Simon Kuper explains why the collapse of a pay-per-view channel in Holland is likely to have an effect on the relationship between football and television in the UK
I happened to be in Amsterdam on the Saturday in February when the chairman of the Dutch FA famously announced “We’re going to start something new.” He revealed that Holland’s clubs had sold the TV rights to their matches to a new cable channel.
In the wake of the television recreation od the day of the Hillsborough disaster, Rogan Taylor explains why the families of the deceased want a new public enquiry
Hillsborough won‘t go away. Nearly eight years after that fateful day which took the lives of ninety-six football fans, it is still a burning issue.Welcome fuel was added to the fire before Christmas with the transmission of Jimmy McGovern’s powerful film about the tragedy and its aftermath.
Bribe scandals are the in thing in European football, not least in Portugal, as Phil Town reports
FC Porto may have cruised comfortably into the last eight of the Champions League, but their apparent health and vigour belies a domestic game lurching from scandal to scandal.
Friday 1 Brian Laws is sacked as Grimsby manager, the writing having gone up on the wall in large, luminous capitals after his side's last match, a 3-0 home defeat to bottom-placed Oldham earlier in the week. Paul Gascoigne is included in the England squad for the match in Georgia, with Glenn Hoddle using a variety of means to justify his decision including religious faith: "One of the big teachings of Christianity is that of forgiveness – I hope that in not casting him aside I have given him a chance to change," and abject bullshit: "Had I not picked him at this stage then I feel it would have been detrimental to him and his family in the long run."
Saturday 2 Man Utd are getting careless: now they lose their 35-match unbeaten home record in the Premiership, going down 2-1 to Chelsea. "I know the thread of what is wrong and so do the players," says Alex Ferguson. Word is that it's something to do with letting in more goals than you score. Arsenal stay top after a heated, injury-strewn draw at Wimbledon, who didn't impress Arsène Wenger: "Today they deliberately avoided playing football and for our defenders it was a heading session." Forest's slide continues with a 2-0 defeat at Villa, which leaves them firmly anchored in the bottom three with Frank Clark admitting that his days could be numbered: "I need some wins under my belt before the takeover, otherwise someone else will be spending the money." In Scotland, Celtic go top after beating Aberdeen while Rangers can only draw at Raith.
Mike Woitalla reviews the opening season of Major League Soccer and suggests that football followers in the US may have got what they've been hoping for
For roughly two-thirds of the money that Newcastle United spent on Alan Shearer, Sunil Gulati acquired enough players for an entire league – Major League Soccer. Gulati teaches economics at Columbia University – is there room in the class Mr Keegan? – but is better known as the deputy commissioner of MLS.