An assessment of the likely winners and losers in Scotland in 1997/98 – no prizes for guessing the former
ABERDEEN
Keith Davidson
How will your team do this season? With Celtic having a complete shake-up over the close season, perhaps second, although the general view from the Scottish press is fourth.
Believe it or not, some English footballers ply their trade in China. Alistair Berg looks are the select few to make the journey to te newly professional league
The Revolving Palace Hotel in Foshan has an English resident. An array of sports clothes, sweatshirts and shorts are hanging out to dry in his room where the main focus of attention is Star TV, the Murdoch corporation’s Asian satellite, whose numerous football programmes are studied with professional interest. John Pickup, a former League professional at Wigan and Chester, is one of two foreign footballers, the other a Cameroonian, playing with Foshan football club, currently eleventh in the Chinese second division.
The art of photography at football grounds could be a dying art, says Tony Davis
At a time when football is getting the most media coverage it has ever had, freelance photographers are finding it nigh on impossible to work at grounds thanks to restrictions placed by the big clubs.
He may not be a massively wealthy owner, but Paul Cook reveals that Doncaster fans have other reasons for disliking their chairman
Distinguishing Features: A typical small town businessman, he introduced a trendy new look at a recent friendly with his trousers tucked into the back of his shoes.
Brazil and Japan's recent international friendly was less about football and more about a chance to promote a well-known sports brand, says Sam Wallace
The ‘summer tour’ is normally associated with a gentle amble through the locals’ defence in a country otherwise too hot to play football. West Bromwich Albion once made it to China, only for Bryan Robson to muse that he’d rather they’d gone somewhere warmer. More recently Manchester United visited post-apartheid South Africa, where Ryan Giggs identified the clement weather as the highlight rather than the fact that he was met (and recognized) by Nelson Mandela.