GLASGOW Rangers, Sporting Lisbon, AC Milan and Atlético Madrid are all top of their respective leagues in 2021, challenging the clubs that have swept aside their rivals for the best part of a decade. These are all big football institutions with rich histories, but they have found themselves in the shadows of clubs that have […]
IN an age of anodyne post-match interviews and black-suited corporate football managers, there would probably be no place for the likes of Tommy Docherty. His bluntness, humour and market-trading improvisation would be totally at odds with the modern game. The “Doc”, as he was fondly known, has died, aged 92, and with him goes one […]
IT HAS been an awful long time since Edinburgh has been able to fly the flag of champions, the Scottish capital has long lived in the shadow of Glasgow and even when the “old firm” took a temporary backseat to Aberdeen and Dundee United, Hearts and Hibs couldn’t quite climb the podium. The last time […]
IT HAS been a long time coming, but Scotland has a truly competitive Premiership title race in 2020. After Rangers’ 2-1 win against Celtic at Parkhead at the end of the year, the reigning champions have a fight on their hands. Celtic fans won’t be feeling too comfortable, but the rest of Scotland will probably […]
ABERDEEN may be Scotland’s third club at the moment but their financial figures for 2018-19 highlight the chasm between the Dons and the Old Firm, Celtic and Rangers. Derek McInnes’ team plays host to Rangers this week with nine points separating the Gers from Aberdeen. This is only one aspect of the difference between the […]
THE mid-1960s through to the 1970s was Celtic’s time in Scotland, Jock Stein’s side winning almost everything on offer. Before the tide turned in Glasgow, Rangers completed a memorable treble in 1963-64. Ibrox Park regulars would have found it hard to believe if anyone had told them, in 1964, that the Gers would not be […]
IRONICALLY, two of England’s most documented and discussed games happen to be defeats – Hungary’s win in 1953 and two and a half decades earlier, England 1 Scotland 5. The Scots have never forgotten how they humbled their fierce rivals at Wembley in 1928 and the defeat stands alongside other defining moments in history when the […]
THE DAYS when Scotland had a star-studded line-up are long gone and a succession of managers have tried – in vain – to bring success back to the Tartan Army. Scotland, after a period in which they were regular participants in the World Cup, having had a summer tournament to look forward to since 1998 […]
FOOTBALL’s principal emerging nations, the US and China, have almost arrived, with the top divisions of their leagues in the top 10 in terms of spectator interest. According to CIES Football Observatory’s latest report, China and the US are sixth and eighth respectively over the past five years by average crowds. The German Bundesliga has […]
