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Blackpool’s demise makes a mockery of football’s fit and proper persons test | David Conn

The Oystons’ stewardship of the club has left so much to be desired and the idea the Football League is powerless because of an outdated rule must be addressedAfter the devastating, 163-page ruling of a high court judge that Owen Oyston and his son Karl, the owners of Blackpool football club, “illegitimately stripped” the club of £26.77m and operated “with great prejudice” to it, where to start with the implications? Perhaps, for a moment, by putting to one side the damning assessments themselves – that “the Oyston side enriched itself, prejudiced Blackpool FC and behaved in a discriminatory manner towards the other members of the club” – and the grave question of what happens next to Blackpool now the Oystons...

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Goals are on the rise, but does this mean defending has become unfashionable? | Jonathan Wilson

If the average is maintained it will be the highest-scoring season in 20-team Premier League history, but as usual there is far from a single, simple explanationManchester City have kept two clean sheets all season. Liverpool have kept three. Both sides may have come out of last weekend lamenting defeats that have allowed Chelsea to open a small gap at the top of the table but it could be argued that with defences like they have it is remarkable they are as high up as they are. But this, perhaps, is the modern way: defending in the old-fashioned sense has become unfashionable.“There is no modern generation,” José Mourinho growled in the summer of 2015 after winning the Premier League with...

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Brackley back from the brink and aiming for another FA Cup shock | Paul Doyle

Last season Brackley escaped relegation from the Conference North on the final day of the season – now, if they can beat Blackpool, they will be in the FA Cup third roundAs they prepared for Saturday’s FA Cup second round tie at Blackpool, the players and staff of Brackley Town held a quiz in their hotel , just as they had done before their match at Gillingham in the previous round. Here is a question that was not asked on either occasion: which club had to wait until the final minute of last season to avoid relegation from the sixth tier of English football but are now on the verge of joining the elite in the third round of the...

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