home from the World Cup – the event had become less of a homecoming and more of a bad cabaret night – I do not agree with Paul Doyle that those that made the trip were basking in mediocrity (WSC 186). It’s true to say that our players, most of whom are very ordinary, might have gone further. It is also true to say almost every other country is thinking the same thing, from Italy and Spain feeling robbed, to Costa Rica missing a sitter in the last minute against the eventual third place side. The people who did go to the park may have done so for any number of reasons, the most obvious one being to thank the players for giving everything and entertaining us along the way. For many kids it was just the chance to see their heroes. (They may even have gone just to see Westlife.) Showing support for your team is what supporters do, and Irish fans have always appreciated it when a team has given their all. Just because Roy doesn’t like it doesn’t make it wrong.
Rónán Barrett, Dublin
Lech Poznan are back in the first division and Nicholas Walton is not the only one hoping they may provide a blueprint for the revival of Polish club football
The World Cup was a fantastic opportunity for Polish football. As the first European qualifiers, the Poles believed they could make the most of a top-class goalkeeper, a quality striker and a weak group to show that, after 16 years, they were back. But the red and white painted faces vanished from Warsaw’s streets as quickly as they had appeared, thanks to humbling defeats by South Korea and Portugal. Suddenly it was back to waiting for another season of crumbling stadiums with small crowds of hooligans fighting each other and uninspired football on the pitch.
In an edited extract from the new WSC collection, Always Next Year 4, Alex Anderson agonises over how to respond to the racism of his fellow Rangers fans
I really don’t have a lot of time for Dianbobo Balde. As far as I’m concerned, he is to the art of defending what Reggie and Ronnie Kray were to Neighbourhood Watch schemes. It’s just a matter of time until he does some serious damage. Oh, and he plays for Celtic. And I support Rangers, so there’s that whole contractual thing.
For a few weeks, it seemed he might be the answer to Derby's goal drought. But then the mysterious Argentine ran into a new opponent, as Chris Hall recounts
In August 1999 a burly Argentine headed the winner for Derby against Everton at Pride Park. Less than three months later, the same man, on his way back from a training camp in Portugal, was refused re-entry into England at Heathrow on the grounds that his passport was a forgery. The name on the passport was Esteban Fuertes – and the player, whoever he was, never appeared in a Derby shirt again.