Football
Barometer
A man in full A relic said to contain a fragment of St Thomas à Becket’s elbow arrived from Hungary for…
Why Juan Villoro is the best football writer you’ve never heard of
Football, unlike cricket, has for the most part been ill served by its writers. For every Brian Glanville and Ian…
A blueprint for English cricket
No place for the faint of heart, Headingley, and certainly not for some sketchy Sri Lankan batsmen at the back…
Losing the plot
If a football manager produces a string of losses, the writing is on the wall and out he goes. He’s…
The Foxes have little to teach us
A few years ago a motivational speaker brought out a smart little book called Legacy: What The All Blacks Can…
The fairytale factory
Leicester City’s triumphs demonstrate once again sport’s capacity to replay archetypal stories
Low life
What consolation in life can Arthur and I find after that defeat at the hands of Manchester United in the…
Let’s refocus the Panama story on the bad stuff that really matters
There were moments last week when I was ready to give up journalism and retrain in a less unsavoury profession…
Letters
What might have been Sir: Harry Mount points out that Boris Johnson is two years older than David Cameron (Diary,…
Cricket needs the West Indies
In the north of Antigua, just by the medical school, is a neat little cricket ground. It was a bit…
Don’t cry for John Terry
Just when you were thinking that the Premier League had become a much nicer place without José Mourinho in it,…
Game over
If sport loses the public’s faith – and it’s starting to – then all its power and glory will fade
Three sides to our success
In the middle of Oxford is a socking great cinema: once the Ritz, it’s now an Odeon multiplex. Back in…
High life
This is going to be one hell of a year, hell being the operative word. It will be the year…
Musical maestros and football managers have more in common than you think
You don’t have to be a follower of Liverpool Football Club, or football at all, to spot the difference. Two…
The Davis Cup will be one final flourish for Andy’s Barmy Army
There’s nothing quite like a sporting celebration, but the lash-up after Britain’s (almost) inevitable victory in the Davis Cup tennis…
Barometer
A marathon of cheats Russian athletes may be stripped of the medals they won at the 2012 Olympics, but what…
Germany’s dark night of the soul
The migrant crisis is testing the country’s post-war idea of itself
Was BBC1’s Rooney hagiography more scripted reality than documentary?
Close to the Edge (BBC4, Tuesday) feels very much like an idea conceived during a particularly good night in the…
The ugly game
I’ve spent years defending football from middle-class disdain. But I can’t do it any more
Caught offside
It’s not surprising that politicians have such an on-off relationship with the broadcast media. One slip. One casual comment. One…
Own goal
For nine years Patrick Marber has grappled with writer’s block (which by some miracle doesn’t affect his screenplay work), but…
The Spectator’s notes
Two beautiful volumes in a cloth-bound case reach me. They are Speeches and Articles by HRH The Prince of Wales…
Low life
On Sunday morning, I was kicking a football in the back garden with my grandson. I had bought him his…
Football’s elite deserve the foulness of Fifa
My favourite moment in the crisis engulfing football’s governing body, Fifa, came with the intervention of a man called Manuel…
