Belgium! The little country that could has taken the lead in the Fair Play contest, overhauling Sweden in the spring matches. At the moment, eleven countries will vie for the other two spots in the UEFA Cup July Special First Qualifying Round; this may change over the coming weeks.
For the third year in a row, it looks like relegation from Division V (the Conference) to the Divisions VI will be decided by off-the-field matters. In 2004, a combination of poor grounds, resignation, and liquidation meant that no teams were relegated in the normal manner; last year, another ground problem reprieved Forest Green.
This year, with just two teams going down, we had a fascinating five-team race, involving Scarborough, Tamworth, Southport, Forest Green, and Altrincham. After Scarborough's thumping 7:2 defeat at the hands of Grays on Wednesday, it looked as though hell would freeze over before Altrincham went down.
On Thursday, news broke that Cerberus had been piddling in the snow again. And that Altrincham would, indeed, be heading down. The reason? Their mid-winter transferee, James Robinson, had not received international clearance before he was fielded. During the games he played, Altrincham scored 18 points; those have now been removed from the club's record, moving the club down from 5 clear of the relegation zone to 12 adrift of safety.
But there's still a possible cop-out clause. Scarborough, reprieved from the two relegation spots by Thursday's fiat, have been in financial administration since 2004. If they are not out of administration very soon, they will be automatically relegated. And following the withdrawal of their chairman's funding Canvey Island look set to resign from the Conference, probably to rejoin at or around Division VII (SE). And with Tamworth just one point ahead of Forest Green, but finishing with two teams bound for the play-offs, Mystic Mug reckons that there will be a fair few pence floating around in August.
In other news, Manchester United has (not surprisingly) won its league at Division X by a country mile. The team is playing at Gigg Lane in Bury, and has opened talks about buying the ground from the cash-strapped Division III side and leasing it back to them.
Slightly higher up the table, Birmingham relieved their relegation pressures by winning 2:1 against Blackburn. Equal opportunity defeats for the Lancashire Bs there. Brighton, Millwall, and Crewe were all relegated from Division II, meaning that league is all over with two matches to go.
Results from the European matches this week.
European Cup, Halbenfinal, Hindmatch
Arsenal - Villarreal 1:0
AC Milan - Barcelona 0:1
UEFA Cup, Halbenfinal, Hindmatch
Schalke 04 - Sevilla 0:0
Steaua Bucharest - Middlesbrough 1:0
Our betting tipped Villarreal and Sevilla, so another small loss for the books. It's the final acts of betting, and here are the final three tips.
Werder - SCHALKE (3.95 / 3.30)
Celta Vigo - ZARAGOZA (4.00 / 3.10)
Seville - BARCELONA (2.35 / 3.10)
Two wins means we finish the year in profit; a win and two draws means it's a statistical tie.
