Neil White on the pros and cons of UEFA's plans for football's future pitches
When an irate Gerry Collins launched into a vitriolic rant at a post-match press conference last week, it had nothing to do with his Partick Thistle side’s insipid performance in their defeat by Dunfermline. Collins’ ire was directed exclusively at Dunfermline Athletic’s new artificial pitch – UEFA’s view of football’s future.
Jon Matthias on the Shrews
Kevin Ratcliffe carried the can for last season’s relegation – was this unfair?
No. It was his team, his tactics and his persistence with players who were blatantly unfit and were not getting any fitter that saw us relegated. Our defence, his apparent field of expertise, was appalling. I think the board and many fans were afraid of being too negative so nothing was said until it was too late. In March, chief executive Keith Sayfritz commented that this season was “not as bad” as the Great Escape season of 2000. That sort of misplaced optimism is why it ended up so much worse.
Sunning himself beside the Caspian Sea, Dan Brennan explains the corruption and politics that briefly left Wales’ Euro 2004 opponents in international limbo
As Iraqis can testify, it is not generally good news when the ruler’s son is put in charge of a country’s football affairs. For Uday in Baghdad read Ilham in Baku. Aliyev Junior, son of the Azerbaijani president, might not be guilty of the extremes of Saddam’s boy, but is doing his best to make a bad situation worse.
Wednesday 1 Arsenal stay five points clear but only after a nervous last few minutes in which Chelsea score twice before losing 3-2. “I like to win games like that when you’re tired,” says Arsène, making an excuse even though he doesn’t need to. “It was like watching the tide coming in,” says Howard Wilkinson as Man Utd score two late goals to beat Sunderland 2-1 having trailed for 75 minutes. Liverpool drop down to seventh after a tenth winless match, a 1-0 defeat at Newcastle, but Gérard sticks his chin out, sort of: “I don’t want to commit suicide before the end of the season.” Several fixtures are postponed due to bad weather, and one, Reading v Leicester, is called off at half-time due to a waterlogged pitch.
Every Saturday three men decide the results of postponed matches. If you don't want to find out why and how, look away now, because Al Needham met them
Whenever I have an argument with anyone about the innate superiority of British football over any other sporting entity in the world, I always keep one killer argument in reserve: the fact that we have a Pools Panel. It gives off the impression to foreigners that our game is so important that when matches can’t be played, we actually have a platoon of experts who decide the result for us. Of course, they could counter this fact by pointing out that if every team in the country had the kind of facilities that they should have in the 21st century, there would be no need for a Pools Panel, but I counter that by stating that, even if there was a nuclear holocaust, the Pools Panel are probably on standby to decide entire seasons until civilisation recovered. That shuts them up a treat.