A peculiarly British arrogance is at play over the release of players for the African Nations Cup
The African Nations Cup has been in existence for over 40 years, making it slightly older than the European Championship. Until very recently, this biennial competition has received almost no media coverage here. Now, however, virtually every column on the sports pages has something to say about the effect it is having on the English season.
After much publicity, the Football Task Force released its final report. Roger Titford finds out if it will make any difference to English football and its fans
The final report from the Football Task Force appeared just before Christmas. If it were a match it would be a 0-0 stalemate and a sadly predictable one too. This was a big opportunity for fans and authorities to move closer together. In the event, each side issued separate and contradictory reports on how the game should, or should not, be regulated and passed the buck to Kate Hoey, the sports minister, who now has the tough choice of being radical or practical.
Stephanie Pride talks to Howard Wilkinson about the future of youth coaching in England and possible regrets he has from an illustrious career
WSC Do you feel there is still a suspicion in this country of bringing the more technical aspects of coaching into the game?
Howard Wilkinson Yes, there’s a cultural attitude which is, if you like, anti-coaching, or against having an analytical attitude to sport, and it does make life difficult because it colours everyone’s attitude. It’s come out recently when we’ve had foreign players who start to talk about the differences and make negative comparisons with the preparation they’ve been used to. It comes out with foreign coaches coming in – people like Arsène Wenger. The sort of preparation that he employs I don’t think is that much different to the sort of preparation that others would employ, nor would it be fundamentally different to that which I would employ, but because Arsène’s come in and done it, it’s had a positive influence. People say “ah well, it’s come from abroad, it must be good, it’s worked there” – and I think that’s good.
Despite going well in Euro 2000 qualification, scandal has hit Romania. Richard Augood reports
These are strange and troubled times for Romanian football. Yet just a couple of months ago everything seemed to be going so well. Romania were in a strong position in Euro 2000 qualifying group seven. On June 5th, Gheorghe Hagi, who had been back at his magnificent best with Galatasaray, was persuaded out of retirement for just one, very important, match. Inspired by Hagi, Romania beat bitter rivals Hungary 2-0. Almost unbelievably, this was the first time Romania had ever beaten the Hungarians in 20 games spread over 68 years.
Cris Freddi's series on the poorest moments in football history continues with a look at the players who missed when it looked easier to score
Right, same formula as the rest of this series. Quick mention of famous televised misses, to make it look as if I’ve seen them all, then on to missed chances that mattered, because that’s all I know about.