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This month marks the 40th anniversary of Accrington Stanley's controversial ejection from the Football League. Mike Gent explains what went wrong

“Probably the most famous football team in the land” is how a Lancashire County Council web­site describes Accrington Stanley. A contentious claim, but there is no doubt that the Stanley’s continued no­toriety stems not from the club’s modest playing record but from a series of off-pitch calamities which culminated in their departure from the Football League in March 1962. Since then, the spectre of Ac­crington Stanley has been regularly invoked whenever football clubs sink towards bankruptcy.

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York City chairman Douglas Craig has put the club up for sale after announcing losses of £1.2million. Paul Fenton looks into the situation at Bootham Crescent and the task any prospective buyers will be taking on

Douglas Craig, chairman of York City, has had little cause to bother fans outside the city dur­ing a decade in charge, apart from deciding that York were the only club above signing the anti-racism Kick It Out charter. City fans, how­ever, had tired of being told by the ex-councillor (Tory, since you ask) to stay away if they disagreed with his methods, and being threatened with the closure of the club if there were any more protests against him.

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Thursday 1 Chelsea go out of the UEFA Cup after a 1-1 draw with Hapoel Tel-Aviv. Claudio Ranieri keeps his sunny side up: “The result went against us but it was a brilliant performance.” Leeds survive a scare in Troyes, where they lose 3-2 but go through 6-5 on aggregate. Ipswich save their best till last again, winning 3-1 in Helsingborg. Stung by rejection, Crystal Palace chairman Simon Jordan refuses to accept Steve Bruce’s attempt to resign as manager: “At no time will Steve be allowed to talk to Birmingham.” Bruce will not, however, be taking charge of Palace’s team at the weekend.

Friday 2 The Bishop of Oxford blesses the pitch at Oxford United’s supposedly unlucky new ground. “There was talk among some players of a sense of evil – they interpreted it as a curse,” says a church spokesman.

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Tom Davies takes a look at four clubs in the news for the wrong reasons

The controversial Tony Petty is still in charge at Swansea after winning a legal battle with the former City cap­tain Mel Nurse on Nov­em­ber 23. Trouble began after Petty bought the club from the prev­ious ow­n­ers, Ninth Floor (effec­tive­ly former chairman Mike Lew­is), for £1 in September and promptly tried to sack or re­duce the wages of 15 mem­bers of staff . “If the players’ con­tracts had been continued, there would not be a club here,” he claimed.

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Mathias Kowoll bemoans the decision of 1860 Munich to cosy up to their more powerful neighbours

Rangers and Celtic have teamed up. They are now planning a shared ground with a capacity of 80,000 next to the municipal sewage plant. Profits from any games played there will be shared equally. In order to persuade the public to support the plan, the last Old Firm derby is promoted as one big demonstration for the common cause. Both sets of fans put on a show, hair dyed green and blue – often both colours on the same head – and the two chairmen can frequently be seen hugging each other.

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