Maziar Kouhyar was the first Afghanistan-born player to play professionally in England but was struggling to find a clubDropping into non-league might not sound like an attractive option for some footballers, but it can offer an obvious advantage: exposure. If clubs are willing to be honest, open and give everybody an opportunity then careers can be rebuilt and all parties will benefit.One of my squad at Hereford FC, Maziar Kouhyar, is an example that I hold particularly close. I am very proud of him: he was the first Afghanistan-born player to appear in professional football in this country, but fell out of the game after leaving Walsall. He worked at KFC for a while and was employed as a car...
Manager heads for hero’s welcome at former club Barnsley with his new team third after implementing the same direct styleAside from Liverpool, West Bromwich Albion are the only team in the top four tiers with an unbeaten league record at home this season. They also have the best defensive record in the Championship and are third in the table, five points off the summit, but not all supporters are feeling the festive cheer there. On Friday, Valérien Ismaël will return to Barnsley – whose fans developed an unconditional love for him during a remarkable run to the play-offs – for the first time as an opposition manager and knows his popularity at Oakwell could plummet if he picks up three...
Swift tumble from League One play-offs to foot of League Two leaves eighth manager in three years trying to turn fortunesNo team have conceded more League Two goals than Scunthorpe this season and their worrying slide to the bottom of the Football League has been punctuated by some PR own goals too. They have banned the local paper, the Scunthorpe Telegraph, over its refusal to pay for access and in April the transfer of the stadium to another company owned by the chairman, Peter Swann, caused alarm among a disillusioned fan base, amid dwindling crowds. Then there are the accusations of nepotism, with Swann’s son Will tasked with leading player recruitment.Swann responded promptly to questions from the Guardian, explaining each...
The contents mulls over the same glaring issues and structural dysfunctions as previous reports with one huge differenceFor the many lovers of football who have long campaigned for reforms to the game’s modern mega-commercialisation, the contents of Tracey Crouch’s “fan-led review” are so familiar it manages to be simultaneously agonising and strangely reassuring. It mulls over the same glaring issues and structural dysfunctions as all the previous earnest reports that have piled up since the Football League’s First Division clubs broke away to form the Premier League 29 years ago, and reaches essentially the same conclusions.But there is a huge difference this time, making it a genuine landmark. The review shows politicians have had enough of being fobbed off, and...
There are still no guarantees of success but the creation of an independent regulator could finally hold clubs to accountIt is a mark of the instability of our times that the game of association football in England may have a chance of changing for the better.That there is still no guarantee should go without saying. The fan-led review of football governance is hardly the first attempt by politicians to correct the course of the national sport. Whether all 47 recommendations complete the long journey into implementation is even more uncertain. But the fact that no one is writing it off on publication day makes for a pleasant change. Continue reading...