Football Academy In The Andes: Redefining football in Venezuela
In South America, the world’s longest mountain range stretches 7,000 kilometres from the very bottom tip of Argentina in the south to the Caribbean coast of Venezuela in the north. When one…
Football Statues XI: Because symbolism is never out of fashion
What a kerfuffle about big bronze blokes (hardly any women) there is in Britain today. For those who don’t know, the movement to bring down statues of difficult figures of the past…
Caribbean football administration – inches from the precipice
Sporting excellence in the Caribbean could be understandably thought to lie within the domains of athletics and cricket. In the popular imagination, Jamaican athletes with Olympic gold medals or West Indian cricketers…
Man City, Sportwash, and A Battle For Equality
It seems to me that the real political task in our contemporary society is to criticize the workings of institutions, particularly the ones that appear to be neutral and independent, and to…
Antonio Conte: The Philosophy of Work
Football managers who had their genesis on the other side of the touchlines tend to mold teams into the image of who they were as footballers. In this respect, Antonio Conte is…
The postwar years: 1945 to 1947 in English football
Not many people have been bringing up the last time football had to restart after a few months of inactivity. They are far too busy speculating as to how many matches will…
The sweat of clarity – Football in Trinidad & Tobago
Football in Trinidad and Tobago has a long history of popular following in the country. Only Guyana and Haiti have older established football federations than the TTFF, established in 1910. With the…
Theo Walcott: The story of the prodigy who didn’t make it, but almost did
” What are we going to see from Theo Walcott in the second half?”, the Arsenal TV commentator asked as the winger received the ball by the touchline. Head down, ball at…
Football Fiction: Grudge Match – Part III
Read part 1 of this story here and part 2 here. Sundown was at around six-thirty in Chennai, and we usually began playing by six or so, so most of our games…
Zinedine Zidane: Understanding the unknowable
Everyone remembers where they were on 9th of July 2006. I was at home, about a foot from the TV screen, over the moon that extra time meant there was another thirty…
Playing on the left – football’s dalliance with politics
The existential contradictions between football and leftism make life as a leftist football fan a constant war with yourself. “If every rightwing thinktank came up with a scheme to distract the populace…
Manchester City: An Illustrated History
In Jules Verne’s 1874 novel, Around the World in 80 Days, protagonist Phileas Fogg wagers a hefty sum that he can traverse the globe, latitudinally, in 80 days or less. It’s a…
Russia’s World Cup: The Politics In Review, Two Years On
Nearly two years have passed since the 2018 World Cup, and establishing the overall outcome is a difficult task. Firstly, the tournament has reason to be remembered fondly by fans: exciting, attractive…
Panyee FC – When Football Challenges Nature
I was born and raised in a centuries-old slum in the heart of Cairo, Egypt, where young kids and youth did not stop playing football. I played football in a narrow alley,…
Football Fiction: Grudge Match – Part II
Read part 1 of this story here. “Winner stays.” Arun said, lounging on one of the chairs in the living room. Of course he’d say that, because he was better than the…
Andres Iniesta – El mago con la pelota
We know Andres Iniesta as Andres Iniesta, the diminutive artisan who made every match he took part in a glorified game of piggy-in-the-middle for the best part of a decade. He who…
Premier League 2019-20: The skirmish for top six
It wasn’t long ago when the position of the country’s biggest and best clubs seemed immutable. Even after Leicester’s unprecedented league win in 2016, there existed a collective feeling that the country…
Sani Haruna Kaita – The fool is us
My earliest memory of football was in 1998. I was five and must have been a very stubborn child. My mother, bless her soul, worn out and tired from the strain of…
Football Fiction: Grudge Match – Part I
Gully sports exist in a realm of their own. We devote ourselves to mimicking our idols, imagining the narrow driveway to be the field at the Bernabeu, and the teenager dribbling through…
Lir: A part of Boston where football holds a different meaning
A stone’s throw away from Hynes Convention Center sits Lir. Just one of the many Irish pubs in Boston’s Back Bay neighbourhood, it’s the type of place that blends into the scenery…
CONIFA, Gender Equity, and the National Team Giving Karen Athletes a Chance
A new football team is taking root in the all-too-often frozen soil of Minnesota. While the land of a thousand lakes is home to major NFL, MLB, NBA, and NHL franchises, the…
Real Madrid and their Brazilian vision
As a football club synonymous with the acquisition of marquee names and the assembly of superstar squads, Real Madrid’s latest recruitment policy has thrown something of a curveball when considering their traditional…
Santi Cazorla – The gift that keeps on giving
As a long-time football fan, I’m well-versed with turbulent emotions. As a long-time Arsenal fan, however, I have special expertise in dealing with a very particular heartbreak and betrayal associated with the…
Nagendra Prasad Sarbadhikari – The first visionary of Indian football
Two of Eastern India’s best known educational institutions, Hare School and Hindu College (present Presidency College) was established between 1816 and 1818. Both possess glittering lists of alumni and over two centuries…