There is a world outside of FIFA. Steve Menary reports on plans for a world cup of "non-countries"
The breakaway republic of Northern Cyprus is set to host the first ever world cup for nations that don’t exist. Recognised only by Turkey, which invaded the Mediterranean island in 1974, Northern Cyprus will host the 16-team Viva World Cup in November 2006.
Sunday 1 Spurs thrash Villa 5-1 to move into a UEFA Cup spot. “Spurs have pushed on because they’ve made a big investment,” says David O’Leary, loud enough for Doug Ellis to hear. Man Utd’s 4‑0 win at Charlton (“For the last six weeks our defending has been chronic,” sighs Alan Curbishley) puts them a point behind Arsenal. Rangers are two points behind Celtic after a 3‑1 win at Aberdeen.
Europe's minnows can sleep easy for now as Leinart Johannsson saw his UEFA presidential term extended. But according to Steve Menary, it's only delaying the inevitable
Europe’s minor nations can breathe a sigh of relief as doomsday has been temporarily averted. At last month’s congress in Tallinn, UEFA changed procedures for replacing Lennart Johansson as president and delayed Franz Beckenbauer’s seemingly inevitable advance to European football’s top job.
The death of 39 fans at the 1985 European Cup final was the culmination of an era when, as Mike Ticher recalls, English football appeared to be in terminal decline
It’s the timeworn right of each generation to complain that things are not what they used to be. In 1983, Geoffrey Pearson’s classic work Hooligan: A history of respectable fears showed how at any given point in the past 150 years public opinion held firmly that society’s current state of violence and mayhem contrasted with a peaceful “golden age”, consistently located about 20 years previously. Oddly, the very time he was writing has proved the exception to his rule. In football at least, no one in their right mind would want to risk a return to the mid-1980s.
Guernsey v England? It could happens says Steve Menary
Imagine crowds thronging into St Peter Port to see Guernsey play England in a World Cup qualifier. It could happen, as the island are considering an application to join FIFA.