Football
Why the Reds have got the blues
Not so much the hair dryer: more a gentle home perm. Contemplating the increasingly less youthful visage of Ole Gunnar…
A love-late relationship
‘Dad, why is it that whenever we go anywhere, we’re always running to catch a train?’ asked Charlie, my 13-year-old.…
Man up
‘The world is hell, and men are both the tormented souls and the devils within it.’ This was the cheery…
More than a club
Even against our better judgment we tend to imbue our sporting heroes with characteristics they may not possess. This can…
Diary
In football, you are always stronger in numbers. With a shared focus, people from different cultures, nationalities, races, sexual orientations,…
Why football fans are still booing players taking the knee
On the opening day of this year’s season, I went to see Chelsea play Crystal Palace. The match programme featured…
My marital own goal
The fighting started just as Caroline turned right on to the Uxbridge Road after emerging from QPR’s stadium on Loftus…
Will England pull out of the World Cup?
I wonder if the moral guardians of our country — the England football team — intend to participate in the…
Knee-jerk reactions
Before the television presenter Guto Harri took the knee live on air — which cost him his job at GB…
Get ready for the Boring Twenties
Earlier this year, I noted the suggestion (made by an American academic and run with by a swathe of the…
Football’s never coming home
I failed a moral test last weekend. A friend offered me a free ticket to the Euro 2020 final and…
Letter from Italy
Dante’s Beach, Ravenna My fiery Italian wife Carla is not just a passionate patriot but also a devout Catholic, and…
The bigger picture
There are two certainties whenever England’s football team plays; one that is long-established and the other a recent phenomenon. Players…
The Marcus Rashford mural – an anatomy of a moral panic
Late on Sunday night, less than an hour after England lost on penalties to Italy in the European championship final,…
Isn’t it time social media cracked down on racism?
No sooner had Bukayo Saka’s penalty kick thudded into the gloves of the Italian goalkeeper than you could see it…
England, Italy and the power of national pride
As an Englishman in enemy territory I am lucky that love is a more powerful emotion than patriotism otherwise after…
Jess Phillips is wrong about football’s double-barrelled surnames
As the nation went football mad last week, nowhere was there a more stark expression of the ‘I’m-new-to-this performative fandom’…
Soccer
I have never been a soccer mom, described in the Washington Post as ‘the overburdened, middle-income working mother who ferries…
Portrait of the week
Home Boris Johnson, the Prime Minister, said that if a review of coronavirus restrictions on 12 July allowed, then on…
Barometer
Mask crusader Who first wore a medical face mask? — The beaked outfits worn by plague doctors aside, the first…
Riding high
Think of a punishing distance for a bike race. Double it, multiply by ten, throw in two of the world’s…
Stop politicising football
Before the England football team plays in the Euro 2020 final on Sunday we need to get one thing straight: who…
Portrait of the week
Home A lively game of hunt the issue followed the resignation of Matt Hancock as Secretary of State for Health…
My problem with the Euros
I’m struggling to work up much enthusiasm about England’s progress in the Euros. I know, I know, Tuesday night’s victory…
Barometer
Royal waves Does any other country have a royal yacht? — The Queen of Denmark uses HDMY Dannebrog, a 260ft…
