With less than a week before England open their World Cup campaign against Iran at the Khalifa International Stadium in Qatar, might there be cause for some degree of cautious optimism in Tehran (England's recent dodgy run of form notwithstanding), subject to the outcome of proceedings to have their boys given their marching orders?
As I hand my ticket over to the steward for inspection, I try not to say too much. I try to say nothing, actually. I don’t have a strong Welsh accent, a product of years living in Asia, teaching English to children, flattening any trace of singsong inflection from my speech. (But this is a thing reported on in contrasting ways; English people think I sound Welsh, Welsh people think I sound English. I don’t think I sound quite like either.)
Time for the latest in our series of football away days, and on this occasion the new experience involved a short trip to South Wales and some League Two football at Rodney Parade. The game we chose was a clash with the, at the time, bottom of the table Rochdale AFC, whilst Newport County were hovering around the lower mid-table region. With a lot riding on the game, our own stakes were raised when the date of the fixture ended up clashing with another RMT strike across the train networks (solidarity brothers!), but thankfully we suffered little inconvenience when grabbing a coach instead.
As the stirrings of a new academic year continue to evolve, the time is surely right to look back at a university challenge of a different nature- balancing the twin demands of studies towards degrees and lower-tier professional football! Such was the task facing Team Bath, affiliated to the city's university since its formation in 1999 and enjoying a relatively quick rise up the pyramid before disbanding in 2009.
The 2022/23 Serie A season has a new kid on the block in the guise of A.C. Monza. The club has spent most of the 21st Century in a state of financial woe, twice being declared bankrupt (in 2004 and 2015) and languishing between the third and fourth tiers of Italian football, but now they are gracing the top flight for the first time in their history.