Search: ' La Liga'

England go into Euro 2004 confident that they can finally live up to expectations, with the steps taken to prevent violence likely to stop the country being embarassed by its supporters as in previous years. But is enough being done to control their mouths, as well as their fists?

Cautious optimism seems in order for England, on and off the pitch, as they head for Portugal. The team’s prospects are considered as good as they have been for a major tournament since before Euro 88 – but we all know how that ended. More, though, has been done than ever to try to ensure that England are not embarrassed by their support. Everyone knows there is a risk the team could be sent home unbeaten due to violence from a minority of fans and at last some ser­ious steps have been taken.

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A team from Grozny in the war-torn Russian republic are on the brink of promotion to the top flight. Except, as Saul Pope explains, it's some time since they had a home game

Much of the football power in Russia is concentrated in Moscow, but the capital city’s clubs may soon have a strong rival from the most unexpected of places: Chechnya. The rising star of Russia’s sprawling first division, which from Kaliningrad on the Baltic Sea to Vladivostok on the Pacific Ocean spreads over ten time zones, is Terek, a team representing the troubled republic’s capital city, Grozny. Having taken the se­cond division by storm in 2002, Terek finished fourth in the first division in 2003, missing out on promotion to the Soviet premier league by just one point but at the same time finishing in their highest ever position. This is something of a miracle when you consider the fighting and instability in Chechnya, which have for a long time put sport of any nature firmly on the back-burner.

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Millwall's fight against the hooligans looks to have succeeded but, as Lance Bellers writes, the troublemakers won't be the only ones missing out on the FA Cup Final this month

Picture this: your team have just reached football’s most famous cup final for the first time. Imagine the scenes at the first home match after the semi-final: a sea of flag-waving happy faces, drunk on euphoria and the doors locked an hour before kick-off.

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When two rivals come together to build a new stadium, the potential for disaster is huge – as Bayern Munich and Munich 1860 are finding out, as Mathias Kowoll reports

On March 9, 2004, more than 50 men in suits and uniforms entered TSV 1860 Munich’s headquarters. “I first thought they were from a fan club and wanted some autographs,” said the receptionist. The fan club turned out to be a delegation from the prosecutor and the police, who had come to confiscate files and arrest club president Karl-Heinz Wildmoser and his son.

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Dear WSC
Following the recent kerfuffle between Ashley Cole, Nicolas Anelka et al at High­bury, most commentators seemed to agree that Cole was as much to blame as Anelka and deserved to walk too. Obviously Cole’s reputation is now goi­ng before him, but surely in this case Cole had every right to pick up the ball and return it to the centre circle in his own time? What none of the so-called “ex­perts” ever cares to mention in these cases is that once a goal has been scored, the scored-against team has possession of the ball and should not expect to have to deal with a full-on assault from the opposing team’s front line (everyone seemed to conveniently miss Robbie Fowler’s rugby tackle during the same incident). If they waste time returning it, the ref can show a yellow card and add on a few seconds accordingly – simple. OK, Cole raised an arm, but didn’t we all when someone tried to grab our ball? No, in this case the referee was ab­solutely right and for once the video panel also saw sense. I think it was Eusebio who started this trend for grabbing balls out of nets in the 1966 World Cup against North Korea and the sooner FIFA send out a directive banning such blatant gamesmanship the better for all concerned.
Martin D Ling (not the Os manager), Bethnal Green

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