Football
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…
A lot of bottle
The question is surely destined to become a pub quiz staple: ‘Who moved a bottle 18 inches across a table…
Taking the knee isn’t the best way of showing black lives matter
As a black football fan who grew up going to matches in the seventies and eighties, I know more than…
Euros 2021: England are easily the most boring side in the tournament
England 0 Scotland 0 Hungary 1 (Fiola) France 1 (Griezmann) The wonderful Hungarians almost took my mind off England’s lamentable…
Are England fans allowed to be proud of the St George’s Cross?
It’s starting to feel like the only flag you can’t fly in England is the England flag. Wave the Pride…
How Les Bleus united France by not taking the knee
For those who lean to the right and live in France, Tuesday nightwas magnificent. Not only did LesBleus open their…
