WSC No 288, February 2011

A bleak mid-winter at Home Park

Contents

Derby day in Devon, Exeter fans are high on schadenfreude, while the home supporters are discovering that hubris is a cold mistress Match of the month Plymouth v Exeter p26

4 Editorial How big names boost football brands 6 News watch England’s press aims at FIFA and the BBC 8 Sidelines Ian Wright goes to prison; Leyton Orient feel the squeeze; Milan Mandaric on the move; several clubs in crisis 12 Shot! Tranmere start 2011 at Rochdale 14 Reality in Russia What the 2018 World Cup will actually mean for football and society in the country 15 Sorry scenes at Soho Square The new FA chairman has plenty to do 16 Qatar plans it perfectly How the emirate’s academies helped to secure hosting rights 18 West Ham’s wobbles Fearing a League Cup hoodoo 19 FA Cup play-offs When third place was a possibility 20 Germany’s football radicals A left-wing movement gathers pace 22 Zesh Rehman Defender or marketing tool?

Hammer horror p18

SIMON GILL

24 Shot! Archive Brighton lose the Goldstone Ground but fan solidarity is born 26 Match of the month Plymouth fans are reassured by a derby win 30 Football in literature How the game succeeds as an escape from the realities of life 32 Novel appeal Returning to a 1970s childhood, plus Brian

Glanville’s stories for an older audience 34 Euro view Barça and Real dominate; Norway’s Roar of approval; a gambling instinct in Serie B 37 Brazil’s champions Fluminense fret for the future 39 Strange case of... Kazuyoshi Miura, still going strong at 43 40 Reviews Tommy Lawton’s rebellion; Henry v Ireland;

football’s “minging life”; redemption for Cyrille Regis 42 Letters Dear WSC, I know I shouldn’t but... 46 Season in brief

Scottish Premier League 1985-86