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Daniel Gray discovers that the past of Arsenal's recent opponents Dinamo Zagreb is far from ordinary

While the price of refreshments in their pristine Emirates abode is a more likely cause of protest for Arsenal fans than political events, for supporters of Champions League qualifier opponents Dinamo Zagreb the reality at home games is very different.  This manifested itself most in the final home game of last season, a 1‑0 victory over Hajduk Split on May 13, when, instead of indulging in the now traditional lap of honour, both club and followers celebrated Dinamo’s Croatian championship triumph by publicly lauding an alleged war criminal and demonstrating against his treatment.

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Dear WSC
Where would you say are the game’s real hotbeds? Liverpool, Newcastle and Birmingham? Wrong! Try Ipswich, Norwich, Gloucester and Wolverhampton, some of the places where there is still enough interest to make it worthwhile printing a Saturday night sports paper. We all know that new technology makes information much more easily accessible, but at least in those places the traditional method of getting the latest football news will still be available. Those towns I have named who still have Saturday “Pinks” (or whatever) have papers owned by local companies, whereas the papers in Liverpool, Newcastle and Birmingham are owned by the Trinity Mirror group. It seems therefore that while local companies can still find a way to serve their community, Trinity Mirror can’t be bothered. In view of their hostility to football fans and their contempt for the needs of their regional customers, I suggest that we all boycott all Trinity Mirror papers until such time as they either reinstate the Pinks or sell their local interests to local people.
Mick Blakeman, Wolverhampton

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Brazil travelled to Germany as favourites, but Ronaldo, Ronaldinho and friends rarely looked worth the hype. As Robert Shaw explains, they paid the price for putting commercial concerns ahead of football

Carlos Alberto Parreira is an articulate coach, accustomed to giving presentations. But when it really mattered at the World Cup he was strangely speechless. After Thierry Henry slipped past a sleeping defence, Parreira seemed dumbstruck and delayed shuffling his pack, with Robinho left on the bench until it was too late. Brazil’s formation based on an attacking quartet was set in stone, although the notoriously cautious coach had only really seen it work well against Argentina in the Confederations Cup final last June and in the drubbing of Chile in September.

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You couldn't avoid seeing the endless plugs for sponsors but, wonders Barney Ronay, did they make you buy anything?

This was surely the most energetically sponsored World Cup yet. Certainly, there was something different about the corporate presence. FIFA and your local TV channel may have long since run out of easy ways to up the logo content. But somehow it was all just a bit more insistent. The pitch perimeter advertising was standardised at this World Cup, with – you’d imagine – each step closer to the holy grail of the halfway line eagerly auctioned off. Close your eyes and you can still picture them all. Hyundai, Toshiba, McDonald’s, Coca-Cola (in Brazil colours). Something called Avaya. At most grounds the advertising boards themselves had either been extended to cover the first couple of rows of seats or framed by a lemon tarpaulin to give them that extra grab factor. These ads were super-sized – bigger and, unless there’s something drastically wrong with the contrast on my television, brighter, too. 

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All the complaints about the ticketing didn't stop the grounds being full. But, as Steve Menary explains, that doesn't mean people were wrong to be angry at a system in need of reform

 Saudi Arabia’s opening group match against Tunisia on June 14 summed up the World Cup ticket paradox. There were a few empty seats before kick-off, but not enough to argue with an announcement that the most obscure first-round game had filled one of the biggest grounds, Munich’s impressive new 66,000-seat Allianz Arena.

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