IS IT purely philanthropy or is there something tangible about investing in a non-league football club? It is hard to justify investment in any sports club, let alone a non-league outfit, but all over the country, local football is short of money and struggling to live within its means. “Just do the math” as they […]
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Commentary Box: More Coronation Street than Wall Street – Investing in non-league
IS IT purely philanthropy or is there something tangible about investing in a non-league football club? It is hard to justify investment in any sports club, let alone a non-league outfit, but all over the country, local football is short of money and struggling to live within its means. “Just do the math” as they […]
Signals and signs: Learnings from the Guardian 100
WE’VE become used to seeing familiar names at the forefront of world football. Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo have dominated polls and awards since 2007 and the recent Guardian ranking of the top 100 players – arguably the best list of its kind – places Messi top and Ronaldo second. Recently, Ronaldo was named the […]
Winter break review: HR – Dinamo all the way
IT looks like a return to the familiar pattern in Croatia for the past decade or more – Dinamo Zagreb on top and running away with the title. Dinamo are 12 points clear at the top after 20 games and are one of the few teams across Europe that remain unbeaten – 15 wins and […]
Johnson’s Bristol cream and the margin between success and failure
JOSÉ MOURINHO might have felt Bristol City were lucky to have won their English Football League Cup quarter-final tie with Manchester United, but their 2-1 triumph was a much-needed and much-welcomed reminder that shocks can still happen in top level football. Everyone outside the United support base must have raised their hat to the Robins, […]
The gulf continues to widen in Europe
THE WAY the so-called “big five” leagues in Europe are progressing this season, we could see more than one team hit the 100 point mark in 2017-18, underlining the progressive dominance of a handful of clubs in the major competitions. If the leaders of the Premier, Serie A, La Liga and Ligue 1 all continue […]
Stockport County: X factor in the FA Trophy
IN 1977-78, Stockport County versus Southport could easily have been game number 40 on a Littlewoods Pools coupon – as a Football League Division Four fixture. The 1977-78 season was the last time the two clubs met in the league, for at the end of that campaign, Southport were voted out and replaced by Wigan […]
Italia’s lament – a warning for the complacent
THE Italian headlines have been screaming, the histrionics have begun and the post-mortems are in full flow – Italy will not be in Russia in 2018 and it is excruciatingly painful for the four-time winners of the FIFA World Cup. Millions of Italians woke up on Tuesday with a sinking feeling in the pit of […]
The case for English success in Europe
EVERYONE was eulogising about Tottenham’s 3-1 win against Real Madrid, and rightly so. It was a very clear signal to the rest of Europe that English clubs can, once more, be taken very seriously in the UEFA Champions League. There have been other victories for English clubs against top opposition, but the manner of Tottenham’s […]