When West Ham went to China for the PL Asia Trophy, a video emerged from the Newcastle game of local fans belting out “I’m Forever Blowing Bubbles”. The reaction on Twitter was initially depressing, beginning with lots of cry-laughing emojis but eventually the comments were filled with “West Ham Family” tweets. So, Betway have posed […]
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Workers Rights, Tony Richardson
The following article first appeared in Issue 39, released in December 2020. The story of the Nepalese labourers building Qatar’s World Cup stadiums. Tribhuvan Airport, Kathmandu, Nepal. November 2018. Football is the icebreaker. It always is. Within seconds of sitting down in departures my neighbour and I have exchanged the basics; who we love, who we […]
Building The Dream, James Corbett
The following article first appeared in Issue 16, released in March 2016. As the political wrangling continues over Qatar’s World Cup, what’s the reality on the ground? At the edge of an empty man-made lagoon near to the shore of the Arabian Gulf, I count skyscrapers looming from the dust. The road, lined on one […]
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Around the Grounds – January 2019
After we asked on Twitter whether anyone was heading to the football last week, we really shouldn’t have been surprised by the sheer obscurity of some the responses we received. We began hoping for FA Cup shocks captured from the terraces on smartphone cameras. What we got instead was a tale of the weekend’s football […]
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A Sense Of Responsibility
"There is a need, now more than ever, for a sense of responsibility. that’s true for readers and commenters, but it’s especially true for writers and editors. It matters less in football coverage than elsewhere, but standards are important whatever the field. Truth has never been a virtue in such need of being upheld." In […]
The Lost Kingdom
The Hakeem al-Araibi affair has confirmed the end of the unifying dream of Bahraini football
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Turkish Delight
Below is an extract of John Toshack’s autobiography Toshack’s Way, published by deCoubertin, which looks at his time in Turkey, as manager of Besiktas, between 1997 and 1999. Turkey is a unique country. If you go to Turkey to work, in any line of business, then you’ve got to have your sensors on. You’ve got […]