Search: 'Fan culture'

In the absence of hooligans in the stands, the press analysis of the Turkey-England game focused on violence invloving the players. Barney Ronay examines the evidence

FIST-ANBUL… We’re through despite shocking Turk violence… EVERY KICK, EVERY BRAWL: PAGES 2,3,4,5, back page & Score. The News of the World found itself in reflective mood the morning after England’s scoreless draw in Turkey. Stretched above a picture of “hate-filled Alpay” poking a naughty finger in David Beckham’s face, FIST-ANBUL captured in one idiot tri-syllable the mood of salacious voyeurism among the tabloid press in the days following Eng­land’s final Euro 2004 qualifying match.

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Neil Warnock’s love of Sheffield United has received plenty of publicity but the Wednesday are currently managed by a fan, too. Chris Turner has the job of rescuing the former Premiership regulars from Division Two and talks to Al Needham about how he plans to do it in these difficult times

Managers who have been successful elsewhere have struggled at Hillsborough. Was there a particular set of circumstances that made it a difficult place to succeed?
Very much so. Terry Yorath, Peter Shreeves and Paul Jewell were battling against the financial position. They had a lot of players signed during the Premiership days on high salaries who wouldn’t or couldn’t be moved on. From what I’ve heard from Terry and Paul, a number weren’t interested in playing or training. The difficulties they had were insurmountable. Peter Shreeves inherited a squad of players who had three years on their contracts who weren’t doing the business. While managers came and went, these players stayed. I was in the fortunate position of coming in at a time when something like 14 players were out of contract. So I didn’t have the worry of having to move these play­ers on. That doesn’t mean the problem of high salaries has gone – we still have players here on high wages, certainly too high for Second Division football.

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Kevin Keegan’s managerial excesses and successes have meant we have forgotten how, during his playing career, KK blazed a trail away from the pitch, believes Barney Ronay

In October 1995, with his Newcastle United team creating a stir at the top of the Premiership, Kevin Keegan travelled south to Brighton beach to meet Tony Blair MP, Leader of the Opposition. Dressed in shirtsleeves, with only a TV crew and a twitching mass of photographers for company, the two men stood and exchanged 27 consecutive headers. A bizarre tableau, perhaps, but far from unprecedented in the extraordinary public life of Keegan. Ron Greenwood once described him as “the most modern of all modern footballers”. In fact he was the first post-modern player: the first British footballer to exploit the commercial nexus between sport, celebrity and pop culture; to create out of himself a branded corporate persona; and the first reigning European Footballer of the Year to have a solo hit record – Head over Heels (B-side: Move on down) reached number 31 in the summer of 1979.

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Just one level beneath the Swedish top flight, Assyriska Föreningen are the highest-ranked immigrant-based club in Europe. Marcus Christenson reports

Assyriska Föreningen in Södertälje, south of Stockholm, was founded by Sweden’s Assyrian minority in 1971 with the aim of helping new immigrants settle. The society provided translations and information on the cultural and social aspects of Sweden and created four different sections – culture, youth, women and football – within a few years of its foundation.

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An Englishman you’ve never heard of who carries the football hopes of a nation of one billion people? That’s Stephen Constantine, as Dan Brennan explains

If the FA’s decision to make the FIFA Pro Licence a mandatory qualification is set to send managers up and down the country scrabbling for their revision notes, one man who won’t be suffering pre-exam nerves is Stephen Constantine. On paper, at least, Con­stantine is probably the most qualified British coach around. The FIFA A Licence and Full Badge Licence already feature on a managerial CV that runs to several pages, and he expects the Pro Licence to follow. At 40 he is one of the youngest coaches to sit on the FIFA instructors’ panel and is the only Englishman.

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