Search: 'shirts'

It's not just PSG's play that's foul, writes Dave Winter, it's their crowds as well

When the International Olympic Committee’s representatives visit Paris early this month to assess the city’s bid for the 2012 Games, you can be sure their hosts will keep them well away from a home match featuring the main Paris football team. It’s not just that PSG have been dire this season, finishing bottom of their Champions League group and struggling in the bottom half of Ligue 1. One whiff of the poisonous atmosphere at the Parc des Princes this season and the IOC would be straight on the blower to Seb Coe with some good news.

Read more…

Half a century after moving into their rivals’ San Siro ground, Inter could be about to leave AC Milan’s terrible grass for pastures new. Matt Barker explains the thinking

The two Milanese clubs have shared the Stadio Giuseppe Meazza, better known as the San Siro, since Inter moved in during the summer of 1948. The stadium, built in 1926, is frequently held up as a shining example of successful ground-sharing, yet both clubs regularly complain about the state of the pitch (replacement grass has to be flown in from Germany, though the proposed introduction of a syn­thetic pitch next year may solve the problem) and both are keenly aware of the potential long-term fin­ancial gains from having their own stadiums.

Read more…

Whatever happens to Diego Maradona, the people of Naples will still love him and the city is the first European destination for a travelling exhibition about him, as Paul Virgo reports

Today Diego Maradona is an obese, emotionally fragile, addiction-ridden wreck. Which is very sad. But it also makes it easier for England fans to drop the 1986 World Cup grudge and allow themselves to ap­preciate his genius. Anyone wanting to completely purge their soul of rancour can pay a visit to M10, an exhibition devoted to his life, currently in Naples.

Read more…

With Arsenal's decision to go a deeper shade of red, Steve D Wilson looks at the stories behind commemorative kits

At first glance Arsenal’s decision to wear a dark red home shirt in 2005-06 marks a pleasant change in modern football attitudes. The club will wear the new kit for one year to commemorate their final season at Highbury – it is the colour they originally wore when they moved to the north London stadium from Woolwich in 1913.

Read more…

Dear WSC
Is anyone else irritated by the increasing tendency of radio and TV commentators to refer to a shot hitting “the frame of the goal” or, even worse, “the frame of the goals”? How many sets of goals do they think the attacker is shooting at? Com­mentators should drop these expressions ad return to using post, bar or, where appropriate, the nicely precise “angle of post and bar”.
John Perry, Chelmsford

Read more…