Last night, stuffed with a cold and unable to sleep, I tuned in to the World Service which went to Alan Green's World Soccer package. Apparently USA Soccer Fed will have an open vote for a new President and Green was speaking to one of the candidates, Steve Gans. Green asked him about introducing promotion and relegation. In a thoughtful and coherent answer Gans explained the complexities, said that one issue is that US football isn't yet tribal enough. To illustrate his point he started to talk about Charlton, his time "with them" and how when they first reached the FAPL they got 27,000, they got relegated and 25,000 still turned up, and saw them go straight back up. Well his memory is playing tricks on him, figures wise, but his point is well made, and it was kinda poignant for him to talk about Charlton to a world football audience as if everyone would recognise the name.
I still had no idea what his connection was but if you
read his bio in this general article on the elections you get the picture. He might have been a contact of Mike Stevens, I guess.
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http://www.nytimes.com/1998/12/28/sports/plus-soccer-england-charlton-drops-bid-for-wynalda.html