As diverse a topic as any within the world of football is whether a player should be required to inspire both club and country to victory in order to earn legend status.…
As CONIFA members go, Ellan Vannin are already fairly long in the tooth. Approaching their third World Football Cup, having competed at the organisation’s previous tournaments in Östersund in 2014 and Abkhazia…
Type ‘Matabeleland’ into any internet search engine and the most immediate results will inevitably exhibit a litany of sobering headlines regrettably punctuated with the words massacre, genocide and terror. In the early…
On 16 July 2017, at the whim of warehouse manager and proud Yorkshireman Phil Hegarty, the Yorkshire International Football Association (YIFA) was founded. Just six months later, as the new year rolled…
This feature is a part of Football In Common, a series which explores the stories belonging not to those who play out their lives between the white lines but those who watch…
Among the slightly lesser-known folk arriving in London from every corner of the globe, intent on proudly representing their stateless nations, unrecognised countries, self-declared republics, de facto regions, ethnic groups and indigenous…
When, in October of last year, the United States of America fell to an unthinkable 2-1 defeat away to modest footballing islanders Trinidad and Tobago, stalling fatally in their final 2018 FIFA…
Rarely has a single photograph encapsulated the quintessence of one footballer and, by extension, his team, nation and culture, with such spontaneity and artistry in equal measure. The picture in question was captured…
On 23 October 1937, Manchester United hosted Sheffield Wednesday at Old Trafford as the clubs contested a routine Division Two tie. The occasion that followed was in almost every way unremarkable. United…
Not for a moment did Reynald Pedros even entertain the thought of leaving his hand by his waist as his squad delegated penalty duties between them. Offering his services was exactly the…
“YOU, PLAYERS, who in less than a few hours will be hailed as champions by millions of compatriots,” the mayor of Rio de Janeiro proclaimed with boundless pride as he passionately addressed…
On the evening of 14 June this summer, at the palatial Luzhniki Stadium in central Moscow, a second or two either side of 6pm, the referee’s whistle will sound, kick-off will be initiated,…
TREAD A PATH through every football-obsessed city on earth and seldom would you find the home of a retired professional footballer without the walls or spare rooms of their home habitually decorated…
Though it seldom finds use on the nation’s streets or in the homes of those who reside in Poland, there is a poignant turn of phrase belonging to the eastern European country that…
Bullet Tooth Tony, Smasher O’Driscoll, Sphinx, Juggernaut, Killer. Through the commendable film career into which Vinnie Jones seamlessly segued following his 15-year professional football career, the Hertfordshire-born footballer-turned-thespian has in more recent…
Illustration by Federico Manasse ON THE LAST OCCASION Barcelona announced the acquisition of an expensive Brazilian footballer, in the summer of 2013, it was the prodigiously talented and fresh-faced Neymar who had…
WHEN JAMIE HOPCUTT ACCEPTED AN EMAIL INVITATION to an open football trial in December 2011, not for one moment would he have entertained the results of the five-year-long domino effect his tentative…
REWIND TO THE TENDER YEARS OF THE NEW MILLENNIUM, cast your gaze across the green grasses of the Premier League’s stadia, and there, dancing across them, you would inevitably find a pair…