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Many object to Sepp Blatter’s plan to cut the number of teams in Europe’s top divisions to 16, but Roger Titford is keen to examine the full horror of what the plan would entail

Last month FIFA president Sepp Blatter had another go at flying one of his favourite kites – reducing all Europe’s top divisions to 16 clubs each. Even Arsenal, usually so protective of how many games their delicate flowers have to play, spoke out against the idea. So universal is the condemnation that few have paused to consider in detail what a 16-club top division would mean. In England (and also Spain) it would mean a lot less top division football – 240 games in total instead of 380; that’s a 37 per cent reduction. As recently as 1994-95 the Premiership offered 462 fixtures. Reducing the number of clubs makes the league competition both much smaller and more occasional – more gaps for international weeks and quite possibly a mid-winter break too.

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England may have lost twice to the United States but have inflicted frequent and often quite heavy revenge, beginning, as Gavin Willacy relates, with Tom Finney in 1953

Three years after their humiliation by the United States in Belo Horizonte, Alf Ramsey, Billy Wright, Jimmy Dickinson and Tom Finney were given the chance to gain some sort of revenge on those pesky Americans when the FA sent England on their regular tour of the Americas.

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Portsmouth’s erratic Japanese keeper can’t get near the first team but, reports Justin McCurry, he’s happy plying his trade on English training grounds

Just before last year’s World Cup, a football writer in Japan drew attention to a phobia Yoshikatsu Kawa­guchi shares with Transylvania’s most feared resident. Aside from being a poor joke, it turned out to be a pre­scient commentary on the fortunes of Japan’s erst­while No 1. Less than two years after his £1.7 million move to Portsmouth, Kawaguchi’s fear of crosses has come to symbolise a promising career that is in danger of slipping from his grasp.

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The blueprint for the European Cup was laid down in pre-war Budapest, Vienna and Prague. Cris Freddi recalls the mayhem and magnificence of the Mitropa

The name derives from Mittel Europa (central Eur­ope) and the Cup was the baby of Hugo Meisl, international referee turned secretary of the Austrian FA and manager of the national team. After the Second World War, it couldn’t compete with first the Latin Cup, then UEFA’s three major club competitions and, al­though it staggered on in one form or another until 1992, ended up no better than an Intertoto.

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Monday 1 “It would be really embarrassing for us to lose it now,” frets Sir Alex as Man Utd’s lead widens to 11 points after their 3-1 win over West Ham, while Arsenal lose 1-0 at Charlton. Quite a day for goalkeeping mistakes, with pride of place going to David James, whose mishit clearance goes straight to Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink for the only goal of the game at Stamford Bridge. “I gather it was pretty horrific,” says an unsighted John Gregory. Nicky Weaver is beaten from very long range for Coventry’s equaliser against Man City and Tim Flowers lets a shot through his legs during Leicester’s 2-1 home defeat by Bradford. A rare defeat for Fulham – 2-0 at Stockport – allows Bolton, who win by the same score at Preston, to get to within seven points of the top of the First. Cardiff move into the promotion places in the Third with a 6-1 win over second-bottom Exeter, who will be glancing over their shoulders at Carlisle, six points behind but now with three games in hand.

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