Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, Thierry Henry, Gerard Houllier and the art of the exit interview when you leave a football club. Why should you do it, why most don’t and what it says about modern football
All tagged football
The fans who buy players for their football team
I got an email from a Darlington fan: “You're probably not aware, but Darlington FC Supporters Group (the DFC fan-ownership vehicle) has been running a phenomenally successful 'Boost the Budget' scheme for the past four seasons. Despite the economic uncertainty caused by the pandemic, donations towards the 2020/21 playing budget have just passed £100,000.
“Given that Darlington is a predominantly working-class town and DFC's average gate is <1,500, it really is staggering that the fans donate so much money season after season.”
Is this the best sports video ever?
Hibs won the Scottish Cup in 2016 for the first time in 114 years with an injury-time header. After the initial madness had subsided, the fans sang, in my opinion, one of the best songs ever heard at a football game. But the song was too slow and the most popular video of the event on YouTube is terrible quality. So why does it work so well and is the video so popular?
While we wait for VAR to come good, let's decide what we REALLY want from our football
VAR makes perfect sense for those who work and play in the game.
It just turns out that those who pay the wages through their television eyeballs, replica shirt purchases and ticket buying, consider it a dampener on their emotional entertainment.
A sporting paradise lost? My favourite interview defined his success his own way
Only 12 men achieved his feat and, in all probability, he will be the last. But his sporting motivations were entirely elsewhere. My favourite sporting interviewee is not anyone you would expect. In fact, you have probably no idea who he is
Sunderland Till I Die: Wear and Tears as a struggling club goes OTT
Sunderland opened their doors last season for another of those fly-on-the-wall sports documentary on Netflix. It was compelling viewing but, unfortunately for them, a horror movie on the pitch. Still, with OTTs platforms continuing to invest in sporting narratives, what did we learn from the tears on Wearside?
What's the story, sporting glory?
Sport is about meaning. Is it often argued that players and clubs have lost sight of this but have content creators developed myopia too?