Banners and flags at football grounds across the world have become part of the furniture over recent decades, most commonly used to show affection for a player or manager of your team. However, when the cameras focus in on one of your fans flying the flag of a club plying its trade in a far […]
Abroad
hummel promotes equality in sport with world record match on Mt. Kilimanjaro
Equality in sport is always a big topic, so to try and raise awareness 30 women from 6 different continents came together on June 24th with what they believe to be a Guinness World Record idea… Most amateur footballers struggle to get out of bed on a Sunday morning to play a game of football […]
The Definitive Guide to Multi-Club Ownership, Episode 6: Roland Duchâtelet
Episode 1 – Introduction to MCOs + The Pozzo Group Episode 2 – City Football Group Episode 3 – FC Nordsjælland Episode 4 – Atletico Madrid Episode 5 – Red Bull Belgian billionaire Roland Duchâtelet purchased Charlton Athletic in the English Championship in January 2014. In doing so he had just bought his fourth […]
The Definitive Guide to Multi-Club Ownership, Episode 5: Red Bull
Episode 1 – Introduction to MCOs + The Pozzo Group (link to episode 1) Episode 2 – City Football Group (link to episode 2) Episode 3 – FC Nordsjælland (link to episode 3) Episode 4 – Atletico Madrid (link to episode 4) In April 2005, energy drink company Red Bull purchased the Austrian club Austria […]
The Definitive Guide to Multi-Club Ownership, Episode 4: Atletico Madrid
Episode 1 – Introduction to MCOs + The Pozzo Group (link to episode 1) Episode 2 – City Football Group (link to episode 2) Episode 3 – FC Nordsjælland (link to episode 3) Atletico have been on the periphery of La Liga success for a number of years, but it’s only within the last five […]
The Definitive Guide to Multi-Club Ownership, Episode 3 – FC Nordsjaelland
Episode 1 – Introduction to MCOs + The Pozzo Group (here) Episode 2 – City Football Group (here) The story of FC Nordsjaelland begins back in 1999 when Tom Vernon, then a scout for Manchester United, decided to set up his own football academy in Ghana. He named it the Right To Dream academy, and […]
The Road Less Travelled
Quiz question: can you name any player in the world who has played for both Queens Park, in the lower leagues of Scotland, and Konyaspor, in the Turkish Super Lig? No? Really? Well, that is because there is only one player to manage this feat. The answer is young Scottish left-back Barry Douglas. Why is […]
The Definitive Guide to Multi Club Ownership, Episode 1: Introduction and The Pozzos
I first took an interest in Multi Club Ownerships (I like to refer to them as MCOs) back in the summer of 2012 when the Pozzo family completed their takeover of the team I support – Watford. Obviously wanting to do some research on the new owners, I looked around and found they’d been very […]
Club Deportivo Zuñiga and Renzo Sheput
Club Deportivo Zuñiga are a football club in Lima, currently playing in the third tier of Peruvian Football. In the past, they were one of the best academies in the country with notable alumni being Renzo Sheput (Juan Aurich, ex-Sporting Cristal), Andy Pando (Universidad Cesar Vallejo, ex Alianza Lima), Sydney Faiffer (Sport Boys) and Edgar […]
The small club in Belgium, uncovering some of Europe’s finest players
The port city of Antwerp, Belgium has exported goods all over the world since its construction in 1811, handling tens of thousands of goods every year. Within the city, a football club has also done its fair share of exporting, aiming for quality over quantity. FCO Beerschot Wilrijk currently sit top of the Belgian third […]
Vasilis Hatzipanagis, ‘The Greek Maradona’
It’s very hard to go unnoticed in modern football. Worldwide TV coverage and YouTube has meant that even players from far-flung corners of the world can be lauded by fans across the globe. However, football in the 70’s and 80’s was very different story. Without this widespread coverage, many players who had the talent to […]
The day “Ulubatli Souness” planted the flag
Graeme Souness had been out of work for over a year after resigning from the manager’s position at Liverpool. He had been linked to various jobs in that time and his name was mentioned for the Middlesbrough role, which eventually went to Bryan Robson. Then, out of the blue, came the news that he had […]
Andres Escobar and the life lost to an own goal
Andres Escobar was a centre back for Altetico Nacional and Colombia. A player with 51 caps for his country and 222 appearances for his club, he was an accomplished defender who had been offered a contract with AC Milan prior to the World Cup in 1994. However, he lost his life after the 1994 World […]
Much Adu about nothing?
Back in 2004 there was a lot of noise from America, as D.C. United had signed an unknown 14-year-old in the MLS Super Draft. Fast forward three months and the same young player made his debut, becoming the youngest ever to play in the MLS. Two weeks later, another record broken as he became the […]
Goodbye Philipp, and thank you.
June 9th 2006 18:00, I am sitting with my best friend watching the opening match of the World Cup. It wasn’t my first World Cup, I was 20, but it was the first being played when I was fairly knowledgeable about football outside of England. Having got over the heart break of Euro 2004, we […]
The Euro Roundup – Forwards in Form
Away from the crazy land of English football, several European teams picked up important victories as they push towards their respective league titles. Many top forwards were particularly on fire this weekend as they banged in goals left, right and centre. In Spain Fernando Torres, one of the most loved yet hated men in the […]
Chinese Whispers Getting Louder
Whisper it quietly but there is a new player in the world of Football, that said it doesn’t take the biggest afficionado to know that China is hell bent on becoming a superpower in the beautiful game and the way they are going about things you get the feeling that they are going to achieve […]
Red Bull gives clubs wings…
When Sheffield FC were formed way back in 1857, they became the first football club to be independent from any school, hospital or other organisation. Other teams soon followed with Notts County being the oldest remaining professional club. These clubs made up from the fabric of communities, towns and such, run by families, businessmen, volunteers […]
Is Spain Back To Their Underachieving Level Or In Transition
Regarded as perennial underachievers for long, Spain broke the duck in 2008 when they secured the Euro championship beating Germany 1-0 in the final of the competition. The Spanish national team continued by winning the 2010 FIFA world cup in South Africa and also successfully defended their Euro championship in 2012. They have however gone […]
Poor Showing In Europe This Week Further Shows Serie A Is In Decline
In what was termed one of the biggest matches of the game week, it turned out to be a simple walk away for the German champions, Bayern Munich in Rome. It was recently disclosed that Pep Guardiola is not interested in ‘tiki-taka style of football’ without forward pressing against his opponents. The Bayern team did […]