Search: 'Fan culture'

Without leaving his desk, Ian Plenderleith enjoys the finest and funniest views of football in Holland, Belgium, Luxembourg and beyond, in his latest look at sites that highlight photographs of the game

It must be at least a matter of months since this column lauded football photographers on the internet but, in the absence of many inspiring new sites in prose, we’re compelled once again to recommend images over words. Just for a change, though, we’ll make it a condition that the sites must have a Benelux connection.

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Goalkeepers have always been slow to admit responsibility for any goal their team concedes, but the way they demonstrate this has changed across the ages. Cameron Carter charts the history of these complex blame-shirking gestures and what happens when it all gets too much for them

The Fatalist
If you consider footage from the 1960s and 70s, you will notice that the goalkeeper of this era is a more mild and resigned sort of person in the face of personal failure. After Georgie Best or Jimmy Greaves has sashayed round him and slipped the ball home, our isolated chum will invariably plod into the back of the net and simply tidy up his goal by kicking the ball downfield for the restart. It is as if he is thinking: “Well, this was bound to happen sooner or later. The ball is round, several people out there are intent on getting it into my net. I’m surprised this type of thing doesn’t happen more often.” There is no finger-pointing, no petit mort of the goalmouth lie-down, just a gentlemanly acceptance of the inevitable. Gradually, pioneering individuals such as Gary Sprake would introduce a bit of hands-on-hips action as an aperitif, but it was still a case of fumbling around for the ball afterwards and getting on with the game.

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Julius Bergmann reports on where the Germans stand on terracing

The last official report into the possibility of allowing standing areas in UK stadiums came in 2001, when then Sports Minister Kate Hoey dispatched the Football Licensing Authority on a fact-finding mission to Germany. Not only were new stadiums being constructed for the World Cup, Germany was then, and remains, the only major European footballing nation where standing areas are allowed in top-flight arenas.

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It’s time for a little optimistic thinking. Six WSC writers say how they would shake up the game this year, if the football genie appeared to them and granted them one wish

Downgrade Managers
Think of any Premiership manager: you’ll probably be able to hear his voice too. Sam Allardyce, for example: “We have a problem in this country playing to our traditional strengths.” Stuart Pearce: “Maybe I’m too honest, but that’s just me.” Rafa Benítez: “We play technical very good first half.” Even proven duds such as David O’Leary (“I’m not criticising those players in that dressing room”) and Graeme Souness (“Was it a penalty? You tell me”) have an easily recognisable presence in the white noise of football sound bites. It’s easy to forget that it hasn’t always been like this; and that one of the most consistently irritating side-effects of 15 years of Premiership overexposure has been the revolution in the public profile of managers.

The abnormally high profile of the current crop adds nothing to the spectacle of going to a match. Even their physical presence is a distraction, creating a compelling case for abolishing the “technical area”. What form of entertainment wouldn’t be ruined by the intrusion of an angrily gesturing Portuguese in the corner of your vision; or, on TV, the back of a fiery Ulsterman’s head repeatedly popping up at the bottom of your screen? Exhibitionist, embarrassing dad-style “coaching” from the sidelines should be classified as ungentlemanly conduct and deemed a bookable offence. Volleying the ball back, putting your arm around the fourth official’s shoulder, getting in on the goal celebrations: these are all very new and deeply undesirable things. Only the reintroduction of proper dug-out dugouts, populated by scowling men in horrible coats, can put an end to it all. Not to mention a three-day embargo on any form of managerial public comment before or after a game. They’d soon stop doing it.

There was a time when managers barely got a look in. Walter Winterbottom was England manager for the catastrophic 6‑3 defeat by Hungary at Wembley in 1953.There wasn’t a single reference to him in the hand-wringing press reports the following day. The national press singularly forgot to morph his head into a cauldron of goulash. So little-regarded was the job of “trainer” that Winterbottom’s name simply wasn’t mentioned. This state of affairs lasted until the appointment of his successor, Alf Ramsey, but even the celebrity managers that followed were really only on TV very occasionally compared to, say, Carlos Queiroz or Alan Pardew. Brian Clough’s celebrity gained its momentum from the impressions of Mike Yarwood and a million playground mimics.

In recent times, the need to manage “the media side of things” has led to appointments, and even whole careers, that would otherwise barely have got off the ground. Nobody can be good at everything; the general standard of nuts-and-bolts football management is bound to have suffered as a result. Can anyone even remember what Bob Paisley’s voice sounded like? As recently as the early 1980s, talking a lot on television just wasn’t in the job description. Paisley still seemed to do all right for himself. Imagine how much more interesting, and how much more widely respected, José Mourinho might be if he just kept on winning things without feeling the need to make a daily public pronouncement.
Barney Ronay

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Dear WSC
Jez Moxey, the Wolves chairman, has decided to ban Cardiff City fans from attending the match between the two clubs in January. This is a throwback to Margaret Thatcher’s attitude to football. Two seasons ago, I attended the match between Cardiff and Wolves at Molineux and it was one of the most scary experiences I have had at a football match, as the West Midlands Police decided to allow Wolves fans to wait to ambush Cardiff fans returning to their coaches. From what I can gather, embarrassed by their performance the previous year, the West Midlands Police decided to impose themselves in the repeat fixture last season. When a handful of City fans in the concourse at half-time started chanting “we want beer” after the bars changed their mind about staying open, the police decided to “calm things down” by charging into the concourse in full riot gear, beating anybody who failed to clear out of the way with their batons. They continued in this vein out of the concourse and up the gangways to the terraces, leading to people spilling on to the pitch to avoid being attacked. About 30 City fans attended hospital. Of the 17 that were arrested, all but one were offered apologies by the magistrates when they were discharged. An FA of Wales inquiry has yet to be completed, because West Midlands Police did not turn up to the hearing, twice. This is the same police force that refused to meet with fans’ representatives before both matches to plan away travel to avoid trouble. So who is to blame? Cardiff City fans, if you believe the West Midlands Police and Wolves. And the Football League, who agreed with the away fan ban, without bothering to seek the views of Cardiff City, the FA of Wales, any of the fans involved or the South Wales Police. This harks back to Luton Town’s away ban of the 1980s, which was snuffed out by the Football League. Why are they so happy for it to be reintroduced by Wolves? All teams, under League rules, are supposed to make a certain amount of tickets available to away fans. Perhaps a better solution would be to ban West Midlands Police from the fixture and invite South Wales Police to ensure there is no public disorder. But I guess that would not give Wolves the advantage of playing in front of no away fans.
Jeff Wagstaff, via email

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