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Football Away Days: Cheltenham Town & Whaddon Road
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Written by Darren Douglas
Before the end of the 2018/19 football season, our Ed. managed to fit in another 'football away day' trip, where he coerces a group of friends to visit a ground that he'd not previously visited, to watch a team that none of us are emotionally invested in! The focus this time was Cheltenham Town, the date April 6th, and the opposition were the promotion-chasing Exeter City. This is how our day at Whaddon Road went.
With the first international break of the new season, the perfect time has come to look at a fallen titan- indeed, one to which I feel a sort of personal connection in that its countrymen & women helped me learn to take my first steps (I should mention that I have cerebral palsy).
In a roundabout manner, Hungary led to football played for both disabled & relatively able teams from my college days to the office kickabout, owing to the great work of the specialists at Budapest's Peto Institute. While I have not yet been able to experience a game in Hungary, if the chance came up I would not hesitate to take it in- the terraces then obviously not the best place for a boy of only two or three years old! Though looking forward now as a man of 32, there are encouraging signs of a mini-resurgence...
In an age in which footballers are often accused of not really trying, where the overpaid prima donna rolls around as if they've been shot ignorant of the fact that at heart the game played with the round ball is as much a contact sport as its oval cousin, a recent trip to the Imperial War Museum sparked curiosity regarding those times when players really could have taken the ultimate one for the team.
Anticipation for the Premier League title race remains as high as ever ahead of the 2019-20 season – can Liverpool overhaul Manchester City? Will Frank Lampard re-ignite Chelsea’s challenge; is Ole Gunnar Solskjær the man to make Manchester United contenders again? Will Pochettino take Tottenham to the next level; are Arsenal ready to return to the Champions League?
It has been a little over 3 years since Gianni Infantino became the 9th president of FIFA, on February 26th 2016. At the time there was a general air of hope and relief about his appointment, not so much because of his own campaign to become the leader of world football, but more because his predecessor, Sepp Blatter, had become such a toxic and disparaged figure.
As a result, Infantino was blessed with a relatively long honeymoon period, whilst most of those invested in football were simply thankful that Blatter was no more. Back to the present and Infantino is due to win a 2nd term as president when the 69th FIFA congress convenes on June 5th, in Paris. Not because he's done a great job, but because there will be no candidates to oppose him. Is this welcome? I'm unconvinced, Infantino may not be corrupt (as it stands) but here's why some of his key decisions are a threat to football...