Brazil are in turmoil, Peru are in despair, and Chile are in the pool with a load of Colombian women. It's never dull in South America, as Leopoldo Iturra discovers
Gabriel García Márquez won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1982 for his use of magic realism, a style which deliberately exaggerates Latin American folklore and which allows anything to happen – from the appearance of Romanies who invent snow to immortal incestuous families.
Cheltenham have suddenly left their neighbours Gloucester City far behind. NOw they kind of miss each other, says Mark Herron
Since Cheltenham Town joined the Nationwide League, not everything has changed for the better. One of the most significant differences in the match-day routine has been brought about by the sudden lack of a genuine local rival. No more opportunities to cheer as news of another goal conceded comes through on the radio. Half the enjoyment has disappeared overnight.
Football has a longer history and bigger support in a rugby-infatuated region than most people give it credit for. Grahame Lloyd reports
Welsh rugby fans might not like it – some probably won’t believe it – but Wales are currently the best-supported team in European football. Even though they lie 108th in the FIFA rankings, an average attendance of 63,000 for the last three internationals at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff has put the Welsh ahead of Italy, Germany, Spain and co-Euro 2000 hosts Holland. Cheap tickets – £10 for adults and a fiver for children – and a magnificent setting have combined to satisfy the huge appetite for football and given the lie to the longstanding but often overstated claim that the national sport of Wales is rugby.
Glory years Bristol City go with Swansea, Rovers go with Cardiff. Well, up to a point. City’s flirtation with the First Division in the late Seventies matched Swansea’s march to the top, though Swansea got there just as City were sinking. The early Eighties also saw Newport’s last fling, reaching fourth in the Third Division and the quarter-finals of the Cup-Winners Cup. Cardiff’s great days were in the 1920s, when they were league runners-up (1924), Cup finalists (1925) and finally Cup winners (1927). But their last decent First Division spell was in the Fifties, also when Rovers got to their highest league position (sixth in the Second Division) and twice reached the sixth round of the Cup.
Jim Gwinnell finds the two Bristol clubs still resolutely incompatible but at last in a position to move forward
The West Country is quite possibly the least successful and therefore the most anonymous of all the footballing regions in the League. No past or present behemoths, the likes of which can be found in the north west, north east and London. No “sleeping giants” dozing fitfully in the manner of the midlands clubs. Not even the novelty value of being Welsh (though some Londoners would seem to insist that we are), but even clubs such as Cardiff and Swansea have had their fair share of success.