For those of you who haven’t experienced the British culture of newspapers (after all, there are still 11 major national daily newspapers), Saturday is one of the best days of the week for feature length football stories in the papers. The Guardian, especially, does a fantastic job and, if I remember correctly, it’s the day of the week when they have a special pull-out section that’s focused just on football. Sunday is sometimes better, too. I still remember devouring the Sunday morning newspaper from ages 8 to 14 (News of the World in my household; I read whatever my Dad picked up that morning). It was definitely a weekly ritual for me to pick up the paper and memorize the league tables in the late 70s and early 80s. So, here are a few intriguing stories from the British press today including an article from a computer video game site about FIFA 08. 
  • Violent Past Comes Back to Haunt English Football Fans” (The Times). Interesting story from The Times about the reaction by UEFA and the Italian and Spanish authorities about what happened in Italy and Spain, and how the attacks are more worrying than in the 80s because many of them may, apparently, be premeditated and planned rather than spontaneous.
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  • Four Sides Who Said They Were Too Good To Go Down” (The Guardian). Four ex-professional players account their stories about how their teams were too good to go down from the top flight league in England, but did just that instead. The four players/teams are Barry Horne (Sheffield Wednesday), Eddie Gray (Leeds United), Neil Cox (Middlesbrough) and Nigel Winterburn (West Ham United).
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  • Platt Diagnosis of England’s Ills a Real Cause for Alarm” (The Telegraph). Henry Winter writes about former England international David Platt and his report on how England’s national team future is doomed unless it adopts some of the lessons learned by football in Italy.
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  • FIFA 08” (ComputerAndVideoGames.com). The executive producer of football games at EA gives some hints and insight into what to expect in FIFA 08 including a lot more online integration and synergy. Sounds intriguing.
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  • Warnock Gears Up for Last-Day Survival Decider” (The Guardian). Trust Sheffield United manager Neil Warnock to be opinionated. He believes the relegation dogfight will go all the way until the final day of the season when the Blades play Aston Villa. I believe he will be correct.