RISE OF THE FOOTBALL FILM

The noughties ushered in a string of new football flicks, from beer- and blood- soaked hooligans in and to comedic creations See like also:

and with released in 2009. Spare a thought for Didier Agathe, though, who appeared in Robert Duvall’s

as a Rangers player… having signed for Celtic before it was released. Awkward.

In the end, Exeter just couldn’t beat it

That was the case for Third Division Exeter City in June 2002, when depleting funds led to Geller calling in favours from magician David Blaine, soul singer and actress Patti Boulaye, and none other than Michael Jackson himself.

Tickets for an event at St James Park quickly sold out, with 10,000 people packed into the ground on June 14. But Geller had a history of disappointing Exeter: in April 1997, the madcap Israeli placed ‘ energy- infused crystals’ behind their goals to help them win a key late- season game against Chester City. They lost 5- 1.

This time, though, he delivered. After havoc at Paddington station, Jackson even arrived early – “lucky to escape injury as mass hysteria gripped his die- hard admirers,” read one report – and admitted to TV cameras that he “didn’t know the first thing about soccer”.

It was later revealed that he had agreed on the condition that kids from the local hospital would be brought along for free, and that half of the proceeds went to “children with AIDS”. The plan was for him to drive a lap of the pitch and deliver a short speech on stage, but the overexcited locals meant his car only made it a few metres before being surrounded. Jacko was ushered away and onto the stage.

After a short performance from Blaine – still over a year away from his infamous box over the Thames stunt – Jackson was up.

“Hello to you wonderful people of Exeter,” he began, presumptuously. “We come here to support children with AIDS and help the people of Africa find a solution against HIV.”

Onlookers expecting a string of hits were to be left disappointed, as MJ ordered the crowd to hold hands instead.

“Everyone! Don’t be shy – I want to see you all holding hands,” he demanded, as Grecian supporters began wondering if it was worth the hassle. Later, the megastar was made an honorary board member of the club, despite having never watched City play.

Sadly, the day was no success: takings went missing, while crooked directors John Russell and Mike Lewis were later both charged with fraud and embezzling funds from the club, who were £ 3.2m in debt. The creditors went unpaid, however, after the supporters’ trust agreed to purchase a majority shareholding for £ 20,000 in 2003 and were immediately forced to put Exeter into administration.

In short, the whole saga on the south coast was bad. Really, really bad.