Onlysixmenhavefollowed in Hoover’s FBI footsteps

Probably the biggest game in club football is the Barcelona v Real Madrid match, known as El Clasico.

It is one of the fiercest rivalries in world football dating back more than a century.

The teams are seen as having opposing political views, with Madrid representing Spanish nationalism and Barcelona representing Catalan nationalism.

Italy’s big derby is the Derby della Madonnina, between Inter Milan and AC Milan.

In South America, the fiercest rivalry is between Boca Juniors and River Plate in Argentina, a match known as the Superclasico. I’VE been following the stooshie about President Trump’s sacking of FBI director James Comey with interest.

However, apart from the first director, J. Edgar Hoover (pictured) I don’t know anything about any other FBI director.

Can you fill me in, Queries Man? – F.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation came into being in 1935, when Hoover, who had been in charge of its predecessor, the Bureau of Investigation since 1924, was appointed director.

Hoover was director under five US Presidents, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry Truman, Dwight Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon, for a total of 36 years, until his death in 1972. Apart from several acting directors who only spent a few months in charge, there have been six directors since Hoover – Clarence M. Kelley, William H. Webster, William S. Sessions, Louis J. Freeh, Robert S. Mueller and James Comey.

Kelley helped the FBI, transition from its 40–plus years of being dominated

by a single director, Hoover, and improved the public image of the FBI.

Webster became director of the Central Intelligence from 1987-91, the only person to have held both these positions.

Sessions is the only director, apart from Comey, to have been fired.

Freeh was director at the time of the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, overseeing the capture and prosecution of Timothy McVeigh.

Mueller became director on September 4, 2001, just one week before the September 11 attacks against the United States.

His successor, James Comey, took office in 2013 and served three years and 247 days before his sacking.

OBVIOUSLY, I know that the Celtic v Rangers match is known as the Old Firm derby and the Arsenal v Tottenham game is the North London derby. Do any other local rivalries have their own names? –C.