Friday 1 Manchester United are fined £1.6 million by the Office of Fair Trading for price-fixing replica shirts. One of the other ten businesses to be charged are… the FA who will have to pay £158,000 for selling overpriced England shirts on the internet in 2000-01. Tangled web-weaver John Fashanu says he has resigned as chairman of Barry Town, though there is some doubt whether he ever really held such a position. Jody Craddock leaves Sunderland for Wolves, who are also to sign Senegalese striker Henri Camara and Spurs’ Steffen Iversen.
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Stories
David Beckham wasn’t England’s only footballing export this summer. Neville Hadsley looks at why Jay Bothroyd has attracted both scorn at Coventry and a transfer to Perugia
When Jay Bothroyd left Coventry City for Serie A side Perugia, he was, perhaps understandably, magnanimous. “I will miss Coventry,” he wrote on his personal website. “I hope the club get promoted this season because the Coventry fans really deserve Premiership football. The support at the club both home and away is fantastic.”
Dear WSC
Re Ged Naughton’s query (Letters, WSC 197) as to why the grass was always darker green during the cup final on ITV, the answer is simple: the grass is always greener on the other side.
Andy Hargreaves, Southampton
In a dark season for the game as well as Stoke, Ken Sproat saw Newcastle inflict one of the Potters’ 31 defeats of 1984-85 – but can now see it wasn't all gloom
A football team cannot get much worse than Stoke City during the 1984-85 season. There, in the all-time records for being hopeless, they skulk alongside such Victorian disasters as Darwen, Loughborough Town and Glossop. The fewest points in a season (17), the fewest wins (three – all at home), the most defeats (31) and, with 24, the fewest goals (the leading scorer was Ian Painter with six, of which four were penalties). They failed to score in 25 of the 42 league matches. They suffered mathematically definite relegation with eight miserable matches still to play.
Five years after blazing their way out of the Football League (with an arsonist at the helm), Doncaster are back, to the delight of Glen Wilson
In the underpass at Doncaster station there is an advertisement for a local nightclub, which reads: “Can you make Doncaster what they made Carlisle?” Anyone passing through may be forgiven for thinking that the people of Doncaster don’t expect a lot in life. However, when it comes to football the expectations of the town are far greater. Almost 10,000 Doncaster supporters made the trip to Stoke for the first ever Conference promotion final, in the hope that this would be the season in which Rovers finally regained their place in the Football League.