Matthew Brown reports on the importance of the football vote to the main parties at Westminster
When Terry Venables was interviewed by Radio Five Live recently the interviewer, only half jokingly, suggested that if Venables had stood for election as Prime Minister during the height of euphoria back in June he may well have been elected. At the beginning of October the man hoping to take the top job in the land ended his rally rousing call to the troops by proclaiming, “Labour’s Coming Home”.
If your team is both playing a new system and losing regularly, you may feel inclined to join Neil Dawson's crusade for a return to traditional values
I’m upset. I've reached that first stage of old age – standing in pubs saying “Football isn't what it used to be.” And why? Because of the current obsession with 5-3-2 formations and bloody wing-backs, that’s why.
Jimmy Burns examines how many of Diego Maradona's problems were of his own making
There is a childhood memory that keeps coming back to Diego Maradona as an image of self-preservation in a world spiralling out of control.
Looking at the downward spiral of a controversial player, Harry Pearson reflects on the turbulent times of Paul Gascoigne
When Channel 4 broadcast their documentary Gazza’s Coming Home last month, it seemed it might herald a change in the media’s perception of Britain’s most written about footballer. Gascoigne, it appeared, had reached a crossroads in his life and for once hadn’t responded by dashing headlong down the route marked “Total Disaster – This Way”. He was fully fit, newly married, playing well for club and country. Most importantly of all he had become a Dad.
Following Mark Bosnich's "Heil Hitler" salute, David Cohen offers an insight into his experience of the joys and perils of being a Jewish football fan
It isn’t often that a major Premier League controversy relates directly to me or those of my faith. Racism and football are nearly always in black and white, while Jewish players in England’s top flight can be named on the thumb of one hand. But ploughing through the acres of newsprint dedicated to Mark Bosnich’s Tottenham wind-up – a harmless bit of fun or a war crime of Adolf Eichmann proportions depending on which paper you read – I felt strangely detached from the proceedings.