The following article first appeared in Issue 39, released in December 2020. The story of the Nepalese labourers building Qatar’s World Cup stadiums. Tribhuvan Airport, Kathmandu, Nepal. November 2018. Football is the icebreaker. It always is. Within seconds of sitting down in departures my neighbour and I have exchanged the basics; who we love, who we […]
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Building The Dream, James Corbett
The following article first appeared in Issue 16, released in March 2016. As the political wrangling continues over Qatar’s World Cup, what’s the reality on the ground? At the edge of an empty man-made lagoon near to the shore of the Arabian Gulf, I count skyscrapers looming from the dust. The road, lined on one […]
Wanna Be Starting Something
Earlier this week, Porto beat Chelsea 3-1 in the Uefa Youth League Final. A win at last for a Portuguese side after Benfica’s defeats in the 13/14 and 16/17 finals. We took a look back at some of the sides to have won the tournament since its inception in 2013 to see if any of […]
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Super Bowl vs Champions League Final
The Super Bowl and Champions League Final are two of the biggest yearly sporting events in the world. So, a comparison between both events does not necessarily mean one is better than the other. Both events attract over fifty thousand live attendees, and viewers in their hundreds of millions every year. Fans of both events […]
Foreword (or Forward) by Irvine Welsh
The foreword for Man the Footballer: Homo Passiens by Irvine Welsh. Now I get it! Homo sapiens is a recently arrived imposter in the evolution of the genus Homo – a mountebank, a charlatan, a confidence trickster, a fraud, a fraudster, a rogue, a villain, a scoundrel, a quack! All that academic stuff about consciousness, […]
Location, Location, Location
"Colchester United, Northampton Town, Stoke City, Swansea City: outsiders have to take a detour to visit the town. If you’re looking for the stadium and come across something interesting, you’ve got lost. "It seems as if no club in England these days can build a stadium without the muscle of a major supermarket chain who […]
The Width of a Crossbar, Ben Kosky
What if Poland had scored in the last minute of the final qualifier and England hadn’t made it to Italia 90? Gazza’s tearful night in Turin, Bobby Robson’s redemption and the origin of a national hang-up about penalty shoot-outs – for England football fans, these are the abiding memories of Italia ’90. England’s unexpected run […]
The Beeches – Following Tividale
Nestled in the West Midlands, just off the A4123 between Dudley and West Bromwich, is Tividale Football Club of the Midland League Premier Division. In recent times, Tivi’ have experienced the highs of promotion but also endured the lows of financial difficulty and the consequent relegations that come with that. During their 2018-19 campaign for […]