Non-Europeans


Euro 2008 begins in a week time, oddly there are 42 players who were born outside of Europe who will be competing in the competition. Here's the list..

Portugal
Deco - Brazil
Boswinga - Congo
Pepe - Brazil
Nani - Cape Verde

Switzerland
Gelson - Cape Verde
Vonlanthen - Colombia
Djourou - Ivory Coast

Turkey - mostly eastern Turkey
Rustu Recber
Tuzluca
Mehmet Topal
Semih Senturk
Gokdeniz Karadeniz
Tumer Metin
Tolga Zengin
Ugur Boral
Emre Asik
Tuncay Sanli
Ayhan Akman
Sabri Sarioglu
Mehmet Aurelio - Brazil

Croatia
Josip Simunic - Australia

Germany
Kevin Kuryani - Brazil

Poland
Roger Guerreiro - Brazil

France
Patrice Evra - Senegal
Lilian Thuram - Guadeloupe
Claude Makalele -Congo
Patrik Vieira - Senegal
Jean-Alain Boumsong - Cameroon
Steve Mandanda - Congo

Italy
Mauro Camoranesi - Argentina

Russia - all three Eastern Russia
Sergei Semak
Dmitri Sychev
Dmitri Torbinski

Spain
Marcos Senna - Brazil

Mill No More

Awful news from Rotherham United today that confirms that they will not be playing at Millmoor next season. Instead the club will play their games in Sheffield at the Don Valley Stadium.

The Don Valley Stadium is normally used for athletics and rugby league. It has also been used for concerts and gameshows (Channel 4's "The Game") in the past as well. It looks totally unsuitable for Rotherham. Wrong city, not big enough and has an athletics track around it - which never helps the atmosphere as anyone who has been to the Withdean will tell you!

I have only ever visited Millmoor once. It was on the first day of the season in Cardiff City's first game back in the second flight about five years ago (the game ended 0-0). It was almost certainly the hottest game I have ever been at. Standing in the away end at Millmoor (it is seated but Cardiff fans aren't sitters) under a corrugated iron roof was akin to being in an oven.

Good luck to Rotherham United. Things can surely only get better now. Surely!

Big Yellow Bus

All hop on the NK Domzale bus, new Champions of Slovenia.


Slovenia is a young country and so has a young football league. NK Domzale's title win is the first in their history and they are only the third club to win the championship after NK Maribor and NK Gorica.

Other first time winners of their respective leagues are Llanelli of Wales and CFJ Cluj of Romania (who not content with winning the league for the first time also won the cup!).

To round off this shortish article on league title winners here's a list of all of the leagues that have been decided over the past few weeks. (Note - many of the ex-Soviet countries and Scandanavia & Ireland have league programmes that run over the summer so are not included in this list).

Albania: Dinamo Tirana
Austria: Rapid Veinna
Belguim: Standard Liege
Bosnia: FK Modrica Maksima
Bulgaria: CSKA Sofia
Croatia: Dinamo Zagreb
Czechia: Slavia Prague
England: Manchester United
France: Lyon
Georgia: Dinamo Tblisi
Germany: Bayern Munich
Hungary: Debrecen VSC
Italy: Inter
Luxembourg: F91 Dedelange
Macedonia: Rabotnicki Skopje
Malta: Valletta FC
Moldova: Sheriff Tiraspol
Montenegro: Buducnost Podgorica
Netherlands: PSV
Northern Ireland: Linfield
Poland: Wisla Krakow
Portugal: Porto
Romania: CFR Cluj
San Marino: SC Faetano
Scotland: Celtic
Serbia: Partizan Belgrade
Slovakia: Artmedia Bratislava
Slovenia: NK Domzale
Spain: Real Madrid
Switzerland: Basel
Turkey: Galatasaray
Ukraine: Shakhtar Donetsk
Wales: Llanelli

Swiss Super League

Continuing on from the article down the page on Austrian football I felt a piece on Swiss football would be appropriate as

FC Thun are probably known to most people in England as the side who played in the Champions League against Arsenal a few years ago (2005). They acquitted themselves well, only losing by the odd goal in both ties to Arsenal and finishing above Ajax in 3rd place. The current season has ended in relegation, they now have a mountain to climb to get back into the Swiss elite... The oldest club in the country and the second oldest on continental Europe is FC St Gallen. They are managed by Krassimir Balakov who was a member of the Bulgarian national team who made the semi finals of the World Cup in 1994. They finished 2nd bottom of the Super League this season and lost out to Bellinzona of the second flight in a two legged playoff. Incidentally Bellinoza qualified for the UEFA Cup as losing finalists.

Bellinoza's marvellous change kit.

The exotically named Neuchatal Xamax won the league twice during the 1980s. Blackburn Rovers defender Stephane Henchoz played almost 100 matches for the club at the beginning of his career. Their major recent success was winning the Swiss Cup in 2003. The club is quite a breeding ground for African players, Papa Bouba Diop, Henri Camara and Thimothee Atouba all played for the Neuchatal club before moving on to the Premier League.

A little known fact is that the ex-Crystal Palace striker Mark Bright spent a few months at FC Sion in Switzerland near the end of his career, he made very little impact in his short time there! Like many Swiss sides they were founded very early in the 20th Century (in 1909). They were one of the Swiss entrants to the UEFA Cup this season, falling at the first hurdle against Turkish side Galatasaray. An exceptional 3-2 victory at home was followed by a disappointing 5-1 result in Turkey.

One of the more famous names in Swiss football Ciriaco Sforza is now managing midtable side FC Luzern. He played for the national team on 79 ocassions and spent most of his career in Germany (winning the Champions League with Bayern Munich in 2001). [official site of Sforza here] "Supersub" David Fairclough played for FC Lu

zern during the mid-80s and scored a goal in the club's SRS Cup win in 1984 against Borussia Dortmund.



The first team in the dictionary: FC Aarau. They have a Wimbledon-esque badge. Last year they had a player by the name of Mark Fotheringham playing for them (he's currently at Norwich). He is famous for the "Fozzy Flick", it's not quite a Cruyff turn but is worth a look.


Probably the most famous Swiss club are Grasshoppers Zurich (their nickname apparently coming from the way their players celebrated in the early days of the club - but that's far from certain). They are also notable to many football fans in the UK as they shared a subbuteo side with Blackburn Rovers, or at least that's why they are notable to me.. They have won the Swiss title more than any other club (27). City rivals FC Zurich finished two points ahead of Grasshoppers, they ended the season in third and made the last 16 of the UEFA Cup this season where they lost to Hamburg.

The title was contested between FC Basel (who are managed by ex-Spurs boss Christian Gross - I believe this reference is obligatory when writing about Basel) and Young Boys of Berne (who really DO play at the Wankdorfstadion - or at least that's what it used to be called - it is also the largest solar power plant in the world incidentally).

FC Vaduz flying high

As mentioned earlier Bellinoza won the promotion playoff against St. Gallen and so will compete in the Swiss superleague next season. The team who won the second division were FC Vaduz of Liechtenstein. It's obviously quite odd for a team from a different country to play in the top flight of a league of a different country but there are examples ranging from Derry City, Monaco and Swansea City in the early 80s. What is less clear is European qualification. Vaduz currently enter the Liechtenstein cup and normally win it (as they are by far the strongest side in their country). It is likely that they wouldn't be allowed to represent Switzerland in European competition should they qualify. In 2006/2007 FC Vaduz were actually eliminated from the UEFA Cup by FC Basel (of Switzerland).

A Nicely Written Match Report

I'm currently reading Eddie Hapgood's autobiography (he captained Arsenal and England during the 1930s). It's a pretty good read. As you can imagine a lot has changed in the game since then.

Hapgood

This excerpt from a match report that Hapgood was involved in is included in the book. (Hapgood's Arsenal are playing Hapgood's previous club Kettering Town). See if you can work out what the reporter is moaning about before the end of the article...

"The next time I go to see a match on the Rockingham Road ground at Kettering, I shall insist on being accompanied by Sherlock Holmes, the 'Big Four' from Scotland Yard, and a leading member of the British Magical Society. Though I have no intention of causing any undue alarm in the camp of the faithful followers of the Poppies, I feel it incumbent upon me to warn them, at the close of a thrilling season, that the green patch which covers the playing area conceals a treacherous quicksand, wherein players disappear and are never seen again.

Kettering were entertaining the Arsenal in a friendly fixture, and, with the exception of a goal or two that happened along in the first half, all went well (though I believe the diminutive Mitchell had some difficulty with his shorts - they seemedto fit too tightly around his ankles). It was after the referee blew the whistle for the refreshment interval that the tragedy happened. Two strapping Arsenal players - David Jack and 'Happy' Hapgood - vanished into thin air. Presumably, the quicksands had swallowed them up, not even a tuft of hair could be traced, and the crowd stood aghast when the Arsenal re-started. No David Jack; no Happy-go-Lucky Hapgood.

In their places appeared two substitutes, mysteriously recruited from some sort of Arsenal 'pool' held in reserve (like a battalion in billets) somewhere behind the grandstand. People wondered; they whispered in queer undertones. What happend to Jack? Where was Hapgood?

If there had been anotehr adjournemount before the end of the match, I should not have been surprised to see the Arsenal team re-enter the arena with a brandnew forward line, three halves borrowed from the Scottish League, two backs from West Bromwich, and a goalkeeper on loan from Newcastle United.

I was beginning to wonder wheter the police had authorised the issue of the usual £500 Reward notices, when a powerful voice nearby informed the world that Jack andhis friend had merely dropped out to give two other Arsenal men a chance to kick the ball!"

Austrian Bundesliga

With Euro 2008 being jointly hosted by Austria I thought it was time to look at the domestic leagues of the two countries, starting with Austria.

The top division (Bundesliga) is a relatively small division containing only ten teams. Clubs play each other twice at home and twice away.

SV Ried are another club in Austria who have accepted the "corporate dollar", the full title of their side is SV Josko Fenster Ried, the logo of the firm is even featured on their badge, something that makes me quite uneasy. Saying that the picture in their gallery from the Innsbruck game made me feel quite uneasy too. SCR Rheindorf Altach are another club who have incorperated their sponsors logo (CASHPOINT) onto their badge, it's one thing allowing a company to sponsor your ground or kit but on the badge? Step too far perhaps?

SV Rien vs Innsbruck.

Wacker Innsbruck are one of many sides (almost half) that play in green in the Bundesliga. They see themselves as the continuation of the Tirol Innsbruck club who won the Austrian title three times earlier this decade. However, Tirol went bust in 2002. Wacker Innsbruck had Liverpool defender Besian Idrizaj on loan this year, a player who has also had spells at Crystal Palace and Luton Town.

Carsten Jancker, remember him? The man who scored "the Germans" only goal against England in their humiliating 5-1 defeat? The man who used to terrify defences all over Europe with his aerial ability? Well, he's now at SV Mattersburg who finished 5th in the Austrian Bundesliga this season. The Champions League winner (really!) has scored a decent 14 goals for the club this term and seems to have got his career back on track after a poor spell in China. Despite Mattersburg being a town of only 6300 people they had one of the highest average attendances in the Bundesliga.

Carsten Jancker

Franchise football is unsurprisingly present in Austrian football. SK Austria Kamten were only a couple of years ago known as ASKO Pasching (a club who once beat Werder Bremen in Europe) - they were the club who were called FC Superfund for a while as sponsorship in Austria ran amock amongst their football clubs. They finished second bottom of the Bundesliga this season, saving themselves from relegation as only one club is demoted each season.

One of the more famous names in Austrian football are Sturm Graz. They made the quarter finals of the UEFA Cup in the early 80s, beaten by Nottingham Forest by a dubious penalty (or at least that's what the wikipedia page says - I suspect it was written by a still angry Sturm fan!). Their European exploits didn't end there however. In the 99/00 season they won their group in the Champions League above European giants Galatasaray, Rangers and Monaco. Times have been a bit harder on the Graz club recently. Financial problems have blighted the club and they've been unable to repeat their European successes.

FC Red Bull Salzburg are probably the most controversial side in the division. On April 6, 2005 Red Bull purchased the club and rebranded it under their Red Bull name. Not only did they change the name of the club they also changed the club colours from violet (there is no violet on the kit at all now) and stated "this is a new club with no history". It's a pretty brutal way to run a football club. Fans of the club obviously weren't happy so set up their own club as SV Austria Salzburg (Red Bull Salzburg's old name) and joined the seventh tier of the Austrian pyramid and began playing at the start of the 2006/2007 season. They won the championship in their first and second seasons as a football club and are now only four promotions away from playing the Red Bull horrors (who incidentally were Austrian champions in the same season). Their official website is very violet and has a basic English version. Definitely worth a look, though the club shop is only in German at the moment.

SV Austria Salzburg fans decked out in violet

LASK Linz are a breath of fresh air in a smog of commercialism in Austrian football. They have never allowed a sponsor to sully their club name in their entire history. LASK Linz were the first club outside of Vienna to win the Austrian title (1965 - they won the cup in the same year) but have never got near to repeating this feat.

The two Vienna clubs dominate the footballing landscape in Austria. 'Rapid' and 'Austria' have won the Austrian title on a remarkable 55 occasions. Austria Vienna play in lovely violet and white and have won the Austrian championship 23 times and the cup 26 times. Their best modern European performance (Austria Vienna won the Mitropa Cup twice in the 30s) saw them lose 4-0 to Anderlecht in the Cup Winners Cup Final in 1978.

Rapid Vienna (who sport a green and white strip) have never won a European trophy, but have made two Cup Winners Cup finals. Once against Everton in 1985 and once against Paris St Germain in 1996, a youthful Carsten Jancker (now at SV Mattersburg as described earlier) played in Rapid's 1-0 loss. Despite these European "failures" the club has an impressive list of honours that include a German championship and cup victory! They are the current Austrian champions having won the title by six points from Red Bull Salzburg.

Overall I find the league quite depressing. Massive commercialism (some of the players look like Formula One drivers with sponsor logos stuck on every part of the body) and many clubs moving from city to city.

Division Four Relegation: Mansfield Town

Long gone are the days where a club would finish bottom of the league and be automatically "re-elected" or would stay up due to the club winning the Conference not meeting certain "regulations" with regards to their stadium. If you finish in the bottom two than you will be relegated.

There is still a huge stigma associated with exiting the Football League. This is despite clubs such as Doncaster Rovers, Carlisle United and Hereford United being relegated to the Conference and rebounding with style. Also, it is worth noting that the Conference currently looks a lot like a Division Four from the 1970s. Aldershot Town, Cambridge United, Torquay, Exeter City, York City and Halifax Town. It also contains clubs such as Kidderminster Harriers and Rushden & Diamonds, both of whom have been in the football league very recently.

Mansfield Town entered the Football League in 1931. So next year will be their first out of the league in 77 years. The club were formed in the 19th Century as Mansfield Wesleyans; taking their name from a local church.

It was in 1910 that the club began using their current name, Mansfield Town. The change angered another local club Mansfield Mechanics - who quickly disappeared into obscurity. Nine years later the club adopted its current colours, wearing a yellow and blue halved kit.

Much of the blame for Mansfield Town's current plight is, not unreasonably, laid at the door of owner Keith Haslam. How a club such as Mansfield who have decent enough attendances, have had some very good moneyspinning cup ties in recent years: Live on BBC1 vs Middlesbrough in the cup earlier this season and an away tie at Newcastle a couple of years ago. This should have left the club with enough money to finish above the paupers of the division such as Accrington Stanley and Dagenham & Redbridge.

Mansfield Town ended their long stay in the Football League on Saturday with a two-nil loss at Dagenham & Redbridge. It will be a long journey back, one hopefully that their fans will try and enjoy, a chance to win a few games and win some silverwear. You get the impression that they will first have to get rid of a certain Mr Haslam before the club can progress..