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James Calder recalls a time when the Colombian championship was dominated by well-paid foreign players

The long-term significance
The beginning of the end of El Dorado, the great Colombian gold rush. Blacklisted by FIFA following its foundation in 1948, the national professional league attracted some of the world’s leading players, lured by high wages funded by the country’s economic boom, massive attendances and a conservative government anxious to divert attention away from widespread and bloody political and social unrest.

Angered by the continuing exodus of its stars, the Argentinian FA complained of “piracy”, leading FIFA to expel Colombia in 1951. The dispute was ended shortly afterwards by the Pacto de Lima, an agreement by which an increasingly cash-strapped league agreed to let its well-paid imports return to their clubs of origin by October 15, 1954, in return for readmission to the international fold. The Colombian free-for-all also had an impact on the English game, the defection of a handful of players resulting in two sizeable increases in the maximum wage, which was eventually abolished in 1961.

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We asked you for your views on a variety of issues in our post-World Cup issue. Roger Titford analyses the responses

On Sky TV, Andy Gray has several times passed his firm verdict on the 2010 World Cup – “disappointing”. Well, it wasn’t on Sky, of course. The WSC readership’s view, asked for in three words or fewer in our post-tournament survey, was slightly more nuanced, as you would hope, “strangely unfulfilling”, “dramatic but mediocre”, “curate’s egg – almost”. There was a general feeling of being slightly underwhelmed. “Meh” wrote several but our favourites were “team-work trumps celebrity” and “tippy-tappy tedium”.

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There's a very large reputation to live up to in Buenos Aires. Sam Kelly reports on the candidates to follow a national hero

How do you find a replacement for God? It’s a question Argentines have been pondering since July 27, when it was confirmed by the Argentine Football Association (AFA) that Diego Maradona wouldn’t be offered a new contract as national team manager to replace the one that had expired four weeks earlier. The main candidates to step into the limelight were former Sheffield Utd and Leeds midfielder Alejandro Sabella, Diego Simeone and youth team coach Sergio Batista.

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Mike Ticher acknowledges that there are several ways in which to appreciate football. But if we concentrate too much on the view of professionals, we risk missing the point altogether

I was a bit shocked to find out I didn’t know how to watch football, despite years of practice. At least that was the impression I got from Jonathan Wilson’s excellent book on tactics, Inverting the Pyramid. Perhaps a better way to put it is that the book exposes the gulf between two ways of watching: the fan’s way, in which you care about the result and the entertainment; and the coach’s or analyst’s, in which you study patterns and work out what each team is trying to do. The book’s genius is that it successfully explains the second way of thinking to the first group of people.

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International tournaments don't always attract local supporters and ticketing arrangements rarely help. Mark Brophy explains

A team of FIFA delegates recently visited England on a fact-finding tour to aid the choice of host nation for the 2018 World Cup. There was much for the English bid team to promote including the existing stadiums, the tourist infrastructure and the tradition of the game in this country, none of which could have failed to impress the delegation. Great play was also made of the passion of our fans. But how many home fans will actually turn up for games should the bid be successful?

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