Ankara-based Anthony Lake believes that the recent history of Anglo-Turkish matches could lead to serious danger if fans travel to October's key qualifier
England over 100 Turkey 0 is an unsurprising arrest statistic, though it is one unlikely to be repeated if England fans are permitted by the Football Association to travel to Istanbul for the return game in October. Sadly the score is likely to be more even, and someone, at least one and maybe more, could be killed.
Mark Tallentire explains why Everton are staying put
When Everton announced they were pulling the plug on their plan to join the King’s Dock development, not a single letter or email of complaint was received by the club. However, more than 40 had arrived by mid-morning on Monday after the 2-1 win against Aston Villa kept their bid for UEFA Cup football going for another week, either congratulating David Moyes on another three points or complaining about Duncan Ferguson’s conduct in the same game. Therein lies a tale as the fans, while broadly in favour of the proposed 55,000-seat city-centre stadium on the banks of the Mersey, are more interested in seeing Moyes create a winning team.
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.
It’s taken a while, but African players are finally beginning to thrive in England. Alan Duncan charts the changes in both English and African football that have made this possible
A popular African adage says that “pushing stops at the wall”. For the best part of the last decade, African players have seen the inexorable push of their compatriots across Europe tending to break down at the formidable wall presented by English football.
Tom Bower's new book looks into the financial irregularities and running of football. Here he tells WSC why these issues will sooner or later shatter the game
The publishers make play of the fact that you are the first non-sports journalist to write on this subject. Do you consider that football journalists are too reliant on clubs as sources for stories to be adequately dispassionate on business matters?
I don’t criticise them for that. I think football journalists write brilliantly. I came to this as an outsider who didn’t read the football pages before. Their problem is they need access to the players and so it’s very difficult for them to do what I’ve done; it just comes with the turf. Where the failure has been is with the business sections of the newspapers. It’s regarded as just sport whereas in fact it’s a huge industry.