David Wangerin looks not too far back and remembers when Tony Barton's Villa were the the Kings of Europe. If only they had built upon that success

Twenty years on, it still makes for a hell of a story. Eng­lish underdogs face German superstars in the final. They see their injured goalkeeper come off with the match barely under way. His substitute, with one first-team appearance to his name, proceeds to keep Rum­menigge and Co at bay for 81 minutes, thanks to a combination of deft goalkeeping and a four-leafed clo­ver he must have tucked into a sock. With 23 minutes to go, a team-mate shins in a goal, and Aston Villa hang on for dear life to lift the 1982 European Cup.

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Aside from the chevron on their shirts, Filippo Ricci explains that Sampdoria are now unrecognisable from the team that came so close to European glory just a decade ago

On April 21, Sampdoria lost 2-0 at home to Serie B’s bottom club, Crotone, a team from a tiny town in Cal­abria. The result left the once-mighty club just four points above the relegation zone with six games to go. Ten years ago, Sampdoria lost the last the Euro­pean Cup final before the start of the Champions League, 1-0 to Barcelona at Wembley. On paper, it’s a long jour­ney, on the pitch, a quick and irreversible plunge.

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Next season the Bosnian league will finally include clubs from all parts of the fractured country. Nedim Hasic reports on the slow process of unification

Next season Bosnian football will be united for the first time since the war. After the Dayton peace agree­ment was signed in November 1995, Bosnia be­came the only country in the world with three different football leagues. The Premier League, organised by the Bosnian Football Federation (BFF), was recognised by UEFA and FIFA, while the Croat-controlled part of the country maintained its own tournament, as did the “ethnically cleansed” Bosnian Serb enclave, Re­publika Srpska.

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Ian Plenderleith burrows through the heaving mass of World Cup sites to discover the debut official song and the meaning of Korea's "intangible cultural assets"

Predictably enough, there has been a huge amount of cyberspace set aside for online coverage of the coming World Cup. The following is an attempt to help you focus on the least drivel-ridden websites.

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Ian Farrell reflects on the sad trajectory of Georgi Kinkladze's career, from mistrusted genius at Man City to occasional tubby cameos at Derby

In these troubled times for football, it’s comforting to know that some things never change. The “Ellis Out” pro­tests, the fixture congestion complaints and, of course, the Winter Panic Of The Bottom Six Manager. As sure as night follows day, February sees Ginolas and Djorkaeffs arriving at the sharp end amid talk of “having a little bit of something extra” and how “he can make all the difference for us”. They are then us­ually benched within a month amid talk of being “a luxury we can’t afford” and how “this is a battle and we need warriors” as the even-more panicky manager de­cides instead to try to Colin Hendry his way out of the relegation zone. Derby under John Gregory did not dip into the Cranky Maverick bargain bin, but that’s be­cause they didn’t have to. Step forth from the sha­dows, Georgi Kinkladze.

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