Living in the USA I have had to get used to the possibility of sports teams, sorry, franchises, moving from one city to another one, possibly on the other side of the country entirely. This years’ World’s Series Champions, the San Francisco Giants, were once the Giants of New York. Their rivals in Los Angeles…
Tag: Football
Heroism
Professional footballers may still be able to inspire us or brighten our days with their skill but are they heroic? Is it possible or even sensible to raise a footballer to hero status? When I was a young child I had a poster on my bedroom wall. It was of Kevin Keegan balancing a ball…
Transfer Window Closes, Football Eats Itself
Wednesday was the final day that European football teams could buy and sell players in 2011. The transfer window closed, only to open again for some more trading in January 2012. Four months without buying anything in these consumerist times is enough to send the newspapers and Sky Sports into a frenzy. But why does…
A European Super League is inevitable
The major leagues of European football, with the exception of the striking Italians, have all got their season underway now. La Liga in Spain played its first round of games this weekend, and once again we saw the big two, Real Madrid and Barcelona, swatting their opponents aside with ease. Madrid put 6 past Real…
Political Footballers
I read recently that the Sporting Gijon player Javi Poves has said he wants to retire from football. Not due to injury or to spend time with his family but because, ‘Football is capitalism, it’s death’ (La Republica). Poves also said he thinks football is money, and when you realise it is all money you…
The best thing on the internet?
The Guardian football website today posted this ‘Joy of Six’ – that totally ruined any chance I may have had at productivity. But it was so enjoyable. What are your six favourite football clips on YouTube. There was so much good stuff. Watching the clips, old and new, reminded me just how much I love this game,…
Football & the Statistical Revolution
As Bill Shankly told us, ‘Football is a simple game based on the giving and taking of passes, of controlling the ball and of making yourself available to receive a pass. It is terribly simple.’ I have been wondering what the great man would make of the number-led revolution that is sweeping through football. Instead…
Against modern football? Blame liberal economics.
This is the third in a series of posts attempting to explain football through international relations theory; or international relations theory through football; or drawing tenuous links between both. Antonio Gramsci once wrote that football is the model of individualistic society. Within a game or a team there is a place for individual expression or…
In Sun and Shadow 