Banning of tannoy music after a team scores. (And now I bet everyone else says “Players and fans of the world to join together in mutual respect and between them put an end to war and poverty” or something similar.) Harry Pearson
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Dear WSC
Allow me to be one of the first begrudgers in the queue. For some reason Manchester United are being described as being a member of European football’s “elite”. United fans should realise that their team has just gone from winning the European Cup as many times as Aston Villa, to winning the European Cup as many times as Nottingham Forest. “Elite” my arse.
Brian Hughes, via email
Jamie Rainbow enjoys the buffet at Kilmarnock, a lacklustre service at Watford and delves into the unofficial sites of Huddersfield and Blackpool
Those who witnessed the eventful scenes in the final Old Firm league game of the season will have been surprised to discover that Scotland were the recipients of this year’s UEFA Fair Play trophy. Chief beneficiaries of the award were Kilmarnock, who automatically claimed a UEFA Cup spot. According to the official Kilmarnock site, Scotland pipped England; the eventual margin between the two countries being a mere 0.001 of a point or, in lay terms, a Dennis Wise booking. There is much to admire about this site, not because it’s visually impressive (it’s not) nor because the content is especially interesting (it isn’t), but because it is such a friendly, intimate affair, that one instantly feels part of the extended Kilmarnock family. For example, celebrating the anniversary of one of the club’s sponsors, commercial director Jim McSherry notes: “The buffet was the worst spread ever. Two or three bowls of nuts, then Dorothy sent husband Russell up to Hannahs to buy another bag of crisps. The Killie four were fair looking forward to hot sausage rolls.” The site also contains the usual vast array of largely pointless statistics but, despite this, a fleeting glimpse of one of Dorothy’s buffets makes a visit worthwhile.
Rumours of the death of hooliganism may have been exaggerated. Adam Powley sees signs that it is making a comeback – though not in the newspapers
Remember the Worthington Cup final? Neutrals and even committed spectators could be forgiven for failing to recall anything memorable from such a grim game, but there was one incident that stood out for those at Wembley that day.
The German media were quick to put Bayern's failure to win the European Cup down to rank bad luck. Ian Plenderleith begs to differ
For many a long year German football commentary was characterised by the adage that “the good teams make their own luck”. That was the line after penalty shoot-outs against England, for example, or after winning the 1990 World Cup through a penalty awarded after a blatant dive, or winning Euro 96 through a deflected golden goal, or even after Bayern Munich’s late winner in this season’s Champions League group game against Barcelona after they had played abysmally for an hour and a half. But, as Günter Netzer famously commented after the national side’s 3-0 defeat by Croatia in France 98, “at some point luck has to run out”.