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| Friday 17 February 2012 |
Fabio Capello’s Mission Impossible
Even a manager as decorated as Capello was going to struggle to turn England’s chokers into world-beaters.
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| Friday 10 February 2012 |
Kick moralism out of football
Racism isn’t a big problem in British football anymore. But the thought-policing of players and fans is.
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| Friday 3 February 2012 |
Football’s thin-skinned culture of complaint
The willingness of fans to take offence risks destroying the freedom to engage in no-holds-barred terrace banter.
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| Friday 20 January 2012 |
Football’s longstanding tradition of change
From Leeds United’s all-white strip to terrace chanting, many of the traditions fans take for granted are not so very old.
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| Friday 16 December 2011 |
Why we all love nutters like ‘Mad Mario’ Balotelli
If there’s one thing that can bring rival football fans together, it’s a player or manager who’s bonkers.
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| Friday 9 December 2011 |
Socrates: the Arthur Scargill of world football
Like the miners fighting Thatcher, the Brazil team of the Eighties was defeated by its own outdated philosophy.
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| Friday 2 December 2011 |
Football can’t be reduced to number-crunching
Moneyball shows how statistics helped to change baseball. But maths won’t deliver football silverware.
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| Friday 18 November 2011 |
Beating the best by parking the bus
England’s ultra-defensive victory over Spain merely papered over many on-going problems.
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| Friday 11 November 2011 |
Don’t let big clubs poach the game-hunters
The top Premier League clubs rarely develop young homegrown talent, they just stockpile it and waste it.
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| Friday 4 November 2011 |
What’s said on the pitch should stay on the pitch
To all those footballers crying to the authorities over offensive remarks made in the heat of battle: man up.
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| Thursday 27 October 2011 |
Too soon to gloat over ‘demolition derby’
Manchester City may have put six past local rivals United, but the Premier League race is far from over yet.
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| Friday 21 October 2011 |
Rugby union: a thug’s game watched by snobs
Rugger’s halo may have slipped during the World Cup, but feeling superior to football is still rugby fans’ favourite sport.
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| Friday 14 October 2011 |
Stop giving Wayne Rooney a kicking
So what if he sometimes boots opposing players and says the f-word to the cameras? Football’s a passionate sport.
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| Friday 7 October 2011 |
The limitations of the Barroom Bosman
The European court ruling that pubs can show cheap Greek coverage of English football wasn’t so significant after all.
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| Thursday 29 September 2011 |
Are some football songs just too offensive?
Songs about the Munich air crash are in bad taste, but we don’t need censorship on the terraces.
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| Friday 16 September 2011 |
In Wembley, no one can hear you scream
The big problem at last week’s England international was not unruly fans but a total lack of atmosphere.
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| Friday 9 September 2011 |
‘Watching football is not a crime’
spiked talks to Amanda Jacks, the woman who helps football fans fight back against overzealous cops and stewards.
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| Friday 2 September 2011 |
The waning of Arsene’s Arsenal
It was when Fergie started being nice about Wenger that you knew Arsenal was no longer seen as a threat.
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| Thursday 25 August 2011 |
England’s cricketers: good but not invincible
The test series whitewash of India shows England are a good team, but they haven’t got the aura of a great team.
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| Friday 19 August 2011 |
Kick the police out of football
If we’re serious about forging civic responsibility, then let's allow football fans to steward their own games.
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