Search: 'World Cup 1982'

Dear WSC
How’s this for a delicious sense of irony? Brentford v Colchester United, Tuesday February 18, 2003. 1) On a freezing cold night when almost everyone wishes they’d stayed indoors, the Bees put in a dreadful first-half display and are roundly booed off the pitch. 2) In an effort to pla­cate the home fans, Brentford decide to play the D:Ream hit Things Can Only Get Better over the tannoy. 3) Immediately the song finishes, the club announ­ces the match has been abandoned at half time. If only the Bees’ strike force was as good as their comic timing.
Eddie Hutchinson, Ashford

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Should Northern Ireland once again pick some players from domestic football? Davy Millar thinks so and fondly remembers the few given a chance

Even while the domestic scene has struggled and the best school-age players have been hoovered up by English clubs, there is an underlying belief among North­ern Ireland supporters that things would be better if only there were a few Irish League names in the national squad. To the outsider, handing out international jerseys to players who have failed to attract the interest of even the lowliest Third Division club might seem a rash move but at least the local players can be gua­ranteed to bring a more robust attitude than is us­ual at this level. After all, none of us watching Spain string 87 passes together could help being thrilled by the idea of the move breaking down courtesy of an Irish League boot coming into contact with Gaizka Mendieta’s genitalia.

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Dear WSC
Have any other readers noticed that clubs and players seem to be under increasing pressure to pay money for successful outcomes to fixtures? On The Premiership, September 28, Jon Champion at Man City v Liverpool observed that “Michael Owen can’t buy a goal from open play at the moment”. A bit later, during Charlton v Man Utd, Clive Tyldesley told us: “Charlton can’t buy a home win this season.” I know football is a money-dominated sport, but this is ridiculous. However, what I really want to know is how does the system work? Is there a sliding scale of charges, so that Owen could afford to buy a goal against the generous Man City defence, but not against West Brom’s tight back four the previous week? Are “six-pointers” decided by bids in a sealed envelope, which may explain why Sunderland beat Villa, but Bolton v South­ampton was a draw? And do teams expected to win easily not bother buying that week? This would certainly account for Chelsea’s home crash to West Ham. To take it further, do supermarket-style special offers and other assorted gim­­mickry apply? For instance, was Ow­en’s hat-trick part of a “buy two, get one free” arrangement? Did Charlton, who led at half-time but eventually lost, buy a past-its-sell-by-date home win for half price? And is there a loyalty card system for frequent win buying? Arsenal must be well sorted if there is. It would be bad enough if this was lim­ited to the top flight, but it’s even happening in the Nationwide. Ronnie Moore, explaining my team Rotherham’s unexpectedly good start, cautioned that: “This time last season Grimsby were top of the league, but their manager couldn’t buy a win after that.” So, as a Miller, can I please urge whoever is in charge of our points purchasing department to keep up the good work and carrying on signing the cheques.
Steve Ducker, via email

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Sepp Blatter is promising Oceania automatic entry to the World Cup, again. Matthew Hall thinks this time he may actually come up with the goods

To be or not to be? That’s the question for the Oceania Football Confederation as FIFA promises the qualifying process for the 2006 World Cup will be decided in Madrid this December. The proposal, from none other than the president Sepp Blatter, is that Oceania takes the guaranteed qualifying place freed up by the decision that the holders will no longer qualify auto­matically for future World Cups.

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Is Terry Venables really any good as a coach? Leeds' new manager is the subject of this month's Head to Head

Yes ~
I met Terry Venables once. He’d brought out a rather bizarre board game called The Man­ager and was trying to sell it as a TV pro­gramme. I was hired to answer the quiz ques­tions on it in front of some BBC big­wigs. They didn’t take it up and I had to spend the morning with Eric Hall, so it wasn’t a suc­cessful day.

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