The Old Firm's proposal to join the Premier League

Ten years ago this summer, the FA published its Blueprint for Football, which first made explicit its support for the breakaway Premier League, to be for­med for the start of the 1992-93 season. At the time it was seen by many, including us, as a radical and damaging step which threatened to undermine the trad­itional bonds between the top of the game and the bottom. The desire of the Prem­ier League clubs to keep a greater proportion of the game’s revenue for themselves, scandalously endorsed by the FA, seem­ed likely to send many of the smaller clubs to the wall.

Read more…

Roger Lytollis reckons the fall into semi-pro football is feared more than ever

Hold the back page: the third division wasn’t very good last season. How else could miserably ordinary sides like Hartlepool and Blackpool make the play-offs? For every quality player there were dozens of Gary Brabins and Steve Torpeys. Cheltenham were typical. In only their second League sea­son any romance was long gone. Their rel­iance on negative, strong-arm tac­tics left most op­­­ponents looking like extras from Gladiator by the end of the afternoon’s “entertainment”.

Read more…

Mansley Allen reviews what was an exciting end to the season but points at the overall drop in standards in Division Two

With promotion issues decided in the last minute of the last match, the Second Division was an exciting contest but it was hardly a vintage year. Stoke’s 8-0 home defeat by Liverpool in the Worthington Cup and Brentford and Port Vale’s removal from the FA Cup by Kingstonian and Canvey Island respectively, hinted at the overall standard. This was of course offset to some extent by Wycombe’s magnificent run to the last four in the FA Cup, but this was largely a case of a moderate squad being fired up to play above them­selves by an astute management team.

Read more…

Preston North End fan Martin Atherton explains that with the exception of a few teams, there was not a lot to choose from the teams in Division One

Having been a Preston North End fan since well before the club were last in the second level of English football 20 years ago, it was interesting last season to see how standards compared to the lower echelons we have inhabited for so long. Overall, I have to say that there was generally not a lot to choose between the top of the Second Division in 1999-2000 and the majority of the First Division last year.

Read more…

Lifelong Walsall fan Jeff Bonser bought into the club in 1991, eventually going on to become the chairman in 1997. Paul Giess explains how his unpopular methods have given the club finanacial stability

Distinguishing features Looks like a business studies lecturer with a Mercedes.

Read more…