Monday 1 Airdrie United acquire the rights to Clydebank’s name and seem set to replace them in the Scottish Second Division. “If this takeover goes ahead, a franchise system for Scottish football will have been validated,” says a spokesman for the Clydebank supporters group, who had been hoping to take control of the club themselves. Mick Wadsworth, who left Oldham during last season, is Huddersfield’s new manager.
Search: ' Supporters Direct'
Stories
In May, an arbitrarily appointed FA body sanctioned Wimbledon's move to Milton Keynes. Ian Pollock reorts on the staggering logic of a hugely damaging ruling
Just before the World Cup started, a special three-man commission of the FA came to one of the most profound decisions any football authority in England has ever made by giving permission for Wimbledon to move 60 miles north to Milton Keynes. With most fans’ attention firmly fixed on events in Japan and South Korea, it is not surprising that hardly any scrutiny has been given to the ruling handed down by the commission on May 28. After all, it only concerned Wimbledon, so who cares?
France's previous triumphs have shielded both players and coach from too much derision after their embarassing exit, says Neil McCarthy
It is worth underlining just how bad France were. Reigning World Cup champions have frequently disappointed, but never to this extent. Despite boasting the leading strikers of the French, English and Italian leagues, they didn’t even score a single goal. It was the worst performance of a World Cup holder, surpassing the 1962 winners Brazil, who at least managed to score goals and win one of three matches in 1966.
The drug money has dried up, but Nacional of Medellín are back – to the despair of their popular but inept neighbours. Jake Lagnado reports
Hear the word Medellín and you might think of Pablo Escobar and the Medellín Cartel. Indeed, in Medellín, as in the rest of Colombia, there were many financial and personal ties between the drugs trade and professional football, as symbolised by the campaign to free the city’s favourite son, Rene Higuita, from jail in 1993. Since Escobar’s death the same year, the trade has been reorganised: much less drug money is invested in the local economy, meaning football clubs now have to market themselves to avoid total ruin.
Airdrie have gone bust and Motherwell almost suffered the same fate. Ken Gall reports on the financial troubles besetting Scotlands's middle-ranking clubs
After more than a century, Airdrieonians FC have, to all intents and purposes, ceased to exist. A few miles down the road, their not-much-loved Lanarkshire neighbours Motherwell – following an initial panic that they were headed for the same fate – entered interim administration, slashing wages, sacking staff and cancelling players’ contracts. All in all, then, the grimmest few weeks for Scotland’s domestic game since Third Lanark went out of business in 1967.