Sam Beckwith remembers the 1997 Czech cup final between Dukla Prague and Slavia Prague which started Dukla's fall from grace

There’s a growing trend to sentimentalise the years of communist rule in the Czech Republic, with pro­paganda-bedecked cafes popping up on Prague streets and old newsreels running on TV. So far, however, Dukla Prague have escaped the trend. One of Czech football’s most famous names disappeared in 1997 with more of a whimper than a bang, and there are few signs that it’s about to be rehabilitated.

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John Williams argues that the efforts of the police to keep hooliganism in the spotlight are masking the real progress that has been made combating violence

Notice the signs, recently, of a new football season approaching? Press stories complaining of too much TV football coverage; fierce debates on player wage hikes; Deloitte and Touche’s annual lecture on the booming financial power of the Premier League and how the market is good for football – but watch out for that nasty club overspend; and now, slotted nicely into the week leading up to the big kick-off, the Nat­ional Criminal Intelligence Service report on the arrest figures related to football. This, too, has become some­thing of an annual media event.

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Roger Titford leafs through responses to our survey on TV football and concludes that viewers are overwhelmed and irritated by the sheer volume on offer

Even before the first remote control of the new sea­son had been punched in anger, the backlash ag­ainst the “surfeit” of TV football had begun, with two muted BBC voices, John Motson and Kenneth Wol­stenholme, to the fore. Our survey (WSC 174) looked back to our readers’ ex­periences of the past season’s TV football. Our read­ership, of course, is not representative of all viewers, but the 700-strong sample is bound to include a higher proportion of dedicated, active and informed fans than your average sofa-full.

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We asked Cameron Carter to sit down and watch as much of ITV's Premiership coverage as he could stomach. He emerged unscathed but unsympathetic

ITV have got football. It’s like the Childcatcher and, frankly, I’m scared. With the first edition of The Prem­iership going out at the Blind Date time of 7pm, ITV were always going to have one eye on the com­mitted fan and the other on its family audience. I sat down to watch it with two packets of Frazzles and a heavy heart.

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Divided opinions as two fans debate as to whether Scottish football would be better off without the Old Firm

For ~
The reaction of Scottish Premier League man­agers and administrators to the suggestion that Rangers and Celtic were to leave for the English Premiership was pre­dictable, with much “Woe is me” wailing. Less predictable was the reaction of a sizeable number of fans of other clubs, which could best be sum­mar­ised as a well-known two-fingered gesture and a hearty cry of “See you later”.

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