Welcome to another new season - the fifth we've been running the Glicko rankings. During the close season, Scarborough FC has been formally wound up. The side won the FA Trophy in 1973, 1976, and 1977, and became the first to gain automatic promotion from the Football Conference to Division IV. The side twice made the play-offs, and will perhaps be best remembered for two matches in the League Cup - defeating Chelsea in the second round in 1989, and playing Arsenal in the fourth round in 1993, a match played in fog so thick that the Radio Five commentary team was unable to see much of the action. Scarborough was relegated after Jimmy Glass secured Carlisle's impossible escape at the end of the season in 1999, and was relegated in both the 2006 and 2007 seasons. Division VII (N) will run one club short.
Boston United may be disqualified from the FA Cup and Trophy next season. The club - relegated from Division IV to Division VI (N) owing to financial difficulties - must provide evidence to the FA that it can pay its football creditors.
There have been mutterings about a Celtic League, providing competitive matches amongst Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland, and the Republic of Ireland. The contest will take just two international dates - semi-finals in August 2009, and a final (and unfinal) the following February.
UEFA has confirmed some more sensible groups for the 2010 World Cup. The 53 competing countries will be divided into nine groups of six, with one of the groups running a team light. The nine group winners will go through, and a play-off involving the eight best runners-up (discounting results against the sixth-placed side) will fill the remaining four places.
Intertoto Cup, First Round, First Leg
Gloria B 2 MACC HAIFA
FK Grbalj 1 A MADRID
-----------------------------------
Slavia S 3
St Julia 2 Otelul G
NK Zagreb 2 Trabzonspr
Vllaznia 1
-----------------------------------
Ethnikos 1
Mak Skopje 0 ChernoMore SAMPDORIA
-----------------------------------
Birkirkara 0
NK Maribor 3 HadjukKula Leiria
-----------------------------------
Tobol Kust 3
Zestafoni 0 SLOVAN LIB Heraklion
-----------------------------------
Shak Salig 4 Chernom'ts
Ararat Y 1 LENS
-----------------------------------
FK Baku 1
Dacia Chis 1 St Gallen HAMBURG
-----------------------------------
Differdnge 0 RAPID WIEN
Slovan Brt 2
Zalargerzg
RubinKazan
-----------------------------------
Cliftnvlle 1 Gent
Dinaburg 1
HonkaEspoo 0
TVMKTallin 0 Aalborg
-----------------------------------
Valur Reyk 0
Cork City 2
Hammarby 1 UTRECHT
KiKlaksvik 0
-----------------------------------
Vetra Vil 3
Llanelli 1 Legia W BLACKBURN
