Football
The Premier League is rubbish
Of the 73,738 benighted souls who pitched up at Old Trafford on Sunday for the Manchester derby – presumably even…
Boxing belongs in the Olympics
If there is anything more pointless than signing a five-year contract to be Emma Raducanu’s coach, it is the effort…
The real reason for Scotland’s Six Nations defeat
The confused world of Duhan van der Merwe must seem more confused than usual after last weekend. The Scotland winger…
Colombia is a better place to watch football than Loftus Road
I’ve just returned from Colombia, where I’ve been visiting my daughter. She’s doing a modern languages degree and has to…
Football doesn’t need a regulator
Kemi Badenoch has come out against the Football Governance Bill, and not before time. In November 2021, Tracey Crouch, the…
Can anyone stop France in the Six Nations?
Winter’s almost done and spring’s on the way. We can tell because the Six Nations is about to muscle into…
The secret of Gary Lineker’s success
The Leicester-born striker was neither exceptionally skilful nor assiduous; but he worked out how to score goals, and later excel in broadcasting, through intelligence and calm resilience
The unnecessary complexity of the World Test Championship
Have you booked your tickets for the World Test Championship yet? Did you even know it’s on? What seemed like…
I’m not the only football-obsessed composer
I was in Sweden a few weeks ago, where my music was presented in Stockholm in the most recent International…
Could Thomas Tuchel be the one?
You would have to be living a very sheltered life not to have noticed that the Premier League this season…
The best (and worst) of this year’s sport
It was quite a year for some of the worst of sport – America’s golfers, already among the richest and…
The BBC vs Gregg Wallace
The last time I took my wife to watch Millwall play a home game, a gentleman a few rows in…
A father’s love: Childish Literature, by Alejandro Zambra, reviewed
The Chilean writer contributes obliquely to the fledgling genre of fatherhood literature, combining family vignettes with literary criticism and a ‘diary’ addressed to his infant son
Gary Lineker isn’t that bad
It’s a crying shame that we will no longer hear the insightful and original opinions of Gary Lineker. No more…
Who would be a goalkeeper?
There’s a whiff of hauteur in Robert McCrum’s history of the penalty kick – his great-grandfather’s brainchild of 1891, which proved such a momentous change to football
Did I deny my son a shot at the Premier League?
When my youngest son Charlie was seven he was talent-spotted by a QPR scout who saw him playing football in…
The glaring mismatch in English football
Your starter for ten: who was the last English manager to win the top flight of English football? Treat yourself…
Will Keir Starmer get me banned from football games?
Last Saturday, I made the 400-mile round trip to Burnley with my 16-year-old son Charlie to see Queens Park Rangers…
Erik ten Hag cornered himself
‘I’ve proven in my career that I will always win,’ Erik ten Hag told the press last month. ‘In the…
Why can’t China play football?
It would be tough for any country to lose 7-0 in a World Cup qualifier, but when the losing team…
From tragedy to mockery: Munichs, by David Peace, reviewed
The devastating crash at Munich-Riem airport in 1959 haunts Manchester United fans to this day. Peace defies anyone to read his novel and use ‘Munichs’ as an insult ever again
Mickleover: the real home of cricket
Readers concerned that the seemingly imperious march of Bazball across the cricket firmament has blotted out the more, er, traditional…
Sven-Goran Eriksson was an England great
Sven-Goran Eriksson, who has died aged 76, was an unlikely choice for the England job in 2000. He was inexperienced…
The hunt for the next Messi: Godwin, by Joseph O’Neill, reviewed
A video file of an African teenager with legendary ball skills is circulating far from his homeland – wherever that is. How hard can it be to track him down?
