The Setanta Sports channel's UK venture collapsed in the summer of 2009. When Saturday Comes asked Gavin Willacy to look at how this would hit the English conference and had me assess what it meant for the Scottish Premier League.
Reflections on the unique task I have set myself, of going to watch every team that has reached a European final (a task which, along with this article, eventually led to The Hundred Club Blog).
Long after he left Rangers, Andy Goram continued to be my favourite Ibrox goalkeeper - even just my favourite player ever - while he also continued to make the wrong kind of headlines.
That he inspired me to my first ever piece in When Saturday Comes was yet another reason to be thankful to the man variously nicknamed The Flying Pig, The Goalie and, well, God.
And religion is never far away when Rangers and Celtic are involved.
Click here for the When Saturday Comes website version of my piece in magazine issue 146 (April 1999).
"Goram's alleged misjudgment of the darker side of the Rangers support... has tarnished the significance of Neil McCann's arrival and welcome at Ibrox."
BOOK REVIEW: Bobby Brown: A life in football, from goals to the dugout by Jack Davidson.
What Frank Carson said of the sectarian enmity in Northern Ireland - "Too many Catholics and Protestants; not enough Christians" - also regularly applies to Scotland's most infamous football derby.
However, as myself and Ronnie Esplin discovered for FourFourTwo magazine back in 2004, the Old Firm rivalry is also enjoyed by - and could seriously learn from - our wee country's non-Christian communities.
Somewhere in a long-since lost digital camera is a photograph of me, Sandy Jardine, Colin Jackson and Peter McCloy holding a replica of the 1972 European Cup-Winners' Cup.
Okay, they held the real thing, in the Nou Camp and Ibrox and on the flight between the two, but that day in the Rangers Shop in St Enoch Shopping Centre was marred for me, not by a Guardia Civil baton charge but by noticing how poorly the replica imitated the beautifully distinctive real thing.*
Click here for the shorter, website version of my piece in When Saturday Comes magazine issue 358 (December 2016).
*Of course, nothing could actually mar that moment of personal heaven, although the memory is slightly tarnished by Peter McCloy coming over to me - me who was only there as co-author of a book about the 1971-72 Cup-Winners' Cup campaign - and asking how many goals team-mate Colin Stein managed in our club's most successful European run. I couldn't remember. The Girvan Lighthouse remained polite but, as he returned to join his fellow legends attending to a queue of autograph hunters, Peter beamed incredulity.
(It was five, Peter... he scored five...)
Celebrating achievements is nothing new but the similar ways clubs from around the world symbolise their different trophies can leave you feeling quite confused.
Click here for the When Saturday Comes website version of my piece on the football kit phenomenon of stars above club crests, featured in magazine issue 310 (December 2012).
There is one piece of memorabilia, above any other, that signifies football friendship at all levels and invokes memories of anything from chip shops to European finals.
"I grabbed a chunk of grass on the bank of the burn and leaned out towards the gently bobbing size-five Mitre"
Victory ceremonies are now well organised but in the past little quirks have provided the best memories.
Click here for the Guardian Sport Network version of my piece on trophy-lifts from When Saturday Comes magazine issue 320 (October 2013).
Season ticket holders spend matchdays surrounded by the same people, leading to some unusual relationships.
Click here for the Guardian Sport Network version of my piece in When Saturday Comes magazine issue 348 (February 2016)
"Four sullen, slightly insulted middle-aged faces block my path into their circle. Too soon, I realised - far too soon."
I have a football tattoo. That makes me different from most modern professional footballers, who have lots of tattoos - and none of them are about football.
Click here for the Copa 90 link to my piece in When Saturday Comes magazine issue 347 (January 2016):
If you've scored in the World Cup final, please also score at a game I can attend. It’s a mouthful and it’s unachievable. Seeing live go...
