May 2003 News

This is the latest news of all the players who appeared in the 1970-71

FKS Publishers Ltd Wonderful World of Soccer Stars Album

31 May 2003

Kember In Charge At Last !

Steve Kember (Crystal Palace) has been made manager of the club he first signed professional forms for as a 17 year old after a 2 year apprenticeship back in December 1965.

When Steve was appointed on 23 May 2003, he was already acting as the caretaker manager of the club - for the fourth time !- so Palace's most loyal member has at last received his just rewards.

Steve played for Crystal Palce from 1965 to 1971 playing 218 League games, and was part of the first ever top Division side Palace ever had, when they were promoted from the old Division Two in the 1968-69 season.

Steve moved on to Chelsea in September 1971 then Leicester City in July 1975, before returning to Palace in October 1978. He played two final seasons of English League football with Palace, playing another 42 League games for the club. During this spell in the 1978-79 season, he helped them win the (old) Division Two Championship for the first time.

He moved to the Canadian NASL club Vancouver Whitecaps, where he played his last professional footabll and returned to Crystal Palace a for a third spell as Youth coach in 1981. The manager was Dario Garadi, and when he left in 1981, he took over as caretaker until the arrival of Alan Mullery in 1982.

Steve left when Mullery joined, but returned to Palace for a fourth time in 1993 as assistant manager to Alan Smith. The club won the (present) Division One Championship in 1993-94, which means Steve has been involved in both of the club's second flight Championships.

Steve has been acting as assistant manager since this time, but moved up into the caretaker role for a second time in 2001, when Alan Smith left - helping the club avoid Division One relegation. He became the caretaker a third time, jointly with Terry Bullivant, whilst the legal ranglings over the job swap between Trevor Francis and Steve Bruce were sorted out late in 2001.

His fourth and final (???) spell as caretaker manager, again with Terry Bullivant, was after Trevor Francis was sacked (see below). So after one of the longest apprenticeships known to mankind, Steve has been trusted with the full management position ! Well done Steve, make it your own.

See LeagueManagers.com Managers Profiles
BBC SPORT Football My Club Crystal Palace Palace appoint Kember

18 May 2003

FA Cup Final - Commentators Update

The wonders of Interactive television came to the fore with BBC i's coverage of the FA Cup Final at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff, yesterday. Pressing the red button on the remote for BBC One's digital channel opened up the possibility of listening to the fabulously biased coverage of local stations to Arsenal or Southampton, instead of the tediously neutral commentry from the regular service.

The BBC One team of John Motson and Trevor Brooking has to bear in mind that the audience can be fans of either side, but the BBCi service allowed one to change commentary to Radio Solent for Southampton fans or Radio London for Arsenal fans.

Like all neutrals I natrually wanted Southampton to win, and initially chose to listen to Radio Solent's coverage. It hooked me straight away when I found that the summarisers were Bob 70-71 Stars, Alan Ball - a player for both teams, of course- and geordie Dave Merrington (Burnley) - a former Southampton coach.

The score finished 1-0 to Arsenal, and whilst flicking through the commentaries, I was lucky enough to catch the game's only goal whilst listening to Radio London. The smugness was horrible, so I moved swiftly on.

And I can tell the Arsenal fans that their kind applause of the Southampton goalie, Antti Niemi, when he was stretchered off was noticed and enjoyed by the Southampton commentary team ... 'that's what football's all about', as they said (several times).

After the match Radio Five Live then had Lou Macari (Celtic) answering questions.

On the subject of the FA Cup, one final point. The FA Cup trophy and medals for those involved were handed out by fellow Bob and senior Bob 70-71 citizen, Sir Bobby Robson.

Leeds United Part with Eddie Gray and Brian Kidd

After a season best forgotten, Leeds United have confirmed that Peter Reid is to become the new permanent manager. Peter took over from Bob 70-71 Star, Terry Venables (QPR) towards the end of the campaign, and secured the side's Premiership status for next season, finally finishing 15th in the League.

Though it technically went to the last day of the season, a superb and unexpected 3-2 away victory at Arsenal effectively made survival certain.

Once in post, it was obvious that Peter was going to want his own coaching team in place, which meant the writing was on the wall for Assistant Manager, Eddie Gray, and First Team Coach, Brian Kidd (Man U). Hence, the Bob 70-71-rich management team at Leeds United has been wiped out in a couple of months !

Eddie has associations with Leeds United going back to his days as a junior at the club exactly forty years ago in May 1963 at the age of 15. He played his entire career at the club and ultimately became the manager for 3 years from 1982-1985.

He was replaced by Billy Bremner in 1985, but brought back by the next Leeds manager, Howard Wilkinson on the request of Paul Hart (Stockport County) to help with the youth team in 1995. Since this time he has worked in various coaching positions at the club over the past 8 years, and even took over the manager's role one Saturday last season when Terry was unwell !

Brian has been at Leeds United since May 2000, and like Eddie, was also brought in to look after the Youth team initially. He rose up to the role of First Team Coach under David O'Leary, in a move which was viewed by Leeds fans as pushing the ever-faithful Eddie Gray to one side. Consequently when results started to go wrong, Brian - with his famous Man U connections - was cruelly and wrongly singled out for harassment by the crowd.

Brian continues his role as one of the England national team coaching staff.

According to reports Eddie and Brian were given a year's notice, but other suitable places within the club were not forthcoming so they left with their contracts paid up. According to some reports this would save the club a million pounds in future wage bills, a much needed saving for a club with a reported 77 million pound debt.

See BBC SPORT Football My Club Leeds United Leeds axe Gray and Kidd

McFarland Returns.

Roy McFarland (Derby County) has returned to football management as manager of Chesterfield from Division Two. This season Chesterfield finished in 20th place, the lowest position without relegation. Roy was last in a managers role for Torquay United, an

6 May 2003

George Best, Eddie Firmani For Hall of Fame ?

Received this email today advertising the announcements for the United States Hall of Fame. George Best is one of the players up for the vote, and one of the builders is Eddie Firmani (Crystal Palace). The accurate complete list of Bob 70-71 Players is hard to compile, though I do instantly see Carlos Alberto (Santos), Cubillas (Star Players of Mexico 1970), Johan Neeskens (Ajax), as well. ...

What: Hall of Fame Inductee Announcement
When: May 8, 2003
Where: Internationally

The unprecedented Hall of Fame induction of eight former North American Soccer League stars and eight builders of the NASL will be announced at halftime of the USA vs Mexico match from Houston, Texas, on Thursday night May 8th on ESPN2. Live coverage begins at 7:55pm and the announcement will be made during the match.

A press release will simultaneously be emailed to the Hall of Fame Media List. To ensure you are listed or to be added contact Hall of Fame Museum Director Jack Huckel at jack@soccerhall.org.

Early last year the National Soccer Hall of Fame board of directors elected to take an unprecedented step and open the doors for a one-time special induction of a group of NASL stars and builders. "We felt the old process had failed them," said Hall of Fame President Will Lunn. "The NASL was widely overlooked by virtue of our old selection process and we realized that with the coming of age of the sport and the eligibility of great players of the MLS, USA and soon WUSA, that 2003 was the last chance to catch up and do justice to a league that was critically important to the development of soccer in the United States."

The Hall of Fame dedicated 2003 in celebration of the North American Soccer League, its impact and history. All inductees will be from the NASL. The following twenty-seven players made the final ballot:

Carlos Alberto (Brazil/ Santos) – New York Cosmos, California Surf

George Best (Northern Ireland) – Los Angeles Aztecs, Fort Lauderdale Strikers, San Jose Earthquakes

John Best (England) – Cleveland Stokers, Dallas Tornado, Seattle Sounders, Vancouver Whitecaps

Hubert Birkenmeier (Germany/USA) – New York Cosmos

Roberto Cabañas (Paraguay) – New York Cosmos

Paul Child (England/USA) – Atlanta Chiefs, San Jose Earthquakes, Memphis Rogues

Mike Connell (South Africa/USA) – Tampa Bay Rowdies

Ken Cooper (England/USA) – Dallas Tornado

Teofilo 'Nene' Cubillas (Peru/USA) – Fort Lauderdale Strikers

Steve David (Trinidad and Tobago/USA) – Miami Gatos, Los Angeles Aztecs, Detroit Express, California Surf, San Diego Sockers, San Jose Earthquakes

Andranik 'Esky' Eskandarian (Iran/USA) – New York Cosmos

Ron Futcher (England) – Minnesota Kicks, Portland Timbers, Tulsa Roughnecks

Karl-Heinz Granitza (Germany) – Chicago Sting

Ray Hudson (England/USA) – Fort Lauderdale Strikers, Minnesota Strikers

Bob Iarusci (Canada) – Toronto Metros, New York Cosmos, Washington Diplomats, San Diego Sockers

Bob Lenarduzzi (Canada) – Vancouver Whitecaps

Arnie Mausser (USA) – Hartford Bicentennials, Tampa Bay Rowdies, Vancouver Whitecaps, Colorado Caribou, Fort Lauderdale Strikers, New England Tea Men, Jacksonville Tea Men, Team America (Washington, DC)

Carlos Metidieri (Brazil/USA) – Los Angeles Wolves, Rochester Lancers, Boston Minutemen

Ilija Mitic (Yugoslavia/USA) – Oakland Clippers, Dallas Tornado, San Jose Earthquakes

Johan Neeskens (Netherlands / Ajax) – New York Cosmos

Patrick 'Ace' Ntsoelengoe (South Africa) – Miami Toros, Denver Dynamo, Minnesota Strikers, Toronto Blizzard

Bobby Rigby (USA) – Philadelphia Atoms, New York Cosmos, Los Angeles Aztecs, Philadelphia Fury, Montreal Manic, Golden Bay Earthquakes

Kyle Rote, Jr. (USA) – Dallas Tornado, Houston Hurricane,

Bobby Smith (USA) – Philadelphia Atoms, New York Cosmos, San Diego Sockers, Philadelphia Fury, Montreal Manic

Al Trost (USA) – St. Louis Stars, California Surf, Seattle Sounders

Alan Willey (England/USA) – Minnesota Kicks, Montreal Manic, Minnesota Strikers

Bruce Wilson (Canada) – Vancouver Whitecaps, Chicago Sting, New York Cosmos, Toronto Blizzard

Builders on the final ballot are:

Ahmet Ertegun, Neshui Ertegun, and Steve Ross – New York Cosmos ownership group
Eddie Firmani (Crystal Palace)- Tampa Bay, New York, Montreal Coach
Ted Howard - League Executive
Elizabeth and Joe Robbie - Miami, Fort Lauderdale/Minnesota Owners
Lee Stern - Chicago Sting Owner
George Strawbridge - Tampa Bay Owner
Clive Toye – General Manager/President Baltimore, Cosmos, Chicago Sting, League Executive

The Hall of Fame is coordinating the release with US Soccer, MLS, local clubs, and media outlets. Inductee biographies will be provided with the announcement. Photographs of the inductees will be available on the Hall of Fame's web page and instructions for free access and download will be available in the release on May 8th.

For further information please contact Jack Huckel, at 607-432-3351, ext. 209, orjack@soccerhall.org.

Jack Huckel
Director of Museum Services

Induction 2002 and the WUSA Hall of Fame Game
October 14 - Check all the events out on our web site
www.soccerhall.org

National Soccer Hall of Fame
18 Stadium Circle
Oneonta, NY 13820

607/432-3351 x209
www.soccerhall.org

5 May 2003

Oh Gould !

Bad news for Bobby Gould (Wolverhampton Town)'s Cheltenham Town, who have been relegated for the first time since 1991-92, and for the first time ever as a full League club. The club are only in their fourth season as a League club, and last season they were promoted to Division Two from the play-offs having finished fourth.

Their first ever season in Division Two was always going to be tricky, and when Bobby took over in January this year, they were one off bottom. The best Bobby could do was to keep them in the fight till the last game of the season.

Relegation finally came on 3 May 2003 when Cheltenham lost 1-0 away to Notts County.The side finished 21st, the highest relegation position, and a win on the last day would have been enough to survive.

See BBC SPORT Football English Div 2 Cheltenham relegated

Kember Back In Charge !

On 18 April 2003, Trevor Francis left Crystal Palace, due to the club performing below expectation. At the time Palace were 11th in Division One, and they finished the season 14th. This meant that once again Steve Kember (Crystal Palace) was in charge of the club at the end of a season. In 2000-200, he was a hero for rescuing the club from what looked certain relegation. This time he has shared the caretaker role with Terry Bullivant, and once again he is not expected to get the full role.

McFaul Interview

Willie McFaul (Newcastle United) is now manager of the national side of Gaum. Here's an interesting interview from the Evening Standard in 2001, and can now be found at Willie McFaul Interview

His team had just gone 18-0 down and he thought it couldn't get any worse. Then, an Iranian striker rushed into the goal, grabbed the ball and started sprinting back towards the halfway line, eager to keep the massacre going. Willie McFaul took a deep breath, raging impotently at professionals taking the pee out of his boys who had suffered enough indignities already.

He had always known - from the day he turned up for his first training session as the national coach of Guam and only seven players strolled out to greet him - that this job was going to be, er, a bit different. But two years later, as he presided helplessly over the biggest defeat in World Cup history - 19-0, it ended - he realised how painful it could be too.

"Well, the whole experience wasn't too pleasant," recalls McFaul, a master of understatement, on his paradise isle. "Forty-eight hours and three stopovers to travel from the island to Iran, arrived at 8pm one night and played at 2.30pm the next day. I'd got a lot of young kids, some of whom had never even been off the island before. They'd certainly never seen the snow which you could see on the mountain peaks.

"In Guam, they're used to a tropical climate which doesn't get much below 80 all year round. In Tabriz, it was wet and freezing. I warned them about wearing gloves and long-sleeved undershirts but the only realistic aim was to keep the score below 20 against a team with so many top European-based pros." They succeeded and two days later they triumphed again. Only 16-0 this time, to mighty Tajikistan.

So it was that a hardened football man who thought he'd done everything in a career which had seen him keep goal for Northern Ireland and Newcastle, get beaten by Ronnie Radford's historic pearler for Hereford in 1972 and help develop Paul Gascoigne's gift in three years as manager at St James' Park, found himself overseeing the least successful team in World Cup history.

Back home, he could have been using his coaching expertise with the Irish FA or managing a useful youth side like Antrim's Cullybackey Blues as he had been before he was offered a FIFA-backed coaching job in Guam and was left spluttering "Where?". Life in Coleraine had to be more simple than running a south Pacific team which, under his two-year stewardship, has played five, lost five, scored none and conceded 67 - that's two 19-nils, one 16-0, one 11-0 and a 2-0.

Yet regrets? Too few to mention, reckons a 57-year-old, too battle-scarred in this game to worry how the stark figures might be interpreted 10,000 miles away. "Well, I'm sure people will look at our results and make their own judgments about how bad we must be and, sure, the locals here would probably like to see their team do better but, with all respect, people don't appreciate just how difficult the job is," he says.

In Guam, they are at least understanding. Nobody criticises McFaul; indeed, he'd only been in the seat three months when he was offered and accepted a three-year extension to his contract to run through to 2003. "So I must have been doing something right," he smiles. Even after the Tajikistan mauling late last year, the Guam FA offered unstinting support. Our Sven should be so lucky.

Anyway, how would Eriksson cope in a world where your national squad selection comes effectively from only three leading amateur clubs, where you have a star player one week who disappears to college in the US the next, where the islanders' shyness once made it difficult to persuade them even to turn out for training after work and where the game is ignored alongside basketball and baseball at the island's US air force and naval bases?

Howard Wilkinson marvelled: "How do you put up with it?" he enquired after hearing how McFaul's first game had ended Guam (population 150,000) nil, People's Republic of China (pop,1.2 billion) 19. Willie just responded: "When you commit yourself to something, you give it everything and don't walk away." Results weren't everything. The pleasure was in putting a development programme in place, preaching the footballing gospel at village schools and coaching new coaches. "There's real satisfaction working with the young people here," he says.

And, yes, being able to spend your days with wife Eileen in a neat apartment block which boasts a pool and views of the ocean from his front door has its attractions too, he smiles. The food is to die for and the equatorial weather so accommodating that, after catching the Champions' League on telly at 4.30am, he can nip off to play golf on some of the island's posh courses before it gets too warm.

"Lovely people, lovely island," he says, and you're tempted to think it sounds the perfect job - er, if it weren't for the football. FIFA rank Guam 199th of their 203 nations so somewhere out there, there are apparently four worse international teams. McFaul says, actually, they beat an island called Yap but I couldn't find it in my atlas.

Being an isolated speck in the ocean, there's no chance of regular international competition or of playing sides of similar fledgling stature in a development competition. Instead, McFaul got lumbered with a one-off "ridiculous" World Cup qualifying tournament where his only prayer was that his players wouldn't end up so deflated that they might just pack up.

Sometimes, the beatings do get to him a bit. After the Tajikistan game, he reckoned he was a bit hard on the lads, angry that they'd gifted their opponents five of the 16 goals - as if they needed any help. Then, after flying straight back to London for a winter break with his son's family, he was relieved to hear from his assistant back on the island that, don't worry, they were all back in training.

Then it dawned again that what keeps him going is that they keep going. His nine-to-five crew of enthusiastic students, bankers, teachers and insurance agents take fearful hidings but "never get the stuffing knocked out of them". Like those Asian Cup qualifiers where they lost 19-0 and 11-0 but then came back and lost only 2-0 to the Philippines - "and it was scoreless after 75 minutes," says McFaul with undisguised pride.

"What kept me going over the winter was knowing I'd made a promise to the Under-16 kids that I'd take their training when I got back," he reflects. "I wouldn't be a happy person if I didn't keep my word. I can't see myself not seeing out this job."

Now he's back and such perseverance from manager and team must get its reward. "They need a tournament with opposition where they might get a draw, or even a win," says McFaul.

The East Asian Games are coming up, so you never know. Some enchanted evening in the south Pacific ...

Further May 2003 news can be found at ...

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Bob Dunning

18 May 2003

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