When the hysteria dies down, think carefully: Is the proposed breakaway European Super League (ESL) such a terrible idea? Most of the football clubs involved struggle to break even and most are rescued out of a financial mess by a yearly gift from their owners-cum-benefactors. With the backing...
As last year’s British Social Attitudes survey indicates, 66% approve of same-sex couples, meaning about a third do not. Our newest research suggests that, with 95% of fans saying they favor openly gay players, football crowds are more welcoming of gay people than the rest of the UK population....
Imagine it’s 1979. Britain’s national game, football, is still anchored to its working-class roots. The tribal violence known as hooliganism surfaces at practically every game, and the stadiums are often dilapidated monuments of the previous century. A handful of black players are breaking...
The Liverpool FC star has inspired a generation of young Egyptians. Solava Ibrahim explains. “Mo Salah, Mo Salah, running down the wing … Salalalaah, the Egyptian king!” This is how fans of Liverpool FC cheer Mohamed Salah, the record-breaking star forward and winner of the English Premier...
Football is a simple and beautiful game that gives joy to billions around the world, but it needs urgent reforms. The English have bequeathed the world many legacies. Some of them, like Israel-Palestine, India-Pakistan and Northern Ireland, tend not to be pretty. Football, on the other hand, is...
A European soccer official has come under fire for using the terms “Star of David” and “swastika” in the same sentence. The CEO of British soccer’s governing body, Martin Glenn, has learned that he must be careful when compiling lists because of the universal law of political...
Protests of the US national anthem by athletes are doomed to failure because they are perceived as attacks on America itself, not just racism. Now that the National Football League (NFL) has blinked in the showdown over players sitting and kneeling during the playing of the US national anthem,...
Qatar is playing simultaneously on both sides of the global pitch, leaving Westerners unable to decide if it’s a friend or foe. The record-breaking move of Brazilian football superstar Neymar da Silva Santos Júnior from Barcelona to Paris Saint-Germain likely would not have been possible...
