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Our regular update on clubs in crisis by Tom Davies

Harry Redknapp’s departure from Portsmouth has led to a flurry of speculation that he might be interested in taking over at Bournemouth, his former club. It’s all paper talk at present, but, whatever other baggage Redknapp might bring, his cash would come in handy for a club around £4.5 million in debt. The League One club narrowly avoided a stadium repossession order last month, brought by Bristol & West, who are owed £300,000. The order was only postponed until February, though, and the stringent terms of the B&W deal have been raising plenty of hackles, as the building society’s loan was arranged by Bournemouth president Stanley Cohen, who also happens to be a non-executive director of Bristol & West.

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Anti-racism initiatives in football should be applauded, but it's only scratching the surface

The press lounge at a Premiership ground one evening a few years ago. Journalists gathered for a midweek game are looking at a TV screen that is replaying goals from the previous weekend. Dwight Yorke scores against a team supported by one of those watching, who walks up to the screen and says loudly, in mock indignation: “Yorke, you black twat!” In the wake of last month’s friendly in Mad­rid, the journalist in question was one of many who set about suggesting various forms of action that might be taken against Spain for the Bernabéu crowd’s racial abuse of black England players. It is fair to assume, then, that he has long since seen the error of his ways.

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Dear WSC
Are you aware of the administrative/secretarial difficulties that the English FA head­quarters are currently experiencing? Over the past six months I have been attempting to apply for membership of “englandfans”, as the travel club is now known, for the period 2004-06. In July the “englandfans team” announced that packs would be out in August, but in spite of my non-membership I was in­vited to apply for tickets for England v Ukraine at Newcastle. Presumably, my earlier attendance and behaviour at the pre-Portugal tournament in Manchester had been monitored and found acceptable. I would like to continue to offer my support and the friendly in Madrid sounds attractive, but I am still not an “englandfan” and unlikely to be until January 2005! A letter in October ex­plained that “the club is being restructured” (has Sven been told?) but that away tickets would for now only be available to existing members.Apart from the 76 fans arrested in Portugal, more recently in Baku a group of “englandfans” were reported to be displaying a banner saying “No Asylum Seekers”. I hope the FA find “sufficient evidence” on this occasion to create some vacancies for replacement fans.
Geoff Lord, Chesterfield

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Hooliganism and obscene chanting have reached such a level in Holland that a recent Den Haag game against PSV waas abandoned, as Ernst Bouwes reports

I first met a Den Haag sup­porter in the flesh in 1983. They had been relegated from the top level and were playing my club, EVV Eindhoven. This rather small away fan came over to me and claimed that the hand in his pocket was holding a knife. No one would be hurt if I handed over my blue-and-white scarf. I declined. A stand-off followed, until my team came to the rescue. His side’s first goal made my assailant run to his mates to join in the celebrations. In the remaining hour there were another seven goals – celebrating an 8-0 win didn’t give Den Haag fans much time for hostilities.

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After the death of a steward following incidents at Aston Villa's Carling Cup tie with QPR, Dave Woodhall wonders if it is time for the police to increase their presence at games

If I had a pound for every time I’ve been asked the question: “Is football violence on the way back?” I’d be a lot better off than I am now. The answer, of course, is that it never entirely died out. The average Premiership attendance is around 35,000 and in a crowd of that size there will inevitably be some undesirables. Hooliganism happens, but it’s rare and the chances of getting caught up in the type of pre-planned violence that forms the majority of skirmishes loosely based around football is so small as to be not worth worrying about.

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