Occupy the Pitch is back, baby! That’s right, the advent of the 2026-27 is upon us, and that means it’s time to start maxing out the proverbial quill and ink and set myself to covering timely, scintillating and interesting stories from the world of football culture.

For this return piece, I’m getting a bit personal. We all have the mementos, collectibles and insignia that mean everything to us. Today, I’m writing about FourFourTwo’s annual pre-season special and why it’s so important to me. Tell me about where your emotional connection to football begins in the comments!

The Collector’s Brain

As far back as I can remember, I’ve been collecting football magazines. From pouring over all the latest transfer window excitement in Match to obsessively buying French weeklies I couldn’t read on family holidays, I’ve always been compulsive about it.

I was such a nerd, in fact, that I used to diligently write out every single Premier League club’s transfer incomings and outgoings every year. I’ve got notebooks full of the stuff. Quite embarrassing, frankly.

For the last five years, however, there’s one publication alone that has meant more to me than any other. I find it endlessly interesting, entertaining and oftentimes infuriating. The more wrong it is, the more I enjoy it. I am, of course, talking about FourFourTwo’s annual pre-season special.

There won’t be many people reading this who aren’t aware of FourFourTwo, but for that most exclusive of clubs, the magazine has long been the UK’s leading print football publication. Its pre-season special breaks down and predicts the fate of each of England’s 92 league clubs, alongside the WSL and Scottish Premiership.

Its predictions are often wildly skewed, which I think reflects how exciting English football can be beyond the headlines, especially in the PL and Championship. But five years ago, it took on a newly emotional angle for me.

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Life, Death and Football

Football is in my family’s bones, and my grandfather Frank was no different. Loyal to the very last, he was most predominantly an Arsenal fan, but he also took a special interest in Southampton’s results, having studied a degree in English Literature there after retiring.

I’ll never forget watching Ireland crash out of the 2002 World Cup to Spain on penalties with him, or waking up at 7am on Sunday mornings especially to watch Match of the Day and argue about offside goals with him. I’m not unique in this. These are the rituals which define every football obsessive’s life, and to me they’re absolutely fundamental.

But in mid-July 2021, Frank collapsed one night in the dementia facility that had been his home for several months. He eventually passed away on the 9^th August at the home, surrounded by pretty much that entire side of the family.

In those two weeks, Frank was alive but not conscious. No doctor or health professional could confirm that he could hear us, but we were encouraged to read and talk to him all the same. He would occasionally make vocal noises, suggesting that he was aware of something, somehow.

It was just by random chance that I had recently bought FourFourTwo’s pre-season analysis and had it with me while visiting him one day. With no other material to hand, I began reading to him the individual breakdowns.

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For some reason, I didn’t start with Arsenal. I don’t know why I remember this so specifically, but I do recall talking about Danny Ings’ departure from Southampton (to West Ham). All of which what makes what happened next more ethereal.

When I eventually started reading about our family’s club, Frank suddenly started making noise. He’d been silent for probably a day previously. I’m not a religious man, but it genuinely felt like some higher power had grasped him at that point and bought him back from the brink for the briefest of moments.

Of course, this is most likely complete coincidence. But I like to think that something about Arsenal resonated so deeply within him that he had to recognise it however he could. Over the next few months, I’ll be writing about how my relationship with Arsenal has changed recently, but that moment will be with me forever.

Forza Football

So, as I’m sure you can understand, buying FourFourTwo’s pre-season special is no longer a choice for me. There’s no option *not* to read it cover to cover. With the fifth anniversary of Frank’s death just passed, it felt right to mark the occasion via one of my chief ways of connecting with him now that he’s moved on.

I’m increasingly interested in people’s personal, entirely individual connection to football. Emotion is forever on visible display in fandom, usually front-and-centre either in stadiums or on our screens every weekend. Those moments are beautiful, but none of them speak to *how* each individual came to be there.

That’s something I’ve done in this newsletter before, but watch this space for more of that this season.

Anyway, enough existentialism! English football has been back for a week or so, and already there have been some killer, interesting results in the PL; Arsenal starting imperiously, Spurs and United in the relegation zone, Hull and Ipswich making hugely powerful opening statements.

Delighted to have you guys with me for this term. If there are any stories you’d love me to feature or cover, please let me know in the comments.

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You’ll have noticed that the doors at Occupy the Pitch haven’t been so well used in recent weeks.

They haven’t been shuttered completely, but the dangling sign in the window has been switched to (mostly) closed. I’m still sort of home, but the lights are flickering rather than on full beam.

Last year, I undertook a summer hiatus in the football off-season. While I hadn’t initially planned to do that this year – the stories never stop, especially in a World Cup Summer – circumstances have meant that it’s a necessity.

I won’t get into weeds about all that here. One reason is that my new job involves extensive training and unpredictable hours, meaning that writing a regular newsletter has suddenly become less feasible for a while. Throw in a bunch of other commitments and yeah, I’ll need the next couple of months to plan out how to move forward.

Thanks so much to everyone who has read, shared, commented on, liked and supported my work this season. Several pieces have reached amazing milestones, and I remain incredibly thankful that people have enjoyed and are aligned with what I’m attempting to do here. It’s been an absolute blast.

My current plan is to return in August with a host of fresh ideas, killer stories to tell and exciting people to feature.

This summer is going to be a whirlwind, and I’m sure there will be plenty of fallout surrounding football and geopolitics to contend with. I’ll be keeping up with my favourite writers’ content on here regularly, and probably throwing my pennies into the ring when there are major, shocking or fascinating football industry developments.

Thanks once again, legends. Have a great summer, and see you just before the new season kicks off!

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If you’d like to catch up with all editions of Occupy the Pitch from this season (and beyond) then you can do so here.

Anthony Bourdain was a master of many things. As the mastermind behind the inimitable Parts Unknown television series, his totally non-judgmental, prescription-free exploration of global cultures allowed people to present themselves in the truest way possible.

Nowhere is that more evident than in his visit to Iran. Here in the west, we’re told at almost every turn that the people of Iran hate us, desiring to live in a paradigm totally antithetical to our values. Bourdain proved that for the most part, that’s nonsense.

And you need look no further than football for more proof. As Jacob Whitehead wrote in The Athletic earlier this week, ‘football has traditionally been a conduit for protests in Iran’. Protests which fight for human rights, cultural freedoms and empowerment.

In today’s piece, we’re diving into that phenomenon.

Sahar Khodayari: ‘The Blue Girl’

Since 1981, women have been prevented from entering football stadiums to watch men’s games in Iran. It’s probably fair to say that many of us didn’t know that in 2019.

The issue was thrust into the limelight in March of that year, when Sahar Khodayari was arrested for making an attempt. She was due to be tried in early September, but when the time came it was postponed.

While collecting her mobile phone from the court in Tehran, Khodayari overheard someone saying that if she was found guilty, she could be sentenced for a period of six months to two years. After leaving the building, she set herself alight on its steps, passing away in hospital some days later.

Her defiant sacrifice both galvanised the Iranian diaspora and exposed the deeply misogynistic inequity faced by female Iranian football fans to the attention of millions globally. Across social media, she became known as the ‘Blue Girl’, after the colours of the team she supported (Esteghlal FC, based in Tehran).

Khodayari raised awareness that would become even more pronounced three years later.

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Qatar 2022: Protests and Anthems

In Iran, a strict Islamic dress code means that women must wear a head scarf in public places at all times. Just before the last World Cup, 22-year-old Mahsa Amini was arrested by the country’s ‘morality police’ for allegedly violating that law.

Three days later, she died in police custody – it’s now widely accepted that she was brutally beaten. This kickstarted a wave of righteous mass protests; protests in which, a UN Fact Finding Mission later found, resulted in the death of 551 civilians at the hands of Iranian security forces.

The subsequent tournament saw Iranian football players and fans alike support the protests openly, vocally and in widespread unification.

To see such a thing on a global scale was a true testament to the power of football as a mouthpiece for iconoclastic identity. However, grim reminders of the regime’s iron fist were never far away.

Voices and Threats

In their opening WC tie against England, Iran’s players refused to sing the national anthem. Some fans jeered and booed during it, holding placards and flags reading ‘Woman, Life, Freedom’.

By the time they faced Wales two days later though, sinister threats had been issued. The players faced fierce criticism from government officials who, in a bleak bout of foreshadowing, issued warnings that they’d face consequences on returning to Iran if they continued to protest. They half-heartedly sang the anthem at all subsequent games.

Some players went further. Sardar Azmoun, a Bayer Leverkusen striker at the time, wrote a defiant post on Instagram:

‘At worst I’ll be dismissed from the national team. No problem. I’d sacrifice that for one hair on the heads of Iranian women. This story will not be deleted. They can do whatever they want. Shame on you for killing so easily; Long live Iranian women.’

Another player, Zobeir Niknafs, posted a video to Instagram of him shaving his head in solidarity with the protestors.

Azmoun later deleted his post and uploaded another with a less fiery tone. It’s probably not a stretch to consider that he faced severe pressure and/or threats. It’s something that would come back to haunt Iran’s footballing institutions earlier this year.

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The Less Things Change

In early March, after refusing to sing the national anthem in their opening game of the 2026 Asian Cup (against South Korea), five players and two members of staff on the Iranian women’s team were offered asylum in Australia.

This came after depressingly predictable threats from the Iranian regime and state TV, with one commentator calling them ‘wartime traitors’.

The players sang and saluted during the anthem in matches against the Philippines and Australia, but the fans continued their dissent. Once again, the anthem was greeted by a chorus of mass booing, and many people displayed the pre-Islamic Revolution Lion and Sun flag in defiance of the government and stadium’s rules.

But the combination of global virality, threats of harsh punishments and personal connections would stem the flow of action. Five of those granted asylum chose to return to Iran, citing pressure and concerns about family.

The decision was not an easy one. ‘This dilemma caused me constant anxiety’, Mona Hamadi told Al Jazeera. ‘Because every choice faced consequences – for my life, for my family, for my sporting future’. As far as we know, the players have not yet faced any severe repercussions since returning to Iran.

Football Is Protest

The events of this year only gained such traction and inspired worldwide support because of the groundwork laid by years of protest in Iranian football.

If it wasn’t for Sahar Kyodayari, Mahsa Amini and the brave souls who protested and spoke up in their wake, racist perceptions about Iranians being irrevocably ‘different’ would likely still be prevalent.

It’s a notion that’s particularly important to the activist Maryam Shojeai, righteous campaigner and sister to previous Iran captain Masoud Shojaei. Speaking to Jacob Whitehead, she said:

‘It’s something that separates us from the stereotype that the rest of the world knows about Iran. This is our opportunity to show our real selves and be together’.

The future of Iranian government, culture and football is impossible to predict. What is clear is that probably never before have everyday people in both Iran and across the world felt so unified.

Remind the ‘keep politics out of football’ lot of that next time you bump into them.

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You can watch Anthony Bourdain’s episode on Iran for free on YouTube.

Italian football is no stranger to scandal. 2026 marks the 20^th anniversary of the Calciopoli affair, it’s had to endure Silvio Berlusconi’s proto-Trump cosplay, and there’s the years of violence and Neo-Nazi ultras groups.

Throughout all these eras, it’s the titans that have grabbed the headlines. Juventus, Lazio and the smaller but just as historic Hellas Verona have done much of the heavy lifting.

Not many people look to the gorgeous hill-top gem that is Perugia, but that’s exactly where our journey takes us today. And boy, is it a wild one.

The Jewel on the Hill

A gem is exactly what Perugia is. Located at the very heart of central Italy’s Umbria region, it’s a pristine fusion of medieval architecture, colourful backstreets and vibrant public spaces.

A working-class industrial powerhouse where hopes and fears are tied to the football team this isn’t. Nonetheless, football is a core tenet in Perugia.

AC Perugia Calcio (as they are now – the club has been through several collapses and reformations over the years) were originally founded in 1905. Today, they ply their trade in Serie C, butting heads with the likes of Livorno, Ravenna and Inter’s Under-23 team. But it wasn’t always that way.

Perugia were top-flight botherers more recently than anybody cares to remember, playing a particularly exciting brand of football in the late 90s and springboarding the likes of Genaro Gattuso, Marco Materazzi and Fabio Grosso into the big time.

Sounds romantic, right? Unfortunately, even Perugia’s golden period is marred by scandal. But not all their laurels should be discarded.

The ‘Perugia of Miracles’

By any metric, their success in the 1978/79 season is pretty incredible. And it starts several years earlier, with a staffing and tactical revolution.

In 1974, Perugia’s board recruited Ilario Castagne from Atalanta’s youth team coaching set up. Immediately, he switched things up. Adopting the Total Football approach that was burgeoning in the Netherlands, he set a fresh batch of dexterous talent to work, including the mercurial midfielder Renato Curi.

Harnessing his team to deliver fluid and shapeshifting football, Castagne led Perugia into Serie A in his first season. The next few seasons would form the basis of the ‘Perugia of Miracles’.

In the aforementioned 78/79 season, Perugia were pipped to the Scudetto by Milan, but not without a sterling, momentous fight. They finished the season unbeaten, just three points behind the Rossoneri.

While it’s far from the last time Perugia enjoyed relative success on the pitch, it would be the last time they enjoyed it sans any scandal.

Luciano Gaucci, the Master of Descent

So, where does one begin with Luciano Gaucci? The former bus driver turned cleaning magnate was born in Rome, and amassed his fortune largely thanks to his ownership of several prized racehorses.

In the pre-Gaucci years, Perugia had tumbled down the leagues in a maelstrom of match-fixing scandals. He made a quick impact when he bought the club in 1991. They won promotion to Serie B as soon as 1993, but the horses would come back to haunt him.

Emanuel Senzacqua was a Serie C referee in the early 90s. He also just happened to be a horse enthusiast. So enthusiastic, in fact, that he’d purchased one of Gaucci’s horses just three days before their pivotal match against Siracusa.

The game ended 1-1, but there was no denying the decision-making bias in favour of Perugia on the pitch. The Italian FA launched an investigation, and the Griffins were denied promotion.

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The Council of Madness

Perugia found themselves back in Serie A – by legitimate means this time, as far as we know - in 1996. Gaucci was still in charge, and Perugia were able to enjoy a few years of modest success in relative peace.

It’s in 2000 that things start to get, for want of a better phrase, batshit. Gaucci appointed a series of characters that can be at best described as ‘optically questionable’.

First, he appointed Serse Cosmi as Head Coach. He’s become something of a lower-tier journeyman in the years since, but back then, Cosmi was a part-time DJ who’d had extensive spells at Pontevecchio and Arezzo.

Sounds fair enough. But Cosmi ‘motivated’ Perugia’s squad with unconventional means. Namely, he used to screen erotic movies the night before games and take the players to strip clubs, believing that this was the most effective way to boost morale.

Perugia did enjoy some success in the Cosmi years, including qualifying for Europe. It can’t be argued that Gaucci’s next appointment, however, returned anything in terms of success or good will.

Never Sign the Bad Guys

In terms of unsettling decisions, signing the son of a malevolent dictator for your football club is right up there. Step forth Al-Saadi Gaddafi, in the summer of 2003.

Yep, you guessed it. The actual son of Muammar Gaddafi.

He’d been playing football in Libya for a couple of years, benefitting from a handy law which made it illegal to name any other player in stadiums besides himself.

A renowned terrible player, it’s hard to know exactly what spurred Gaucci to push for Gaddafi. It’s been reported that he was under pressure from Berlusconi to sign him to ‘improve relations between Italy and Libya’.

What we do know is that Gaddafi hired Diego Maradona as his technical consultant. For all the good it did him…

Almost immediately, Gaddafi was banned for three months after failing a doping test. His only performance for the club came afterwards, when he came on in the final 15 minutes in a 1-0 win over Juventus.

He’d go on to sign for Udinese, commit war crimes in the Libyan Civil War and get jailed for a bribery scandal involving a Canadian engineering firm in 2019. I’m not saying Gaucci’s responsible, but maybe the club should’ve demanded more from him in training sessions.

The Aftermath

Perugia went bankrupt (again) in 2005. They found themselves back in Serie C, while Gaucci had to contend with an arrest warrant for fraud and financial irregularities.

Ever the upstanding gent, he fled the country to San Domingo and left his sons to pick up the pieces by being jailed in his absence. He returned four years later but would pass away in the Dominican Republic in 2020.

Football is full of clubs more notable for their history off the pitch than the way they play. Perugia’s story doesn’t really say anything about the way the Italian game has evolved. But it is one of the more bizarre cautionary tales about club owners with unchecked power, and how the clubs they own are often the ultimate victims.

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It’s not hard to understand why football clubs are attractive to career criminals. There’s nothing that can wash or embellish a reputation quite like the world’s most popular sport.

Actually owning a football club is not quite so simple though. You’re constantly in the firing line, at any given time a subject of adoration or abject pressure. Sometimes, you’re the target of an open revolt by the fans. Many owners deal with this pressure, frankly, by not caring about football.

Career criminals, just like football club owners, tend to get away with things until they can’t anymore. And in Mexico, recent events conspired to shine a light on just how interlinked football clubs, cartels and ownership have been in recent decades.

The Fire Starts

On the 22^nd February this year, Nemesio Ruben Osguera Cervantes, better known as ‘El Mencho’, was killed in a firefight between his bodyguards and the Mexican military.

At the time, he was Mexico’s most wanted man, renowned as the ruthless figurehead of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG), the country’s deadliest organised crime group.

The killing sparked a wave of brutal violence across 20 Mexican states, stoking fears about whether this summer’s World Cup matches hosted by the country could go ahead.

Both FIFA and the country’s president, Claudia Sheinbaum, immediately moved to assuage those fears. The violence has subsided somewhat, although Mexico’s position as a host nation has been subsumed by other geopolitical issues since (more on that later).

As far as we know, ‘El Mencho’ never had any direct dealings with Mexico’s footballing industry. But as is covered in this Sports and Crime Briefing newsletter, the CJNG has extensive ties to two of Guadalajara’s most successful clubs, Atlas FC and Chivas.

So, what are some of the most famous examples of cartels exploiting football to the point of downfall? And how does this signpost the road between now and this summer?

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‘El Futbolista’, Trial Specialist

Tirso Martinez-Sanchez was always passionate about football. It follows, then, that owning one or several football clubs might be something that ‘El Futbolista’ would do with genuine enthusiasm and care.

He was certainly passionate enough to buy the top-flight clubs Queretaro and Irapuato. Unfortunately though, Martinez-Sanchez was also a drug lord with well-known connections to the notorious Ciudad Juarez and Sinaloa cartels.

Most of what we know about his antics comes from testimonies he gave at two momentous trials; against Genaro Garcia Luna, a former State Secretary of Public Security, and ‘El Chapo’, Mexico’s most infamous drug baron of all time.

He was arrested in 2014 and extradited to the US in 2016, where he plead guilty to trafficking $70 million worth of cocaine across the border. He reportedly said that he was only able to finance his purchasing of the football clubs thanks to the money he’d made ‘selling medicines’.

It’s also alleged that he benefited from a money laundering scheme involving the transfer of players as part of the ‘Promotora Internacional Fut Soccer’ scandal, along with several businessmen. For Martinez-Sanchez, football was an effective way to hide money where he thought nobody would come looking.

‘El Wencho’ and the Pablo Escobar Model

The story of Wenseslao Alvarez is easier to plot. A kingpin of the state of Michoacan, his drug-trafficking empire spanned the entire continent, supposedly with members of the Gulf Cartel and potentially the nightmarish Zetas on speed dial.

He founded territory minnows Mapaches de Nueva Italia, who are now defunct. Funneling his dirty money through the second-tier side also benefited the players. When Mexican authorities raided their offices as part of a sting against ‘El Wencho’, they found that players had inflated salaries and many drove luxury vehicles.

But the club was so small that it was never likely to be Alvarez’s only front. Many people, including the Mexican sports journalist Carlos Calderon, think that it was a transparent attempt at sportswashing. As Calderon told El Grafico, he ‘created soccer schools for children, providing them with shirts and shoes, all with drug money’.

The ins and outs of Mapaches’s demise are slightly hard to verify, but they dissolved sometime after Alvarez’s 2008 arrest. Clearly whatever Alvarez gave back to his community was hollow, but the fact that an entire football entity lived and died under his whims shows the power, resources and opportunities he had access to.

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Crossing Country Lines

Players under Alvarez’s watch may have accepted the ‘benefits’ of the club’s ballooning finances willingly. But with drug trafficking weedling its murky way into many facets of Mexican society, it was only a matter of time until players were approached directly.

Carlos Alvarez Maya is probably the most high-profile case. An unassuming defender on the pitch, he very publicly found himself in the limelight for all the wrong reasons at Mexico City International Airport in 2003.

Just before catching a flight to Colombia, the authorities found $1 million worth of cash in his luggage. Cognizant that ‘snitching’ on his handlers would end very badly for him, Maya used the age-old alibi; that a ‘stranger’ had given him the cash, paying him a separate amount to transport it. Shockingly, it didn’t work.

A Summer Unknown

Claudia Sheinbaum has taken a hard line against the cartels throughout her presidency, but especially over the last few weeks. Even before ‘El Mencho’’s killing, she was forthrightly overseeing ‘Operation Swarm’, a fulsome crackdown on the links between politicians, business ventures and cartels including the CJNG.

This, of course, is a great thing. While it’s likely that collusion between cartels and football clubs goes much deeper than we know, disarming the groups at a physical, financial and administrative level is a good start.

The focus now is on the geopolitical situation regarding Iran. Last week, news came out that Iran had made an official request to play all its forthcoming World Cup 2026 games in Mexico as opposed to the US. FIFA, however, has said it is unwilling to facilitate that.

It may not be as all-consuming as the preceding violence, but for Mexican football fans this is another black mark against an occasion that should be joyous. This World Cup could have been a chance for the national side to restore itself from a relative footballing wilderness, and it still might be. For now though, it’s set to be marred by events well beyond their control.

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James Montague’s deep-dive on the extreme fringes of football fandom is a scintillating, compelling read, full of hateful figures, socio-political nuance and some astonishing stories.

Back in the late summer of 2022, I found myself in Prague with all of my closest friends from school. Most of us are huge football fans. It’s been a constant point of connection throughout the years, no matter how far removed from each other we’ve been, no matter any changes in circumstance.

Naturally, then, buying tickets to see Prague’s most (in)famous football team, Sparta Prague, and experience Czech football culture first-hand, was something of a priority.

Buying tickets wasn’t tricky. Like most things in Prague at the time, they were super cheap, and the Sparta stadium rarely fills itself. The lack of a distinct away fan culture, plus a dwindling interest due to perceived corruption, are the main causes.

But there was a reason to be nervous. Anyone with more than a passing interest in football will know and be wary of the terrifying reputation of Sparta’s ‘Ultras’ groups, who’ve frequently been linked with violence and far-right agitation over the years.

So infamous is Sparta’s horde that even the club website issues a warning when purchasing tickets. With no interest in being in the mix with them but having a sort of morbid curiosity, we sat just one stand away.

Though the game itself (against FC Zlin) ended as a completely unremarkable 0-0 draw, the atmosphere provided by the ultras was what we’d expected; constant singing, flag-waving, martial drums rising from somewhere out of the red, flare-induced mist.

It’s not difficult to dismiss Ultra culture. As he says at the beginning of 1312: Among the Ultras, James Montague was frequently uncomfortable while profiling these characters and their origin stories. They’re famously distrustful of any outsiders, but most particularly journalists.

One of their most headline-stealing notorieties is their propensity for far-right politics. Montague covers both those groups and their counterparts in 1312. At the most extreme, there’s Lazio’s openly Neo-Nazi group ‘The Irreducible’, or the Ukrainian ultras enlisted in the Azov Batallion. On the other hand, he platforms the forthright leftist identities of St. Pauli, Freiburg and Besiktas.

Drawing frequently on literary, musical and cinematic references and carrying out exhaustive research, Montague gets beneath the fingernails of Ultra culture and offers probably one of the most in-depth and nuanced perspectives committed to print.

From South America, Italy and the Balkans to more unexpected places like Sweden and Indonesia (home to one of the most violent fan scenes in the world), he tells some scintillating stories along the way. Like the one of the legendary artist who painted banners for fierce Argentinian rivals Boca Juniors and River Plate, or the extraordinary story of Ismail Morina in Albania, and his now world-famous on-pitch antics.

He also does some earnest soul-searching, touching on his troublesome past in the chapter about Sweden, and how for him there might still be a rush in some of the Ultras’ violent code of conduct.

It’s a wonderful book about a culture that’s far deeper and more misunderstood than one might expect. It’s a good read for non-football fans as, in many cases, Ultra culture isn’t really about football at all. It’s about history and feeling - two things Montague has in spades.

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Thanks for reading this review. If you like what you see, check out my reviews of Tom Williams’s ‘Va Va Voom: The Modern History of French Football’ and Jonathan Wilson’s ‘Behind the Curtain’ below.

It’s a cliché to the point of tedium to hear *another* male football fan say: ‘the reason I’m obsessed with football is because of my dad’.

Sure, my dad was the one who encouraged me to join my village football team aged 10, bought me my first piece of football literature (a 2002 World Cup preview compendium). And he was the one who turned listening to BBC Radio 5Live’s Saturday scorelines into a religious experience for me.

But the thing my dad did that really spurred my obsession was a form of ritual.

Whenever he’d go anywhere, he’d bring me and my brother home a football shirt. Sometimes they’d be blockbuster editions. A Zinedine Zidane Juventus shirt. Patrick Kluivert adorning Barcelona. A crisp Portugal national shirt with Figo on the back.

Other times they’d be a bit more leftfield. A Real Madrid number with Thomas Gravesen’s name rather than Raul’s, for example. My personal favourite was a gorgeous Palermo shirt featuring Luca Toni, which basically kick-started my Serie A obsession.

So deeply was this seed planted that I still can’t walk past a knock-off shirt in a vintage shop without at least considering buying it.

Below, I’m going in on some of the choicest and weirdest cuts currently stuffing my drawers. Some of them have personal or political stories behind them. Others are just because I like the colourways. All of them speak to who I am in some way.

You might like some of them while others set your teeth on edge. That’s totally fine. The beautiful thing about football shirts is that, as much as they represent group identities, they all embody a journey that the wearer has been on. Who they were before they bought the shirt and who they are afterwards.

Hopefully, I’ve captured some of that essence in this piece.

The Journey Begins

Alas, most of those shirts from my early childhood have been lost to the wind for various reasons. The one I still have is actually one of the first; A Czech Republic first kit from 2002/03.

At the time, the resplendent red cut with the rich blues and the complexity of the crest dazzled my young mind, as did some of the names attached to it.

This shirt was worn by the mighty Pavel Nedved, Jan Koller and Milan Baros. It was the reason I knew who Tomas Rosicky was *before* he signed for Arsenal; a real point of pride for me.

They weren’t Galacticos or anything close, but just hearing their names made me pay attention. They felt weirdly transcendental. Not on the same level as Messi or Mbappe would years later, but they commanded an unshakable respect and intrigue.

It’s almost unrecognisable when compared to today’s Czechia shirt, of course. As Joey D’Urso highlighted so extensively last year, pretty much every shirt has a political and societal context.

This shirt speaks to a team that shone brightly in a country that no longer exists in the same way, as well as a style of football that no longer exists. It means as much to me because of that context as it does the memories.

Simplicity, Efficiency, Quality

Sticking with the national shirt theme, we’re going with an absolute, unalduterated classic.

Sometimes, football shirts are beautiful in their simplicity. Even when there are tweaks and twinges, there’s something effortlessly timeless about the Germany national shirt.

The current variant harks back to the even more iconic design of the early-mid ‘90s strip, but to my mind, the splashes of fire-esque colour across the shoulders make this one just as evocative.

The German national kit isn’t treasured just because it’s a killer exercise in less is more. It’s also synonymous with the sport’s highest calibre. I didn’t buy it because I have German heritage. I bought it simply because I *love* football.

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Lima via the Eastern Block

I know what you’re thinking – what on God’s green earth do Latin American journeyman Edison Flores and a little-known but somewhat successful Hungarian side have in common?

The answer is that they both came to me in a vintage shop in Bristol.

The story goes like this. My mate and I play squash every week, and we have a ritual where each session we turn up wearing the most random/unexpected football shirt we can think of. We’re constantly trying to outdo each other, but in *my* mind, I’ve now won permanently.

I was in the aforementioned shop when I picked up this fairly rudimentary Peru shirt with Flores’s name on the back.

‘Big fan of Peru?’, the man behind the counter asks as I approach to make the purchase.

‘Nah, I just like football shirts’, I reply with a moderate level of embarrassment.

‘I’ve got a random 00’s shirt of a second-rate Hungarian side in the bag here if you want to see it?’ says the man.

My eyes widen. ‘I’ll have a look, but I don’t really need to - I’ll take it’, I say.

And that’s how I ended up with the purple and white monstrosity below. It’s gross. But it’s my prized possession.

And what I really love about this story is that there was absolutely no judgment from my pal behind the desk. In fact, he was delighted; ‘you must be the only person I’ve ever met in this shop who knows who Ujpest are’, he grinned.

I’ve never felt so seen. Worth it.

A Very Dedicated Fan

Some fan I am. I’ve owned Arsenal shirts since I was about four and currently have two. The first was a birthday gift at the end of the 2021/22 season. The second I bought for about £35 in a flash club webstore sale.

And I know what you’re going to say about the latter. ‘£35?!!?!? That’s too much for that absolute steaming piece of traffic warden-adjacent trash’. But screw the haters; I think it’s beautiful. The more everybody hates it, the more I love it. See? I’m Arsenal through and through.

Shirts for Liberation

This last one’s another gift, but goes much deeper than just being the team I support or a standard memento.

Long-time readers of this newsletter will know that I wear my political and social values pretty much on my sleeve most of the time, including in last year’s piece about how the football industry was responding to the genocide in Gaza.

This present from two close friends was made by the good people at FC Palestina. 20% of proceeds from all sales go towards charities that support Palestinians through vital food packages, so it’s a crucial cause.

Many would write it off as ‘virtue signalling’. Virtue signalling is irksome when it’s weightless (*cough* Jordan Henderson *cough*), but in this case, purchasing shirts is literally putting food on tables.

If you need further convincing that this is a worthwhile venture, I’ll leave you with the opening sentence from their About page:

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Thank you for reading today’s piece! What are some of your favourite/weirdest football shirts that you own? What memories make them special? Let’s chat about them in the comments.

This month’s content is probably the longest, most free-wheeling and forensic fan chat I’ve ever posted on this newsletter.

These days, Stephen Hill mostly plies his trade as a prominent music journalist for Metal Hammer and the excellent Trve. Cvlt. Pop! podcast. I’ve been following his work for almost 15 years, which is how I know that he’s a die-hard, unrepentant Portsmouth FC obsessive.

If you’re based in the UK, you know just how much Pompey have been through over the last 20 years. Star power, promotions, European football, hitting rock bottom. All these are part of the mythos that make them a genuinely historic football club.

In early February, Steve and I sat down to chat about everything. From the heroes of the 1990s to the bleak years to how John Mousinho has revolutionised the club, Steve gives us an inimitable insight into how it feels as a fan. His perspective is fresh and his memory is second to none. And yes, we do get into why he hates Arsenal so much.

I hope you enjoy it!

How did you get into football, and why are you a Portsmouth fan?

Steve: My nan owned a café on Portsmouth seafront. She was Canadian and emigrated and ended up on the south coast while she was pregnant with my dad. So, my dad grew up in Portsmouth and he is, like, obsessed. He will not miss a game under any circumstances – he’s 72 now and he still goes to pretty much every single game, home and away.

I’m not quite as hardcore as that, but he started taking me when I was about four. The first game I remember where I was like ‘I want to carry on doing this all the time’ was when we’d just been relegated from the old First Division under Alan Ball. We beat Leicester 3-0 or 3-1 in the first game at Fratton Park, and that was when I was like ‘I love this’. I got my first season ticket in the 90/91 season.

There were a couple of things that happened that made me go from being like, ‘I like going to football with my dad’ to ‘I like football in general’. One of them was Michael Thomas at Anfield. I never really watched football on telly as a kid, but I was at my grandad’s and the Arsenal v Liverpool game was on. I watched the second half and came in just after Alan Smith scored. Then of course Michael Thomas scored with the last kick of the game and Arsenal won the league, and I was like ‘Wow’.

The other big thing, as it was for so many people my age, was Italia 90. It’s funny to look back at that time and go, ‘England didn’t play very well, the tournament wasn’t actually that good’, but every time I think back it feels so magical. So from then on I became completely obsessed.

If there’s one thing I wish I could’ve been around for it would’ve been Italia 90. I don’t think my generation has an equivalent, culturally.

Steve: No, I don’t think so. I mean obviously the Premier League comes in a couple of years later. Initially it was like cheerleaders and bands playing during half time and all this new stuff, but I was still travelling to Swindon or Port Vale and being in the standing away end. So it didn’t really change the football league particularly, but once Klinsmann signed for Spurs it was like ‘oh shit’.

When the top teams started signing those big players, it changed beyond recognition. But certainly, the amount of people who cared about football, and the interest in it after Italia 90, was mad.

Around that time, which players were you obsessed with and who were your heroes on the pitch at Pompey?

Steve: Alan ‘the Legend’ Knight, our keeper. He broke the record number of appearances for one club, and when I first started going he’d been playing for the majority of the 80s. In those days, 35/36 was old for a player, wasn’t it? But I really thought he was still one of the best goalkeepers in that division. And such a one club legend.

Paul Walsh would be the other one, and Darren Anderton. Anderton scoring against Liverpool in the 1992 FA Cup semi-final at Highbury is still one of my all-time favourite goals.

When we sold him to Spurs I think we got like £1.5 million and Paul Walsh. And that’s one of the best deals I think we’ve ever done as a football club. The next season we missed out on promotion to the PL on goal difference to West Ham. But Guy Whittingham scored 46 goals I think, and Paul Walsh still got player of the season. I’m pretty sure he set up 42 of those goals.

When did you get promoted back up to the Premier League?

Steve: That was the *amazing* 2002/03 season. I think that might be my favourite season as a fan. We just took the piss out of everyone. I remember going to the first game of the season, against Nottingham Forest at home, and we’d just signed Paul Merson. In the previous season we’d finished 18^th and stayed up with a couple of games to go, and it was the year we had Robert Prosinecki and Peter Crouch too. We sold Crouch to Villa on deadline day and got like £5 million, and that basically funded the team that would take us up.

Then there was the ITV digital collapse, which may’ve been a bit before your time…

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Yeah, I sort of remember it being a thing but I can’t pretend that I would’ve known or understood the complexities of it.

Steve: Basically, loads of teams got into financial trouble in because they had budgeted for that money from ITV digital which was gonna give the First Division, as it was then, a similar level of financial clout that the PL was getting from Sky. They were going to be able to buy players for £2/3/4 million, which in those days in that division was an insane amount of money. Then that fell through, and clubs like Derby had no real way to keep hold of players like Ravanelli.

But we’d just sold Peter Crouch for £5m, so we were sort of alright. And that meant we could buy Shaka Hislop, Matt Taylor, Arjen de Zeeuw, Steve Stone, Tim Sherwood, Merson, Yakubu.

After the Forest game I was like ‘Yeah we look pretty good actually’. Then in the next game we beat Watford 3-0, and I was like ‘we look *really* good’. We were top of the league for a bit, and then we went to play Burnley, who were in the playoffs, and they were on a really good run. We beat them 3-0 and it could’ve been 10-0. The tricks and the flicks and the ‘oles’ were coming out and it was like a training session. And that’s when I thought ‘fucking hell, we’re going up - and we’re not just going up… there’s no way we don’t win this league’.

It was the most enjoyable season that I’ve ever had watching football, because there was no… you kind of didn’t believe it because we’d been so bad for so long. But it got to the point where it was like ‘how many are we gonna win by today?’. It’s the only time I’ve ever felt like that. And I can’t imagine I’ll ever feel like it again.

I remember Portsmouth as a mid-bottom half team in the Premier League mostly. In that promotion season, did it feel immediately like a big step up or were you still riding on the high of that momentum for a few years?

Steve: Well, it was sort of weird. Between 1989 and 2003 I’d had fifteen years of watching football in the same division, and there were probably only four seasons in that entire period where we looked like a half decent team. So I was a bit like ‘how are we gonna cope in this division’, when the three teams who had gone up came straight back down. The gap between the PL and the Championship is insane now, but it felt big then.

We beat Villa in the first game, and we very much deserved to beat them. And then we went away to City and let in a last-minute equaliser. Then we played Bolton, and it was like ‘oh if you win 4-0 you’re top of the PL’. And we won 4-0 and we were like ‘oh it’s actually quite easy this isn’t it?’.

But I remember my dad saying, ‘enjoy this, because it’s not gonna last forever’. So my mentality was – even when we won the FA Cup and were pushing to get into Europe – like ‘we’ve got to make sure there are at least three teams worse than us’. And I felt pretty confident in that for the first couple of years.

It was only really when Redknapp left and we started replacing the players who had got us up with some really odd signings when I felt a change. It was in that 05/06 season when I’d look at our squad and go ‘okay, we’re in big trouble’.

It was the summer when our Chairman, Milan Mandaric, sold the club to Gaydamak, and that whole Russian Oligarch thing started happening. We stayed up with a really weak squad and he came in and signed Benjani Mwaruwari, Sean Davis, Pedro Mendes, Wayne Routledge came in on loan, Dean Kiely. And then in the summer after we stayed up, we signed Niko Kranjcar, David James, Hermann Hreidarsson, Glen Johnson, Sol Campbell, Sulley Muntari, Defoe, Kanu. Those names started coming in and you start going ‘oh, lovely’.

Yeah. I mean you look at those names and, at the time anyway, you’d definitely think ‘that’s a team that should be competing for Europe’.

Steve: Yeah, and we kind of were! That was when it was the big four; Arsenal, Chelsea, United and Liverpool. No one was gonna break in there; I know Everton had that little spell where they kind of broke into it. But it was always gonna be those top 4. Then there was that school of teams just underneath like Blackburn, Bolton under Allardyce, Reading – though we did beat them 7-4 in the highest scoring PL game. That was one time where I did look at the squad and go ‘we’re definitely going to stay up’, it was just a question of how high up the table we’d finish.

And ultimately it was a thing of like, would you rather have kept hold of Gary O’Neill and Matt Taylor and finished between 9^th and 13^th forever, or signed all these big-name players and win the FA Cup and spend 50 times more than you’re earning. I’d probably pick the FA Cup to be honest.

Yeah. And every team goes through fallow periods and pits and falls as well so really those amazing, historic moments, you’ve got to try and hang on to them.

Steve: Yeah. I was there with my sister and my dad at Wembley for two FA Cup finals and two semi-finals. Being with my dad and seeing Pompey walk out for an FA Cup final, and win it as well, is something that no amount of bad stuff could stop from being amazing.

It was like when we played AC Milan in the UEFA Cup. I was so fucking gutted – we were 2-0 up with five minutes to go, and then we let them in with basically the last kick of the game. My dad was like ‘do you remember coming here five seasons ago when we lost 4-1 at home to Crewe, and now you’re walking out annoyed that we haven’t beaten AC Milan’, who had Kaka, Ronaldinho, Gattuso and Inzaghi. And he was right, so I couldn’t be too annoyed.

Did the occasion mean anything to you, or were you so wrapped up that all you cared about was the result?

Steve: No, I went into that game really excited. Like, so excited. But also utterly resigned to the fact that we couldn’t win. The other thing about that game – and I don’t want to get into it too much – is that we had loads of injuries as well. Like, Lassana Diarra – probably the best player who ever played for our club right – he was injured. Campbell was out injured, Defoe was out, and I feel like Kranjcar was as well. We had Richard Hughes, who we signed for 100 grand at the start of the year, and Glen Little starting.

When we went 2-0 up, it was the loudest I’ve ever heard Fratton Park. It was an incredible, amazing night. Had we held on for the win, I think it might even have usurped the FA Cup final as my favourite. But little did I realise that five years later, we’d be 91^st out of 92 league clubs.

So, moving on to the fall then, what’s your memory of that time? What was the atmosphere around Fratton Park? Did you go often in those times?

Steve: Yeah, a fair bit. I must admit, I got really fatigued after a little while. It became really rough. And it wasn’t even just the losing; it was the manner of some of the defeats, some of the stuff going on around the club.

The season that we went down was the 09/10 season, and we were the only PL club to go into administration and get a points deduction. We didn’t actually have a bad squad that season, and I kind of wondered how bad it could be. We were in debt to the tune of £70m, but we sold Glen Johnson to Liverpool for £20m, Diarra to Real Madrid for £25m, Muntari to Inter for £20m, Defoe back to Spurs for £18-20 million, and there you go, you’ve recouped the costs.

And I thought we might be destined to be a sort of mid-table Championship side – ‘sometimes good, sometimes shit’, in the words of Gattuso. What I didn’t expect was to be told ‘actually, you’re still £180m in debt, but don’t worry, you’ve been bought by Sulaiman Al-Fahim, and he’s gonna spend loads and turn you into the next Man City’. But actually, he didn’t have any money, debts were piling up and we were spending insane amounts. Then Gaydamak had all his assets frozen, and he wanted his money back from the club.

And then we sold the club to an increasingly terrible group of people, over and over again, for four years.

I remember we played Plymouth in the first round of the League Cup, and 11 players made their debut and I think they were all like 17/18. And we got beaten 3-0 by a team in the league below us.

You’d have thought that when the fans bought the club out when we were in League Two we might go straight back up, but we had a couple of pretty rotten seasons there too. It got to the point where there wasn’t even any gallows humour, it was just pure misery.

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And you can’t blame the players, because they weren’t really good enough to be signed by any other League One club; they were all free agents or youth players. The owner was never at the ground, so you couldn’t shout at or boo anyone representing the club, so it was just rudderless.

But then when it was bought out by the consortium of fans, they had a couple of years before things settled. We had Richie Barker as manager for a few games and I think he was probably the worst manager we’ve ever had. The football was an absolute disgrace. I’m normally one for ‘give the manager a bit of time’, but he should’ve been sacked after two games. And he was the only manager who even got much shit, so it was hard to know who to even be annoyed at.

The last few years must’ve felt quite exciting then, given all of that? Everything has kind of gone your way in terms of trajectory. What would you credit for that?

Steve: John Mousinho.

Yeah, right. I’m interested in him because he never played for a club bigger than West Brom. So when he got hired, were there any sort of raised eyebrows?

Steve: (Laughs) Oh my god, more than that! Fucking hell. When Michael Eisner bought the club from the fans, it was like ‘great, we’ve got billionaire owners now’.

We had a couple of decent seasons with Kenny Jackett as our manager. The 2018/19 season I felt we should’ve got promoted. We really dropped the ball there with a very poor January recruitment programme, and had we even got that slightly right I think we would’ve been a Championship team, without doubt.

We then spent a fair bit of money on some quite bad players and it never really looked like we were gonna come back up. I don’t think Danny and Nicky Cowley were amazing managers, but they were good at geeing people up and they signed some really good players… Connor Ogilvie, Colby Bishop and Zack Swanson; some of our current best players.

We started the 2022/23 season – the year they got sacked – unbelievably. We were top of the league and the last unbeaten team, and it looked like we were gonna be top 3 with Ipswich and Plymouth. And then we just fucking fell off a cliff. I think we won one game in about 15/16 games, and around January time it got really toxic.

They appointed Mousinho a few weeks later. In the lead up to that, there were a lot of fans who wanted Chris Wilder. Liam Manning was another one that people were talking about, and Neil Harris. So we were looking at people who were managing/had managed in the Championship and were highly thought of; Liam Richardson, who took Wigan up, was another one.

Then suddenly it was like ‘our next manager is gonna be Oxford United’s 5^th choice centre-back’. I have never seen a bigger meltdown – and Pompey Twitter loves a shitstorm – on social media than when John Mousinho got announced. I can’t look at those people and go ‘idiots’, because everybody thought the same! Why wouldn’t they? He was doing set piece drills for Oxford United. He wasn’t even their coach.

I remember someone saying at the time that this was either the final nail in the coffin for the Eisners and their ownership of the club, or it was the most outside-the-box, genius move a football club has ever made. Somehow, it was the latter. He is now, probably, my second favourite Pompey manager ever.

What is it that you think makes him so great for Pompey? What is it that he’s got right?

Steve: Well, I think we have a very well-thought-of Director of football as well, Richard Hughes, who came in in the summer while the Cowleys were still in charge. He came in and immediately the focus of players we signed changed a bit. We signed Paddy Lane from Fleetwood, who was a very important player to us in the League One promotion season. We signed Riley Towler, who didn’t really kick on but is now doing really well with Lincoln.

But I think the relationship between Mousinho and Hughes is the key to us being where we are. Mousinho is quite stoic, but at the same time he’s very articulate. You know that beneath this sort of friendly, quite unbothered demeanor, there’s a great motivator of players. There are some people who say we haven’t developed youth team players under him, but I don’t necessarily think that’s his fault. I think that’s a problem with the setup of the club. But he’s really good at identifying when we’re not playing well and adapting.

We played lovely football when we won League One. We had Marlon Pack coming in, pulling strings and spraying passes around. We had really exciting players on the wing. We had one of the best centre-forwards in the division at the time, I think maybe *the* best, in Colby Bishop. When we first came up to the Championship, we sort of tried to keep that possession football going, and we were bottom of the league after 15 games and we hadn’t won yet. To Mousinho’s credit, he changed the way that we played; he changed the way that we pressed, he changed the directness of the team.

And this is a broader point, but I think one of the worst things about modern coaches – I will chuck Russell Martin’s name in there because he’s a scummer, but also Amorim at United – is the refusal to match up against other teams. It’s not Brian Cough’s era anymore – you can’t just go out there and say, ‘this is how I play no matter what’. Mousinho hasn’t always got everything right, but he’s been hampered by a lack of funds and the ridiculous injuries we have. Every time I hear about another injury we have, I will stomp around the house for an hour going mad. He just gets on with it.

Is he recruiting players that fit into a particular system?

Steve: Yeah. I mean the recruitment thing is the big bug bear at Pompey at the moment. I would argue that since we got promoted to the Championship, the majority of players that you’d want in that squad are players we had in League One. We’ve brought in a very good keeper in Nico Schmid, and actually Josif Bursik, who I think is really good competition for Schmid.

But Derby signed Carlton Morris for £1.5m in the summer, and I thought ‘that’s exactly the sort of player we should be going for’. Or Michael Smith, who went from Sheffield Wednesday to Preston on a free. It’s not even like these players would be big money. But when I look at the players we’ve signed since coming up, a lot have been gambles on young players who’ve played for PL under-21 development sides, or they’ve had terrible injury records for a long time, or they’re imports from weird places.

And because of all the injuries, we had to buy Ebou Adams from Derby, and again, that’s exactly the kind of signing we should’ve been making in the first place. We’ve looked so much better with him in our team.

Did you have to pay a lot for him?

Steve: Half a million! So that’s great. But this window we’ve brought in four loans, one free agent, Ebou Adams and we spent £300,000 on a centre-back from Norway, who might be the next Virgil Van Dijk or he might never ever play for us.

Rich Hughes and John Mousinho do an amazing job of getting Championship survival out of a squad whose net spend is minus a million. We needed to severely strengthen our squad this window, and we might well have done, but I just don’t really think you can run your club like that. Even Oxford have spent about £3-4 million this window! So it will come back to bite us on the arse at some point.

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If the window was still open, who would be your top three signings to fit Pompey’s conditions and purposes right now?

Steve: We desperately, desperately need a striker. Obviously he’d have cost a lot of money, but I’d have liked us to have gone for Bamford before he joined Sheffield United. Or Ollie McBurnie in the summer, on a free.

He’s such a workhorse that guy. It’s sort of frustrating to me that he’s never really kicked on. I don’t know how much potential he has as a goalscorer, but he works so hard. He deserves to be in a setup where he can actually flourish a bit.

Steve: I just think – I mean again, he’s not fit at the moment – but strikers should be gorging on Josh Murphy’s deliveries. Murphy is the best winger outside of the PL I think; his delivery is outrageous. For whatever reason, it just hasn’t really been happening for Colby Bishop this season. I would’ve fucking loved McBurnie, I think he would’ve been perfect.

I don’t wanna sound like a broken record, because there will be Pompey fans reading this who say the same thing, but we need a right winger. The year we came up we had Abu Kamara on loan from Norwich. They sold him for £4.5 million, and I understand that at the time we couldn’t afford that. But I wish we could’ve done some deal, like a loan-to-buy thing.

Finally, let’s get into it; what’s your beef with Arsenal? Is there a single moment that underpins it?

Steve: Yes, and it’s the same as every other Portsmouth fan. Robert Pires and his flailing leg against Dejan Stefanovic in the first year in the PL, getting a penalty.

But you know what? Pires is a diving, dirty cheat, but a lot of players are and I shouldn’t hold that against him. What really fucked me off about it was Arsene Wenger smirking after the game and being like ‘oh it’s just part of the game, it happens’. But a year later, at the Battle of the Buffet at Old Trafford, it was all ‘waaahhh, they dived, waaahhh’, and it’s like hang on mate! I thought it was all part of the game! The Invincibles may not have been the Invincibles if it wasn’t for a very, very blatant dive by Robert Pires.

Arsene Wenger is the sacred cow that nobody can touch at Arsenal, but I completely understand why he pissed fans of other teams off. I guess Ferguson was kind of like it too –

Steve: Yeah, Ferguson was just as bad.

Yeah, he was just as capable of being sneering and condescending and the rest of it. Obviously Wenger is largely credited with bringing the nutritional revolution into the English game, and changing the way players train, so maybe there was a slight god complex and felt that he was untouchable at that time.

Steve: Yeah. And I mean I thought Wenger was great when he came in. What I will say about Arsenal is that that 5-1 defeat you dealt us at Fratton Park in the Cup that season is probably the greatest single team performance against Pompey I’ve ever seen. We actually didn’t play that badly that day; we just came up against that team.

I mean for me, it’s an absolute scandal that Thierry Henry never won the Ballon D’Or. He was easily the best player on the planet at that time. And I’ve seen us play against a lot of good players in those Premier League years; Ronaldo, Rooney, Drogba, Lampard, Gerrard and Torres, but none of them were as good as Henry.

Hopefully you won’t be commiserating too much when we win the League this season then?

Steve: Well, I don’t want City to win again. Who would?

Thank you for reading today’s piece. If you’ve enjoyed this fan interview then check out my chats with supporters of Bristol Rovers and 1. Heidenheim 1846.

TW: This article contains details of rape and sexual assault allegations.

28^th June 2016. If you’re an England fan, you know exactly where you were. Not only was that the setting for one of the most historically humiliating nights in English national football; it had to happen just five days after a certain referendum saw the country decide to impose economic sanctions on itself probably forever.

Yes, many of us were looking for reasons for cheer and hope in the fateful Brexit week. I was in a boozer in Bath, and the atmosphere was peculiarly tentative. Not that you can blame anyone; soul-crushing draws against Russia and Slovakia and a narrow 2-1 win over Wales weren’t exactly inspiring.

Still, there was enough of the typical hubris in the air to make most of us sure we’d beat Iceland, even if the Nordic minnows had taken the tournament by surprise with their group stage results.

They came out of the early rounds unbeaten, including a seismic draw against eventual champions Portugal. They impressed on the field but in the stands is where they really captured hearts.

This small nation of just under 350,000 had brought a vibrant, unshakeable sense of passion with them, the thunderous ‘Viking Clap’ carrying huge heft as it reverberated imposingly around French stadia. In hindsight, they were primed to unpick an England reeling, both in football and cultural terms.

It’s probably too poetic to suggest that general national anxiety had any real impact on the match itself, but England’s turgidity saw the underdogs prevail. By the 20-minute mark Iceland had already secured their victory. ‘This performance is so Brexit’, quipped one punter in the pub about 65 minutes in.

The ascent continued as Iceland qualified for the 2018 World Cup in Russia two years later, though their volcanic power wasn’t to bear such fruit this time. They finished bottom of a tough group including Croatia, Argentina and Nigeria, though not without stealing two points from the South American titans. The wheels on the hype train were still spinning, and Iceland were still erupting.

Eight years on however, and it’s all gone horribly wrong. They were the first team to be knocked out of EURO 2025, the only international tournament the men’s team has qualified for since 2018. Recent results haven’t exactly started any fires either. They held France to a 2-2 draw in Reykjavik in late 2025, but were also soundly beaten twice by a beleaguered Ukraine.

So what exactly happened? The story involves a dark and depressing scandal, disgraced players, alleged cover ups at the highest echelon, and a group of brave women who stepped forward to bring about a vital reckoning.

The Nightmare Descends

The debacle begins in the late summer of 2021. On an August evening, the chairman of KSI (the Icelandic FA) at the time – former Spurs and Bolton Wanderers defender Gudni Bergsson – appeared on the nightly news. When asked about whether he’d been informed of sexual assault allegations against members of the men’s national team circulating on social media, he said:

‘No, not really in a formal sense. We have not received, not really, complaints or any kind of indications that anyone was guilty of sexual assault’.

Those words proved fatal. The following day, Thorhildur Arnardottir came forward with a distressing, compelling story. She alleged that she had been groped sexually and then strangled by a major Icelandic player in a Reykjavik bar in 2017. That player was named as Kolbein Sigthorsson sometime later.

Shortly afterwards, the entire serving KSI board issued an apology and resigned with immediate effect. But it would only get worse for Bergsson and his reputation. It came to light that in June 2021, two months before Arnardottir went public, he and several KSI members had been made aware of a rape allegation against national team veterans Aron Gunnarsson and Eggert Jonsson in Denmark in 2010.

Arnardottir said that she knew of at least six players who had been accused of sexual assault. Before stepping down, Bergsson said that his previous comments on national TV had been a ‘mistake’.

Katrin Jakobsdottir, the Prime Minister at the time, urged the KSI to root out the clearly endemic nightmare lurking beneath the surface. The board said that they would:

‘… fix the things that have gone wrong and look at the culture that exists within the football movement from the bottom up. Work is already underway with external professionals to review all responses to sexual offences and violence within the association and how support was and will be provided to victims’.

The Outcome

Sigthorsson, according to Arnardottir, never denied wrongdoing and apologised to her in person. He was never charged, but did settle with Arnardottir and her friend (who also accused him of assault) out of court, making a donation equivalent to £17,200 to Stigamot, a company that represents and carries out work on behalf of survivors.

Not to be deterred, Arnardottir continued courageously flying the flag for the women who had been horrendously overlooked; something that’s particularly striking when you consider that a few weeks later Sigthorsson proclaimed his innocence publicly.

‘KSI does not knowingly pick violent men for their team’, she said. ‘The board is incompetent on this. So, in order to make this happen, it would be best to get a new board as a whole.’

This sentiment was echoed by several people on the national stage, most notably Hanna Bjorg Vilhjalmsdottir, the chair of the equality commission of the National Teacher’s Association.

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The Crisis Deepens

Following the expose of the 2010 case involving Gunnarsson and Jonsson, the Icelandic police reopened the case. Aevar Palmasson, head of the Sexual Offences Dept. in Reykjavik, said that they had ‘good reason’ for reopening the case as ‘new information’ and ‘new data’ had been uncovered.

You can read the allegation, posted to Instagram by the victim who remains anonymous, below. Fair warning, her account is nothing short of horrific.

Egregiously but predictably, she was hounded and gaslit. ‘I was repeatedly reminded that if I complained it would affect their careers, it would go to the papers and everyone would know about it’, she writes.

That tallies with Arnardottir’s experience too. She recounted a gruelling exchange with one of KSI’s lawyers to the Reykjavik Grapevine:

‘He asked whether I was ready to sign a non-disclosure agreement and monetary restitution – and naturally I said no.’

It wasn’t just defence lawyers that Arnardottir and others had to contend with. After Vilhjamsdottir wrote an article about the numerous allegations against multiple team members and accused KSI of staying silent, the board initially responded with denial.

As it turned out, Bergsson and certain members had been aware of the allegations before the others. Ensconced in claims of a cover up, other board members ‘fell on their own swords’ following his departure, acknowledging that Icelandic football fans had ‘lost faith in their ability’.

The ‘Golden Generation’ Swept Aside

For their part, Gunnarsson and Jonsson have always denied any wrongdoing. The situation reached boiling point during a round of qualifiers for the 2022 World Cup. Along with Sigthorsson, neither were selected for the games against Germany, Romania and North Macedonia, and issued formulaic denials.

Gunnarsson claimed that the incoming KSI board were attempting to ‘cancel’ him, while Jonsson focused on his desire to ‘clear himself’ of the charges.

Who made the decision to leave them out has never been fully confirmed. Some reported that it was the call of Arnar Vidarsson, the first team coach at the time.

Sources close to the Athletic apparently claimed that Vilhjalmsdottir was invited to KSI’s offices, shown a list of players and asked to confirm who had allegations against them. She says this happened but denies having any influence over the selection process.

Whatever the case, Iceland didn’t advance to the World Cup. It’s hard to shake the feeling that the scandal still hangs over the sport’s progress like a malignant spectre.

But if there’s any hope to take from this story, it’s the power of collective action. Arnardottir and Vilhjalmsdottir paved the way, but they weren’t the only ones to start the arduous but resilient march.

KSI Seeks Change

OFGAR is a radical feminist collective based in Iceland. In October 2021, they played a seismic role in keeping the justice ball spinning, sending a letter directly to the KSI detailing further sexual and violent allegations.

Kolbrun Hrund Sigurgeirsdottir, who assumed the KSI chair from Bergsson, was strangely contradictory in her response. When asked about whether there was a toxic, misogynist culture in Icelandic football generally, she said: ‘I don’t know, I wasn’t there’. She would later maintain that there was ‘no evidence’ of a wider problem but was forthright nonetheless: ‘we have to change the culture’, she said.

When you take those comments into account, I think it’s clear to understand OFGAR’s assertion that the idea that Iceland is a ‘feminist paradise’ is a non-starter. In a meeting with The Athletic in 2021, a member told them:

‘Every time we have a #MeToo movement, we get stories and we don’t do much about it. We listen and we’re like ‘oh, it’s disgusting’. But we don’t want to talk about it. It’s heads down. But *we’re* continuing to talk about it’.

How Much Has Actually Changed?

It’s hard to know. Football is still the country’s most popular sport, and it’s pleasing to report that perhaps the catalyst for that is the women’s national team. They’re currently ranked as the world’s 16^th best team by FIFA, above the likes of Portugal and Argentina.

They also have a significant amount of star power. The team’s captain and veteran of 140 caps, Glodis Viggosdottir, is part of the steel wall that makes up Bayern Munich’s back line. Karolina Vilhjalmsdottir is pulling the strings at Inter and Hlin Eiriksdottir brings firecracker energy to Leicester City’s frontline.

All of this feels especially pertinent when you consider that neither Sigthorsson or Jonsson have been selected for the national side since 2021. The former was forced into retirement after the scandal, when the Ultras at his club, IFK Goteborg, demanded that his contract was annulled. It’s a rare case of a player truly getting his comeuppance in this game.

But the sense that the KSI’s intentions were for long-term reform is dashed by the fact that Aron Gunnarsson has made 10 appearances for the national side since 2021, including in the three most recent friendlies. Clearly the ‘Golden Generation’ tag doesn’t clean off as easy as mud.

As the ongoing debate around Mason Greenwood proves, memories in football are either embarrassingly short or willfully manipulated and explained away. Add almost endless corruption, synapse-bursting posturing and mealy mouthed flappery into the mix and well, pretty much everything stops being surprising.

Which makes Iceland’s story, at least in immediate aftermath of the 2021 scandal, even more powerful. It’s a prime example of something actually being done, and how that rebuild reshaped so many people’s connection to the national game. As football fans, we should remind our comrades of it every time complacency rears its ugly head.

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And so we come to the end of the first full year of Occupy the Pitch. And what a year it’s been. I’ve written before about how I never really had many ambitions for the newsletter, but that I was delighted that it has found an audience.

The fact that that audience has grown, especially since the start of this season, is even more joyous. Substack, moreso than any other medium or format, has assured me that there is a massive community of people who care about football way beyond what happens on the pitch.

The stories I’ve covered and the people I’ve met (mostly virtually) have all been thanks to shared interests, perspectives and nuances that permeate the game’s cultural identities. Occupy the Pitch hasn’t just given my personal interests a lifeline; it’s helped me feel deeply connected to football fans everywhere.

If you’ve been following the newsletter for a while, you’ll know that you have my permanent thanks for sticking with me and engaging with the stories I write here. So once again, a huge, unerring thanks.

With the New Year looming, I thought I’d take some to reflect on the newsletter’s progress, what’s resonated with readers, and discuss some plans for early 2026. Below, I’ve reminisced about my top five most read pieces this year, and created a poll for you to voice what you’d like me to write in 2026. Football should be democratic, after all.

Happy reading and voting! Wishing you all a successful, exciting and also peaceful 2026.

1. Salisbury FC and the Advent of the Facebook Fan

When it comes to page views, the first piece I published this year - ‘Ancient Megaliths & Playoff Finals: A Modern Guide to Salisbury FC’ - still absolutely dwarfs the others. In an ideal world, that would be because the interview with their Club Secretary, Leona Clubb, is engaging and eye-opening. In truth, the reality is quite different.

The real reason for that level of engagement is quite simple. Against my better judgement (as it turns out), I decided to publish the piece on a Salisbury FC Facebook Supporter’s page. Surely people will be pleased that somebody new is taking an interest in their club, I thought. You’re right - I should’ve known better.

People on Facebook bloody love giving things a kicking, and my piece was no exception. The response was 98% negative, with just a couple of people coming to bat for me and the attention I’d placed on the club. Some of my favourite disses include ‘Well, someone’s swallowed a thesaurus…’, and ‘Jack, you are obviously trying but this needs some work’. Cheers Barry (not his real name).

Fan disgruntlement aside, I’m still happy with the piece. Salisbury is a city close to my heart, and the club’s story is fascinating. Taking a trip down memory lane with Leona was fun too. It’s not the most thought-provoking or insightful piece I’ve ever written, sure, but it’s worth reading if you’re interested in grassroots English football.

2. Local and Personal Reflections from Bristol Rovers

Speaking of memory and personal connection, my two-parter on Bristol Rovers back in February seemed to strike a chord with lots of people.

For a while, I wondered why this piece had done better than part one, an interview with established, insightful journalist and Rovers lifer Luke Maunder. But I think it’s probably the combination of personal family history and a match day experience that took so many cultural twists and turns that gripped people. I hope that’s why, anyway.

3. Talking Irish Football with A Rising Legend

Deep down, I sort of knew my latest long-form piece (published earlier in December) was going to do well. Not because of me, I hasten to add. It’d do well because James Callan is one of the most knowledgeable Irish football writers currently on Substack, with expertise in the game that stretches way beyond his years.

I sat down to chat with him about the cultural, tactical and financial elements dictating the current state of the game, exploring historic glories and future directions along the way. It took us from Ireland to Italy to London and back again, and you’ll see what I mean about his insight.

4. Seven Goals and an Audio Essay at Brislington FC

Before deciding to cover Brislington FC in November, it’d been a while since I’d covered grassroots football. Being not too far away geographically and drawn in by their fervent fanbase, I decided to head over for their clash against St. Austell FC.

Like a lot of clubs in the 10th tier, the club’s story is inseparable from its community, and delving into the financial, artistic and fan-focused endeavours was really interesting. The piece was also the first time I jumped into the joys of audio storytelling, which people have seemed to enjoy. There may be more to come in the new year, but I’d love your thoughts in the comments about whether that’s something you’d like to see more of.

5. Football in a Genocide

Though it’s got the least views of the five pieces mentioned here, this article is by far the one I’m most proud of. People often write about the impact of football in a crisis, but at the time of writing I couldn’t find any extensive, detailed investigation into how the football was responding to a literal smorgasbord of war crimes.

It was maybe a depressing piece to kickstart the new season of content with, but I’m delighted that the hours of research and fact-checking paid off. Everyone who's commented on the piece, either online or in-person, has found it engaging, persuasive and well-argued. Which is the best compliment, because when I read it back now I still wonder if I got everything right.

A huge thanks to everybody who has invested in this one.

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Occupy the Pitch is a Democracy!

With the reflection out of the way, it’s time that I turn my attention to what’s to come in 2026. I’ve got loads of content ideas, but I thought I’d let you have your say on what you’d be most interested in reading.

In the poll below, I’ve chosen four stories that I’m keen to write. I’ll keep the voting open for a week, which will hopefully allow enough time for anyone so inclined to cast their thoughts. I’ll choose the most popular option for January’s content, and will likely smatter the other stories throughout the rest of the season/year.

I look forward to seeing what you go for!

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Irish football is having a moment. Whether it’s the slew of young players making headway in the Premier League and Serie A or the national side’s romantic World Cup qualification run, many eyes are fixed on teams and players from the Emerald Isle right now.

The uptick in interest is, thankfully, being spurred by a host of innovative and creative writers. James Callan is one of those. Raised in the County Louth town of Dundalk, he comes from deep League of Ireland (LOI) heritage, introduced to the game via his former-player uncle. He covers the league for state broadcaster RTE, while simultaneously running his own newsletter and contributing several articles a week to Boardroom Ball.

For the first time in a while, the future of Irish football feels incredibly exciting; ‘extra’, and ‘free’, as Heaney once wrote. I sat down with James to talk about that future, via his own background in the game, growing crowds, THAT Bohemians/Fontaines DC jersey, breathtaking comeback stories, politics, public ownership, tactics and much, much more. I hope you enjoy reading it.

Tell me a little bit about who you are, what your background is and how you became so involved in what you do.

James: So I’ve always loved football. It was my dad who first got me properly obsessed, and then my uncle got me into League of Ireland because he formerly played for Drogheda and Dundalk. I remember walking out at Oriel Park when I was like six or seven as a mascot, not really fully understanding the game, just knowing that I loved it.

I went to college and studied Business and Law, and I did my final year dissertation on multi-club ownership within football and that actually got taken on by RTE, the state broadcaster. I just kind of wrote it from a legal perspective about how EU regulation effects the sport. I loved football and really enjoyed law, so I just decided to combine the two.

Is that how you came to write for RTE?

James: Yeah. My lecturers forwarded it to them and then they met me and took me on so that kind of started me writing about football. The whole process of actually writing for the broadcaster was very new for me, and I was just like ‘wow, somebody actually wants to hear this story’; I didn’t think anybody really would.

What’s the general level of interest in football in Ireland? Is it something that RTE has a big presence with?

James: The Irish national team would always be very well covered; all their games will be broadcast. A lot of the state newspapers will report on the LOI, but it’s not really televised. Clubs have their own streaming websites for the games, so it’s still not really out there enough, for my liking anyways as a big fan of it.

It also has to compete with GAA (Gaelic Football) - it’s our national sport but it’s not a professional sport, which is wild to me. RTE will have all the hurling games as well, so the three sports are competing.

Is the League of Ireland fully professional?

James: The Premier Division is now, but in the second tier you still have some semi-professional teams. Youth players will have second jobs. I was a former youth player myself and you’re still holding down a weekend job at a café and going to college.

What are match day attendances like in general?

James: They’ve actually improved massively. I remember going to a cup game between Dundalk and Bohemians when I was like 16 and there were like 600 people in the crowd. You could actually hear the players shouting on the pitch. But this year they had to move the Dublin Derby (Shamrock Rovers v Bohemians) to the Aviva stadium because they were selling that many tickets for it. So there is a massive uptake in it, which is great to see.

How responsible is the increased presence around clubs like Bohs, for example, for driving that interest?

James: Bohs do it really well. I went to Spain during the summer, and when I was kid you’d walk past the lads that sell the rip-off replica kits and they were horrific, but I walked past and two of them had Bohemians/Fontaines DC jerseys. Like when I was a kid I couldn’t even get a proper looking Netherlands jersey and here’s a near one-to-one Bohemians jersey in the middle of Spain.

They’ve branded themselves so well. They’ve a Kneecap jersey coming out and they’re a very politically geared club. I feel like that’s a lot to do with the kind of public ownership, so the fans have the majority of the say, which is great to see. It’s almost like Germany, where those clubs are run by the fans.

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You wrote recently about public ownership potentially becoming a bit more of an established thing in Ireland. It’s an interesting time for that to be happening because the league is growing financially. Is there any friction there between the desires of the fans and the owners?

James: Irish football is such a weird thing. It’s very hard to compete if you’re just a fan-owned club. You’d need some kind of back up. Alot of clubs in Germany are fan-owned, but I know that a majority shareholder at Bayern Munich is Allianz, so they still have a big backer behind them.

It’s hard for Irish football. So many clubs go under. My home club Dundalk almost went under because an American group came in and didn’t really have much care for the club or the fans as a whole. This time last year there was talk that Dundalk were no longer going to be a club. When you see things like that you start to think is there really space for these people who actually don’t care about these clubs.

Hopefully fan ownership does come through a bit more. Or even if it doesn’t, at least have like a majority fan share ownership within a club, or a fan group within a board that can kind of guide these owners towards what they think is best from the fans’ perspective.

You’ve already touched on this, but clubs like Dundalk, Cork, Shamrock and Athlone Ladies have really captured fans’ imaginations recently. What do you think is driving that? Are these clubs giving a lot back to their communities?

James: Well Dundalk were the first Irish club to make the European group stages. When I was about the club I was much younger, but it felt like the town wouldn’t exist without Dundalk FC. It’s almost like it’s ingrained into the actual fabric of the town.

Shamrock Rovers are based in a really working-class area where the community does drive the football club. I know the CEO of Athlone and I know that a lot of what he does is based around community-based work. And their women’s team are flying so high, like they’ve won the cup and the league this year, and they’ve had that run in Europe. It was brilliant to see an Irish women’s team do that.

This year at Dundalk, I’ve found that a lot of the local players have been used, which you don’t really see anymore. There’s the likes of Vinnie Leonard, who’s only a 16/17-year-old lad, got called up to the Ireland Under 17s World Cup squad because of his performances.

There’s a main group of players who know what the club means to the community, like Mayo Animasahun. He was there when Stephen Kenny lifted the title when he was 13 and he’s there now helping Dundalk lift their First Division title, so it’s come full circle.

What have been some of your favourite stories that you’ve covered?

James: My personal favourite was called ‘The Local lads’. It was about the, as I said, the local lads at Dundalk that have helped the club get out of that financial position and get the First Division title.

Another recent one would covering the link between Irish players moving to Italy. Whenever young Irish players would see a move abroad, the first thought was always to go and play in England. But since Brexit I think they’ve realised that the UK isn’t the only option, so a big kind of Irish cohort moving over to Italy was really interesting to write about.

And then for Boardroom Ball I wrote a piece on Girona about how City Group came in and took over. I spoke to their CEO and got different perspectives at the club, including fans. At Boardroom Ball – and I’m just a writer – what we try to do is focus on the business aspect of things, but you still can’t ignore the fans. Without them these clubs wouldn’t have their business.

Two follow-ups here. Firstly, why do you think Irish players are choosing Italy over France, or Spain, for example? And how easy is it to get forthcoming fan perspectives on these issues?

James: I think fans will always be straight to the point about their club. If they’re not happy then they’re not happy; it’s the same across world football. You’ll see protests everywhere. Even if things are going well, one loss and fans can just turn on you. So getting a fan’s perspective is always quite straightforward; they just come out with it. I know I would be the same if somebody asked me about Dundalk, and this time last year I’d have said it how it was.

With the draw to Italy, I think Italia 90 still might be a big reason. I wasn’t alive for it but I still know every detail. My dad’s a Villa fan but he’d always say he supported Juventus, and I think that’s because on Channel 4 there was the Gazzetta Football Italia show that was kind of like Match of the Day. So a lot of his age group picked Italian clubs.

If you had to pick one matchday memory that for you sums up the Irish football-going experience, what would you pick?

James: That is very tough. I always do love an FAI Cup Final; it always brings out the best in Irish football.

If you wanted probably the best matchday experience for Irish football you’d probably love to go to a Dublin Derby. At Shamrock Rovers vs Bohs the atmosphere there is electric, like its flares, the massive tifos, everything you want. At times it feels like they’re going to kill each other but it stays very civil afterwards. I remember one match day where Jack Byrne took his shirt off, put it on the corner flag and paraded it around the stadium. You really just love to see two teams going at it.

My favourite moment in Irish football was when Dundalk were at their most successful. Stephen Kenny was bringing home league title after league title. And in his final season, I think it was 2018, they had a whole parade through the town and it just shows how much one man can mean to a town of people. They got him up on stage and he became part of Dundalk’s town and footballing identity.

You touched on Shamrock and Bohs there, and in a big city there’s always going to be a big rivalry. Are there any fierce rivalries between any regional towns?

James: Dundalk and Drogheda would be one. I feel like Kerry and Cork is one. Cork are obviously a much bigger club than Kerry – Kerry are a quite newly formed LOI club – but that’s quite big.

Most of the Premier Division now is clubs based in Dublin, so what you’ll see is a lot of Dublin derbies; Like St Pat’s, Bohs, Shelbourne, Shamrock Rovers are all Dublin-based clubs. But it’s pretty unusual outside Dublin.

Dundalk and Cork have this rivalry from when they were going blow-for-blow for league titles almost a decade ago, and that still exists now. Derry City are kind of an outlier because they’re the only club from across the border that play in the LOI.

Interesting. Why is it only Derry?

James: When the leagues split into the LOI and the Northern Irish Premier League, they opted to stay in the LOI. They have a brilliant stadium and a great fanbase, and I hope they stay around the league because they’re an excellent addition.

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When the leagues split, was that just a logistical thing because they were technically two different nations? Or were there any deeper politics involved?

James: I think it was a lot of deeper politics. There were often issues when, for example, Dundalk would go up to Linfield during the Troubles. There was an attempt at an all-Ireland cup, so the winners of each league would play each other, but there were only two iterations of it recently. There’s been talk about combining the two leagues, but it’s been a talking point since long before I was born, so who knows?

Do you think there’d be much appetite for that among the fans?

James: I’d say it’s a very mixed bag. There are some fans that would like to see it, but some of the older fans who remember what it was like would prefer to steer away from it.

More generally, are there any particular political affiliations that clubs in Ireland have, and how deeply felt are they?

James: Bohemians are definitely a big political driver. Like they had the Palestine jersey. Bohs affiliate themselves with Palestine a lot because the Irish have a relationship with the Palestinian cause; like one nation coming and taking over and then telling the people what they own. So they’re the big political force in Irish football.

Is there a unifying sense of identity among Irish fans nationwide? Like, do Cork fans share a kind of cultural soul with Dundalk fans, for example?

James: I think it depends where you go. There is still trouble after LOI games, as with football everywhere. You’ll have your ultra fans, and it does kick off from time to time.

But Irish fans are so used to taking slagging from each other that that’s the sense of humour. We take it as a joke and we bond with it, whereas certain people would probably take it more seriously. I have one or two British friends who really take it to heart if you start slagging their club. I think that’s just built into the Irish people and so is a part of the footballing identity.

Yeah, that’s nice to hear. You look at some of the derbies between clubs in Europe where you feel that the animosity is so entrenched that they couldn’t outgrow it even if they wanted to. If you don’t have that I guess it’s easier to take the piss and share that, rather than divide yourselves along very arbitrary lines.

James: Yeah. I think as well that the only time struggle was really a problem was when it was a kind of all-Ireland league. Linfield are from a very Protestant area of Belfast, and throughout the Troubles if a Catholic club went up or they came down there would always be trouble. So it’s good that it has moved away from that.

And hopefully if we went back to having one league that it could be this civil league where all fans could just get on. There would probably still be trouble sometimes, but hopefully it wouldn’t be to the same degree as Belgrade, or Old Firm derbies at times.

You recently wrote about the national side’s qualifying campaign, and the role that tactics have played. What feels different about the tactics this time, and why do you think they’re bearing fruit?

James: Football kind of goes in cycles. Jack Charlton football – most Irish fans will remember – was mostly long balls straight up, hit and hope and then play for second balls. And that worked because a lot of Irish players were just bigger footballers.

You’ve now got players like Jake O’Brien at Everton who’s 6ft6”. Liam Scales is a LWB, Nathan Collins, Dara O’Shea, they’re all very tall people. Evan Ferguson up front too. Very tall, broad lads. The change back to that was most evident with the goal against Hungary. They play a long ball up to Liam Scales, and even if Scales doesn’t win it he gets a flick on and Troy Parrott is there off the shoulder.

Irish teams of late before this were trying to play possession-based football. I think a lot of coaches forget that the aim isn’t always to play nice football; it’s to be effective. And I think Irish coaches are starting to acknowledge the size advantage we have again now.

There’s so much doom-mongering going on about teams playing for set pieces etc. just now. What’s your take on it?

James: There’ll always be purists who won’t want to see anything like that. But if everyone played the same it’d be a very boring game. I had no problem with like Stoke City and Rory Delap playing for long throw-ins. It’s almost like saying that title-winning Leicester City team, ‘right, you’ve no right to play a long ball up to Jamie Vardy’.

It might not be pretty to watch, but it gets results. And fans will thrive on results. I get why people will argue, ‘cause it’s not the most beautiful, but most Chelsea fans don’t care if they win 1-0 because of a long throw; they’d care more if they lost 3-0.

Yeah. You can do a bit of a case study with Arsenal. All the Wenger-Ball stuff that we tried for years throughout the 2010s never really worked in the same way. We learned the hard way that it’s very easy to play like that and not be effective. For a long time it was like that was our identity. It was a bit like ‘This is Arsenal, we play poetically’, and everything else was sort of second fiddle.

James: Yeah. And I definitely think with a club like Barcelona it’s ingrained in these players when they’re young and those players then have a chance to play in the first team so it’s very different. But for clubs like Arsenal and Chelsea, who are constantly bringing in talent from elsewhere, you can’t really have a set identity around the club. You kind of have to change to what’s working around you at the time.

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Thank you for reading today’s interview. You can find all James’s work for his own newsletter here, for Boardroom Ball here, and for RTE here.

I strongly encourage you to subscribe and follow his activity on social media; it’s all killer, whether about Irish football or beyond.

Number boffins, assemble! That’s right, last Wednesday the UK’s Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rachel Reeves, delivered her second annual Budget.

It’s always a nerve-wracking time of year, but has particularly been so since Liz Truss basically forced the country’s coffers to self-implode in 2022. It’s fair to say that a change in government hasn’t led to any less confusion or anxiety; although it’s worth noting that Reeves is standing firm in the face of allegations of misleading the public.

I won’t get into the weeds about forecasts here. To be honest, for every positive step it seems that there’s a negative one. What is clear is that fans and clubs, particularly at grassroots level, are going to be impacted.

So what does the squeeze on taxes mean for clubs’ wage bills? And is the cost of a day at the football going to dramatically increase? Let’s take a look.

The Clubs

It’s hard to feel negatively about the raises in minimum wage, no matter how small. More money in people’s pockets is always good. However, it’s not so black and white when you consider the impact on clubs.

In this piece for City AM, Tom Wilson is quick to highlight the dent this could make on clubs’ already depleted accounts, particularly at grassroots level. A Snapshot Survey of sporting institutions following the 2024 Budget found that 35% of respondents were planning to reduce headcount. It also feels inevitable that ticket prices will increase.

Higher staffing costs will likely mean that smaller clubs have less to invest in community-centred and development projects.

That’s particularly true in regions where there is less investment in general. Clubs in London and England’s South East probably don’t need to be so worried, but as Wilson says, hiked running costs ‘will only amplify differences long-term’.

Premier League clubs don’t get off completely Scott-free, however. From April 2027, any money players receive from image rights will be considered income. This means that players will face increased tax bills, which they are likely to pass onto the clubs.

There’s potential that this has a knock-on effect on transfer policy. Oftentimes, players signed from overseas have contract clauses that make clubs liable for any major changes to the UK’s tax setup. Where they don’t, however, they’re likely to start demanding higher wages.

Personally, I don’t think there’s any need to get the violins out for PL clubs any time soon. And this move has been welcomed by many tax and economic experts. Speaking to The Guardian, Professor Rob Wilson, Head of Finance, Accounting and Business Systems at Sheffield Hallam University, said:

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The Fans

Like I said above, it would be churlish to suggest that wage increases are anything other than a good move. Whether people are spending money on the footy or not, broad brush increases in economic wealth undoubtedly means better economic health in general.

Coupled with measures like the Mansion Tax and a slight drop in energy bills for many households, it’s likely that some are going to have more disposable income. There is the sense, of course, that a more fulsome redistributive tax regime would go much further. And if clubs hike prices then wage increases may be almost entirely offset.

As Tom Wilson points out, clubs have been increasing prices on food and drinks at stadia since last year. In England at least, new commuting measures may at least mean travelling to games is more accessible. Train prices are frozen until March 2027, albeit only on services run by England-based operating companies.

It’s also expected that rent prices are going to rise thanks to heavier tax burdens on landlords. The government is also imposing stricter Cash ISA savings regulations, reducing the tax-free cap from £20,000 to £12,000.

This is supposedly to encourage more personal investment in pursuit of the golden goose: economic growth. But add into the mix that income tax thresholds are frozen until 2031 and it starts to paint a starker picture. Salary increases could see many people find themselves in a higher tax bracket.

Six days hence, and especially considering the fallout that has erupted since last Wednesday, there are no hard answers yet. Frustratingly, it doesn’t seem like there’s much chance that grassroots and lower league football clubs or fans are going to benefit massively in the short term.

It’ll be months before the picture de-blurs. All fans can do really is hope that the higher taxes do what they’re meant to and re-balance the scales.

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If you like what you read here, check out my latest piece covering the past and present of Brislington FC, taking community engagement and financial struggles in their stride.

Today’s piece is a bit of a first for Occupy the Pitch. The first half, exploring the history and cultural present of Brislington FC, is in our standard written format. The second half comes in the form of an audio essay, including coverage of the local community, Bris’s match against AFC St Austell and how I felt leaving Ironmould Lane. Let me know what you think in the comments!

You don’t often hear about the 10^th tier of English football. Entirely comprised of regional and non-professional teams, the Western Jewson Premier Division features teams from well-known places like Bristol and Bridgwater rub shoulders with those from Paulton, a former coal-mining village of just over 5,000 people.

Brislington FC have been a staple of this league for seven decades. Founded in their current guise in 1957, their status as a yo-yo team has clung to them throughout. Despite their tipsy-topsy reputation, they have pride of place in one of South Bristol’s oldest communities, sporting that most Bristol of nicknames: The Foxes.

At this level of the game, it’s the community that matters. Brislington are about as dyed-in-the-wool as it comes. It was in 1956, when the club was reformed and managed by pre-war club legend Bill Parsons, that they founded a long-standing pitch at the area’s legendary Arnos Court.

They achieved modest success throughout the 1960s, 70s and 80s, cementing their regional stalwart status through winning several prestigious Somerset Cups at junior and senior level. It might sound odd, but those wins mean just as much – if not more – at this level.

As we’ll cover a bit later, the system is not in your favour. Climbing high above your station is often out of the question. It’s for this reason that cup wins, promotions, youth development and engagement are essentially to local communities. That’s how these teams give something back.

And Brislington are also committed to representing those communities on the pitch. They currently run four teams in four different divisions:

• Jewson Western Football League (Premier Division) – First Team

• Bristol & Suburban League (Senior Division) – Reserves

• Western Counties Floodlit League (First Division) – Under 18s

• Bristol Corinthians League (Over 35 Associates League) – Veterans Team

Through these outlets, Brislington FC are giving an incentive not just to get on the pitch, but also to give entire generations of families a reason to come back to Ironmould Lane. As someone who grew up not far away and played for a village team many moons ago, it’s hard to think of another team that quite carries that weight.

It might be because they’re from Bristol, where there is inevitably more investment than many of the surrounds. But that hasn’t made The Foxes immune from unfortunate financial forces.

Sometimes Less is More

It’s with depressing predictability that the general financial trajectory of the game stunts grassroots progress. It was in the mid-90s that Brislington FC fell foul of those conspiracies.

Playing in the Toolstation Western Premier Division at the time, The Foxes felt the sharp edge associated with travelling costs. Odd Down, a team from nearby Bath’s south-western tip, were essentially forced to take voluntary relegation to keep themselves afloat. Not long after, Bris followed suit.

Consistently depleted cash capabilities meant that they weren’t able to return to the Premier Division until the 2023/24 season, but at the time it was probably for the best. Ashton & Backwell and Bitton both retired their campaigns midway through the season, owing an inability to meet running costs and even fulfil all their fixtures.

In an age where blockbuster fixtures in Europe are taking place outside their domesticities and renewed conversations about the Super League never seeming far away, these happenings feel as frustrating as they do inevitable.

For Brislington, their situation may not have borne fruit in terms of climbing the tiers, but it’s nevertheless led to glory on the pitch. In the 2022/23 season, they won the league title, scoring 130 goals in the process and securing promotion back to the Premier Division.

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Where Art Meets Community

Even a cursory flick through Andy Brassell’s exceptional Football Murals will prove just how synonymous art and football have always been universally. You’ll find no murals of Maradona or Mbappe at Ironmould Lane, but art as identity is just as important.

Back in 2021, Brislington launched a project to celebrate their forthcoming 70^th anniversary. Local creators and lifelong fans Jonathan Kelham and Ken Borg began work on a showcase of the history, chemistry and essence of The Foxes.

The visual accoutrements splashed across the far end of Ironmould Lane burst with life and colour, splicing graphics of the fans as foxes with crisscrossing mosaics in the club’s legendary red and black. These are sometimes interrupted by graphics adorned with ‘Briz’ and ‘BS4’, leaving visitors in no doubt as to how much the project is tied to the community’s identity.

With a capacity of 3,000, the stadium will never receive much traffic. But it’s proof that cultural representation matters here as much as anywhere else.

Current Form

Ahead of today’s game against Cornish minnows AFC St Austell, neither team find themselves in comfortable territory. The visitors sit ingloriously rooted to the bottom of the table, having lost all their previous 17 games this season.

The Foxes sit just two places above them in 17^th, with five wins, two draws and 11 losses to their name. Thankfully for the home contingent, defensively they have the upper hand. Before the game, St. Austell had a goal difference of -92, having most recently lost 7-0 at home to Bridgwater.

With the prospect of a grim, turgid afternoon ahead, I headed to Ironmould Lane for the 3pm kick off on a gloriously, almost impossibly beautiful November Saturday. What happened was somehow simultaneously a surprise and completely expected.

The Match Report

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Thank you for reading and listening to today’s piece. I’d love to know whether you like the audio content, and whether you’d like to see more of it in the future.

So, here we are then. Just over a year since I first launched Occupy the Pitch and it has achieved what my inner marketing nerd likes to call its ‘first measurable goal’.

‘How has it taken you so long to reach 50 subs?!?!?!’, you might very reasonably ask. The truth is that back when I started this in October 2024, it was never really meant to be anything other than a vehicle for my own passions and interests. Very few other people were writing about the history of Salisbury FC, or exploring Bath City via the conduit of Ken Loach films.

Sure, I’ve done features on some clubs that’d had romantic attraction for football fans for some time; Dulwich Hamlet and 1. FC Heidenheim, for instance. But I wanted to find some way - and hopefully a unique way - to explore the histories, cultures, fans and stories of these clubs that fused match day atmospheres with legacy, insights from journalists and officials with heart-on-sleeve politics.

Of course, I’m not the first person to do this, and I haven’t always succeeded. But I merely wanted to write these stories in a way that I - and a handful of similarly minded friends - might find entertaining.

All of which is to say that until a couple of months ago, I never really had any growth plans for the newsletter. It’s only within the last six weeks that I’ve decided on a name and designed a thumbnail. I never really expected anybody to be THAT interested.

But one thing that has consistently stayed with me - and been the greatest compliment I could’ve hoped for - is the amount of non-football fans telling me how much they enjoy reading it. Whether through comments on social media or in-jokes about being a ‘hard-hitting journalist’, I can’t overstate how pleased I am that it has resonated with people. I *definitely* never thought that was going to happen.

This is becoming a bit much, so there are just two things left for me to do. The first is to say a huge, enormous, unequivocal thanks to everybody who has read, commented on, shared any Occupy the Pitch article and subscribed (with an extra special shout going to those who have upgraded to paid). It’s been a real pleasure to engage with you all on it, and I’m looking forward to having you around for what’s to come.

…Which brings me onto the second thing. If you haven’t already, then you can check out the two articles I’ve published so far this season below. One of them is a hefty political left-hook, examining how the football industry has reacted to the genocide in Gaza.

The other is a different type of left-hook - cheekier, less tragic but definitely still a cautionary tale - examining how Rui Costa is running Benfica into the ground. An update for those who are interested: Portugoal has reported that Costa comfortably won the first round of the latest presidential election on October 25th. He didn’t secure an absolute majority, however, so will be taking on the second-placed candidate, Joao Noronha Lopes, again in a fortnight.

Finally, though I can’t exactly reward you with anything specific for sticking with me so far, I can whet your appetite with some future plans. For my next long-form piece, I’ll be visiting one of Bristol’s most well-loved non-league entities (and there may even be some audio content, too). There are loads of exciting stories I’m buzzing to explore, and I’ll be attempting to secure some collabs with some of Substack’s finest footballing voices.

Once again, thank you so, so much for being part of this project so far. It’s been a joy.

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Lisbon is a city of tiles. I don’t mean the kind of pristine, ceramic tiles you find in a standard bathroom. The tiles that cover the congested but smart high-rise apartment blocks in the city centre create a sense of mysticism, something romantic and rustic but also elevating. It adds an artistic bent to a city that’s generally modest and down to Earth.

The integration of poetic imagery and a grounded sense of self kind of sums up Portugal’s footballing soul. The top tier of Portuguese football may be considered a ‘three team league’ (comprising Sporting Lisbon, Porto and today’s featured team), but even within that framing it’s home to nail-biting dramatism - what the journalist Miguel Lourenco Pereira calls the sport’s ‘Game of Thrones’.

In many ways, Sport Lisboa e Benfica is the semi-tragic figure of the piece. Being the club of Lisbon’s working class adds extra deliciousness to their history as the country’s most successful team, boasting 85 titles to their name.

In the 1960s, they played an untouchable, magisterial kind of football, spearheaded by Portugal’s most famous footballing export (well, until the 90s/early 2000s anyway), Eusebio. They were similarly imperious in the 1980s, and today are still regarded as one of the greatest talent-producing factories in Europe, bringing forth the likes of Bernardo Silva, Angel Di Maria, Ruben Dias and Joao Felix.

On the face of it, SL Benfica are still riding relatively high. In the last ten years, they’ve won the domestic title four times (never finishing below third), and the Taca de Portugal once. But the stats belie the fact that there’s a rot at the heart of the club that has dominated their off-the-pitch machinations for what feels like a long time. The fans’ cynicism and dismay are rooted, in part, by the fact that the murk and mire is all being overseen by a club legend: Rui Costa.

Looking For Rui Costa

Rui Manuel Cesar Costa, or Rui Costa to you and me, was born in northwest Lisbon’s Amadora district on the 29^th March 1972. An avid footballer from the age of five, early signs of his playmaking abilities caught the lofty attention of Eusebio, and the icon reeled him into Benfica’s youth system. A masterful string-puller and with a deadly fast left foot, he was an essential part of Benfica’s title-winning sides in the early 90s.

He’d go on to amass just under 250 caps in Italy (for Fiorentina and AC Milan respectively) between 1994 and 2006, notably becoming an important insurance player in Carlo Ancelotti’s all-conquering Milan team of the early noughties. On the international stage, too, he became synonymous with creative reliability, beating away any competition for the coveted Number 10 shirt and achieving 94 caps.

On the pitch, Rui Costa was a maverick. Up until a few years ago, he was still one Benfica fans’ most well-loved figureheads. But all that changed when he subsumed club presidential responsibilities from Luis Filipe Vieira in late 2021.

As has often been the case with now-retired legends of the game, the temptations of power have been a highway to folly. Perhaps more than in any other contemporary case, Costa’s Icarus complex isn’t just tarnishing his own legacy; it’s arguably running Benfica into the ground.

How Did We Get Here?

It should be said that Benfica’s current predicament didn’t start with Rui Costa. In fact, it precedes him by some years. The aforementioned Vieira, a former tire magnate (known as the ‘Gaddafi of Tires’ for his reportedly aggressive negotiating style), was re-elected as the club’s president six times in this century’s first two decades.

But by the time the 2020 election rolled around, his popularity had been scalped. Amid accusations of voting fraud and corrupt financial mismanagement, Vieira resigned in 2021, leaving Rui Costa to pick up the pieces.

Any notion that Costa was thrown in at the deep end has never been accepted by Benfica’s fans though. He’s mostly been viewed as a continuity candidate, owing to being Vieira’s Vice President. He’s also viewed as something of a fraud, appointed for his connections rather than any relevant qualifications.

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Seemingly delaying the presidential election for as long as possible in 2021 in a shameless attempt at protectionism, he eventually took the post full-time, sullying his relationship with the fans further in his first press conference by bigging up Vieira.

And like his predecessor, he’s been accused of using the club to line his own pockets. When rumours that Benfica financially propped up his Football Lab project, ‘the first football amusement park in Dubai’ appeared, he initially denied the allegations. He would later go on to concede that the club *had* supported the venture, but it all happened before his promotion to VP and therefore didn’t amount to positional abuse.

At the very least, Costa can be effectively described as ‘a bit of a shady bloke’. But it’s not just the fact that his dubious reputation precedes him. He’s added to his own derision by fudging the accounts publicly, and worse, shamelessly misunderstanding the Benfica community.

Debt Always Catches Up

In September 2024, Rui Costa launched his first attempt at repairing his fan standing. He assured them that the club, long riddled with financial issues, was not at risk of violating UEFA’s Financial Fair Play rules. This was in the face of a stark truth; the club’s equity had halved from 161 million euros to just under 82 million euros between 2020 and 2024.

The biggest losses have occurred during Rui Costa’s tenure, and inspite of a growth in assets. As of September 2024, the club’s liabilities – including operational expenses, personnel costs and debt – had increased from 157.5 million euros in 2020 to a staggering 483.4 million.

The investigation into Benfica’s coffers is ongoing, but as supporters of Nottingham Forest and Everton will be aware, the consequences of flouting financial rules can be severe. Penalties would pile stress on to an already debt-ridden institution, significantly reducing attraction for quality new players and depleting opportunities for investment.

At worst, it could mean exclusion from the likes of the Champions League and Europa League altogether. This would likely be the final nail in Costa’s presidential coffin for a couple of reasons. Firstly, the fans would see it as a staggering betrayal, given the amount of pride they still have in being able to hold their own in European tournaments.

Secondly, the loss of revenue due to decreased broadcasting rights, sponsorships and ticket sales would become prevalent pretty much overnight. In that case, the only relief Benfica could hope for would be in shipping off their premium talent for the most money possible.

With the presidential election, scheduled for October 25^th, hanging over his head like the Sword of Damacles, it’s not surprising that Rui Costa is making last-ditch attempts to salvage his rep. Dogged mission to retain the throne notwithstanding, earlier this month he was dealt a blow that seems almost impossible to come back from.

The Members Say No

In the first week of October, Benfica’s members voted down the club’s 2024/25 Season Financial Report; a move which essentially acts as a vote of no confidence. After a reported three hours of barrage and debate, the club’s ‘socios’ – fans who are also members – decided to withhold approval for the annual accounts.

The club’s financial successes within that period – including record-breaking merch sales and gate receipts (ticket sales) – were mitigated, the socios argued, by rising wage costs, growing agent commissions and operational bills.

Following the vote, Benfica’s accounting bods hovelled themselves away with international auditors Ernst & Young to revise the figures. Defenders of Rui Costa say that he inherited many of these liabilities from the previous administration. That doesn’t wash with his detractors though who claim, with huge utility, that a) he’s had plenty of time to impose stricter financial controls, and b) he may well have been involved in/turned a blind eye to that administration’s dodginess.

So, what do you do when proverbial shit is hitting the fan from pretty much every direction? How do you possibly pave the way back to good faith? Well, you bring in Portugal’s most celebrated coach to steady the ship… because bringing back heroes always works, right?

The Return of The Special One

Well, as it turns out – and I’m sure this will shock everyone – self-awareness apparently isn’t Rui Costa’s best Top Trumps category.

To be fair to him, there’s certainly romance in bringing Jose Mourinho back into the fold. Previously helming the club for 11 games at the turn of the century, many feel that ‘The Special One’s’ stint at the club ended way too soon. As Benfica FM host Filipe Ingles told the BBC, ‘Benfica at the time was terrible… We started playing so much better under Mourinho’.

And in theory, Costa did get something else right. When he sacked Bruno Lage after a 3-2 defeat by Azerbaijani side Qarabag FK a few weeks ago, the president commented that ‘a Benfica coach’s profile must be that of a winner’. Presumably everybody forgot to tell him that the last time Mourinho won a league title was 10 years ago, but he still has 25 trophies to his name including cups and European competitions.

Crucially though, it’s a maneuver that’s been seen for pretty much what it is. Scratch beneath the surface and it quite quickly becomes cynical, and not something with the club’s best interests at heart, either on or off the pitch. Should Costa be voted out in a few days’ time, Mourinho will have to navigate working with a new boss, and said new boss will have to navigate working with an expensive, egomaniacal coach.

Not that Benfica have had a faultless start to the new campaign; they currently sit third in the Primeira Liga, yet to lose a game but four points off Porto at the top. And to be fair, rumours are circulating that Mourinho may have played his hand.

Last Thursday, Joao Diogo Manteigas, one of Costa’s rival candidates for the presidency, claimed that Mourinho had little interest in staying at Benfica. After casting the aspersion that ‘he’s not a coach with a future here’, the would-be king clarified by suggesting that Mourinho had eyes on management of the national team, despite signing a two-year deal with the Eagles.

That Saturday Morning Feeling

It’s pretty much impossible to predict what’ll happen post-Saturday’s election. Seeing Rui Costa depart to full-blown celebrations seems a very solid bet, but stranger things have happened. Murkier strings have been pulled, and power structures that seem easy to dismantle are often the complete opposite.

Either way, Benfica are surely in for a few weeks of constitutional displacement. Manteigas has claimed that Mourinho could lead them to the title this season, but that’s probably underestimating the scale of the challenge ahead. The fans are likely to demand change quickly, but the club’s enormous debts and lumbering machinations will mitigate any lightning resolutions.

It’s not a totally unique case, but the tale of Rui Costa The President is a cautionary one. If you ever find yourself suddenly in charge of a club that’s been run into the ground, maybe don’t praise the previous corrupt administration. Maybe don’t seek to line your own pockets with club funds. And always remember: not all ‘heroes’ are heroes.

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Hello, and welcome back to Occupy the Pitch for its 2025/26 season coverage. We’re starting off with something serious, but timely; namely, football’s response to the ongoing genocide in Gaza. Before we begin, I’d just like to say that this piece features only some of the most high-profile examples of solidarity or otherwise. There will be countless more examples, but these are the talking points I decided to go with after hours of research and fact checking. If there are any others you would like to discuss/highlight, please drop them in the comments below.

Despite what the UK Government tells you, it is no longer feasible to argue that Israel isn’t committing genocide in Gaza. Yes, the politics of the region are historic and incredibly messy, and yes, Hamas is an evil entity that committed nightmarish atrocities on October 7^th 2023.

But two years down the line, with over 65,000 (and likely many more) Gazans dead, widespread manufactured famine and displacement, and actions from senior Israeli politicians that suggest that this was probably always the plan, there’s really not much wriggle room left for anyone dragging their feet over a ‘proportionate’ response.

If football is a mechanism for bringing people together, then it makes sense for fans to look to the sport for solidarity in times of crisis. Premier League fans will remember the heartening pictures of Ukraine’s Oleksandr Zinchenko and Vitalii Mykolenko embracing on the pitch following Russia’s invasion in 2022. Everybody nodded in agreement when Russian club sides and the national team were suspended from FIFA and UEFA tournaments; a suspension which still stands today.

It's stark, then, that despite the death toll and transparency of the regime’s intentions, Israel has faced no such sanctions. In this article for The Morning Star, James Nalton writes that football in general ‘remains eerily silent on the issue’. It’s not that duplicity from FIFA and UEFA is surprising, but as voices mount it doesn’t seem like that’s changing any time soon.

With the silence deafening, some clubs, individuals, fan groups and institutions are making up the shortfall. In today’s piece, I’ll highlight some high-profile examples of fan solidarity, shady transfer happenings, shaky-footed hypocrisy and the most forthright examples of players sticking their heads above the parapet.

The Fans

Here in the UK it’s hard to think of fan displays of solidarity with the Palestinian plight more prominent than those of Celtic. Their forthright history of showing that support goes back to the 2010s (and probably further), but they hit the limelight again in late 2023.

After being warned by club officials that Palestinian flags and scarves ‘should not be displayed at Celtic Park at this time’, the stands were a sea of red, green and black for the home leg of their tie against Atletico Madrid.

More recently, PSG fans have swapped their reputation as diehards of one of Europe’s most despised clubs for stalwarts of anti-oppression. Throughout last season’s Champions League, they brandished 'Free Palestine’ and ‘Stop Genocide in Gaza’ banners against Atletico Madrid and then Inter Milan in the final. In the pre-match march to the stadium in Munich, they were heard chanting ‘we are all the children of Gaza’.

Depressingly, there are examples of some fan groups showing weapons-grade belligerence, like these Northern Ireland supporters in Hamburg a few weeks ago.

As for the situation in Israel, you don’t need to be a genius to work out what Beitar Jerusalem ultras – who proudly proclaim that they’re ‘the most racist football club in the world’ – think (if you feel compelled to find out more about their history of venomous bigotry, start here). For the avoidance of doubt, at the start of August they could be heard chanting ‘Fuck Palestine’ away at FC Riga.

Even the left-wing clubs haven’t gone as far as to condemn the conflict entirely. Hapoel Jerusalem pitch themselves as the antithesis of the Beitar fans’ ideology, instead taking pride in advocating for ‘the coexistence and cross-Jerusalem solidarity between Muslims and Jews’. Their badge features the hammer and sickle, and the club is entirely owned by its fans.

But they are protesting neither the assault on nor the occupation of Gaza. The death of one of their most well-loved fans on October 7^th may be a mitigating circumstance, but it’s not like Israel’s actions are deterring Hamas and its allies’ mission.

The Clubs

The lack of statement from any official body makes it unsurprising that football clubs have been reticent to speak out. Dublin side Bohemians partnered with post-punk superstars Fontaines DC to create a third kit for the 2024/25 season, with 30% of all proceeds from shirt sales going to Medical Aid for Palestinians.

Pep Guardiola’s encouraging but fairly non-committal comments notwithstanding, there’s been no public demonstration from any Premier League club. Inherently, where clubs are concerned the waters acquire varying degrees of murk.

Most objectionable is probably the situation involving Manor Solomon, perhaps Israel’s most prominent contemporary player. A few weeks ago, he completed a loan signing to Villarreal from Spurs. Almost immediately, a backlash started from one of the Spanish side’s fan accounts on X, stating aversion to Solomon’s support for the genocide. It also shared screenshots, including one with a caption that read: ‘killing their own people and blaming Israel’. Suffice to say, Solomon has received no ramifications.

Things get a bit more curious in Germany. There are some outliers; in August 2025, 2. Bundesliga side Fortuna Dusseldorf cancelled their signing of Shon Weissman from Granada, due to social media posts showing support for the genocide. But there are a couple of glaring black marks.

In July 2024, midfielder Anwar El-Ghazi won a legal case against Mainz 05 for unfair dismissal. El-Ghazi was initially suspended in November 2023 after showing support for Palestinians on social media, before having his contract terminated. He donated 500k of the fees he won from the case to projects for Palestinian children, rendering the whole farce a pretty damning indictment for Mainz’s reputation.

The second example is the vocal absence of fans and officials at St. Pauli. Beloved by the left globally for their anti-fascist, feminist and anti-homophobic values, there’s been plenty of discourse about how their quietness on this issue contradicts their proud ‘rebel’ status.

Clubs that reportedly do have reservations about playing Israeli sides in European competitions are unwilling to go on the record. According to The Times, several teams partaking in this season’s UEFA Europa League have unofficially questioned whether there is a way to avoid taking on Maccabi Tel Aviv. While those clubs remain unnamed, Maccabi are scheduled to play Aston Villa, Dynamo Zagreb, Lyon, PAOK, FC Midtjylland, Bologna, SC Freiburg and VfB Stuttgart.

If one club were to speak up, would it cause a domino effect and force real pressure onto FIFA and UEFA? It’s hard to say, but there are prominent examples of national sides taking the plunge.

National Sides

Take Norway, for example. Their penchant for social activism via football first reached public consciousness ahead of the 2022 World Cup, with several domestic clubs advocating for a boycott and Norwegian players taking a visible stance against human rights abuses in Qatar.

While the Norwegian FA refused to rule out boycotting the tournament should they qualify, they’ve emitted a firmer stamp here. Ahead of their 2026 World Cup Qualifier against Israel in October, they’ve announced that all proceeds will go towards aid in Gaza, with the Norwegian FA President Lise Klaveness stating:

‘Neither we nor other organisations can remain indifferent to the humanitarian suffering and disproportionate attacks that the civilian population in Gaza has been subjected to for a long time.’

In similar circumstances, the Italian Football Coaches Association (AIAC) released perhaps the most defiant statement we’ve seen ahead of Italy’s qualifier against Israel in Hungary two weeks ago, urging FIFA and UEFA to suspend their opponents from all competitions. In a letter, the National Board of Directors wrote:

‘Can the Hamas terrorist massacre on October 7^th 2023, with over a thousand innocent Israeli victims plus the taking of 250 hostages, justify Israel’s ferocious genocidal retaliation, which has claimed tens of thousands of Palestinian civilian deaths?’.

These ruminations, whether publicised or not, suggest that the football is starting to find its voice. But there is arguably a far more influential group of individuals that might inspire a larger collective response.

The Players

As we all know, the social cache of clubs, national boards - and especially FIFA and UEFA – is nothing when compared to the thing that inspires most devotion; the players. I touched on some of the impact vocal support has garnered previously, but when it comes to massive names taking the leap, there are some powerful examples.

That description can certainly be applied to Mohammed Salah. It potentially flew under the radar, but Salah first made a public comment on the situation as early as late October 2023. When almost 500 people died in an explosion at the al-Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza City that month, Salah published his dismay via a video on X.

But it’s more recently that Salah has really pushed the boundaries. In early August of this year, the ‘Palestinian Pele’, Suleiman al-Obeid, was killed by an Israeli strike at the age of 41 while queueing for food aid in Gaza. Upon hearing of his death, UEFA broke its silence to tweet condolences, commenting that al-Obeid was ‘a talent who gave hope to countless children, even in the darkest of times’. Presumably disgruntled at UEFA’s performative sadness, Salah replied: ‘Can you tell us how he died, where, and why?’.

Eric Cantona, who has been a diligent mouthpiece for left-wing causes for many years, echoed Salah’s distress in more direct terms. ‘HOW MUCH LONGER ARE WE GOING TO LET THEM COMMIT THIS GENOCIDE??? FREE PALESTINE’, he posted on Instagram following al-Obeid’s death, retaining the righteous despair we’ve seen from him throughout the onslaught.

These projections are the most prominent we’ve seen for some time. In May 2024, Hakim Ziyech and Karem Akturkoglou (both playing for Turkish side Galatasaray at the time) brandished a Palestine flag and traditional keffiyeh respectively during the team’s 24^th Championship title celebrations.

In the same month, the deepening humanitarian crisis in Rafa saw several stellar, contemporarily iconic players share the ‘All Eyes on Rafa’ image on Instagram, including Arsenal’s William Saliba, PSG’s Ousmane Dembele, Lionesses Leah Williamson and Lucy Bronze, and Spain Women’s talisman Aitana Bonmati. Some players went further, with Atalanta striker Gianluca Scamacca and now-Liverpool player Jeremie Frimpong urging fans to pay attention to the tragedy more widely.

Ultimately, posting statements on Instagram is unlikely to yield widespread material results. Certainly in the case of someone like Cantona, there’s an argument to say that it’s preaching to the choir. But if a handful of people read Salah’s tweets and decide to donate to Palestinian relief efforts as a result, then it all counts.

The Future

So where does this leave us? Are there any glimmers of hope? Well, maybe. The institutions that have drawn a line so far are by no means weightless, but there need to be more. And there’s a certain amount of superfluousness when you consider that Aleksander Ceferin, the current UEFA President, has described the Israeli Football Association’s Chairman, Moshe Zuares, as ‘a good friend’.

In an article for Sport and Dev in May 2024, Bader Alzaharma wrote of both Palestinian’s intrinsic adoration of football. ‘For Gaza’s young and old, football is more than just a game. It has long been a beacon of unity, peace and hope for thousands of people in Gaza, transcending the protracted struggles we face’. More prosaically, he goes on to say that the situation means the reality of football in Gaza has ‘completely changed for decades to come’.

There’s a simple truth in Alzaharma’s words that often gets forgotten, I think. Gazans and Palestinians are just like us; they love the same sport, have passion for the inspiration, hope and unity it provides, and are just as serious about using it as a conduit for connection.

Obviously, football disintegrates symbolically against the desperate need for humanitarian aid and freedom from occupation. Perhaps it’s slightly flippant to hope for more from footballers. But for as long as Russia faces sanctions and Israel does not, it’s worth banging the drum.

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Thank you for taking the time to read today’s piece. If you would like to donate to a charity supporting Palestinian civilians through food aid, medical aid and more, then here is a list of trusted organisations.

Okay, so the football season has been over for some weeks now. Except of course it bloody hasn’t. To quote the inimitable David Mitchell, you can still watch all the football all of the time. Why? Because the sporting gods have deemed it necessary to piss us all off and give Gianni Infantino his own tournament.

That’s right, it’s time to strap on your Red Bull Salzburg shirts and practice holding your Auckland FC scarves aloft, because it’s a Club World Cup summer, baby!

One has to wonder exactly what Infantino, FIFA’s magnanimous overlord, thinks his legacy is going to be. Most of us would probably agree that in another life, if structured in another way and if it genuinely had the best interests of the global game at heart, a Club World Cup would be no bad thing. Unfortunately, Infantino doesn't think that far beyond his wallet.

The controversy surrounding the tournament goes way, way, way further than players being a little bit peeved at their relentless schedules. Transparent favouritism, FIFA’s disdainful attitude towards supporters and the now typical murky financial manoeuvrings all conspire to make this a predictably depressing endeavour before a ball was even kicked.

And look, there are several ways to frame the tournament positively. It’s cool that semi-professional, part-time squads like Auckland City get to be viewed on the world stage, even if the financial odds remain insurmountably stacked against them. PSG against Atletico Madrid is a minor box office event in anyone's book, and it’s lovely to see historic Brazilian sides get their flowers once again. But there can be no denying that the grubbiness surrounding the whole thing means that even watching the most headline-grabbing games inspires the need to scrub at your mental pores for hours.

Stepping into much more positive territory, we do have the Women’s Euros to look forward to in July. England’s Lionesses have drawn tough, with both France and the Netherlands looking to put up stern resistance in Group D. Spain and Germany will hope to rampage through groups B and C respectively, but with Italy, Iceland and Denmark also ranking highly in the qualifying rounds, there’ll be more than one dark horse lurking.

It’s sure to be a thrilling, gripping competition, and while UEFA is still a bit of a black mark on the game’s progression, it’ll be a much more salubrious viewing experience than the Club World Cup.

Anyway, while the football carries on forever (and ‘there’s still forever to play it in’), this newsletter will be taking a hiatus over the summer. Not due to a lack of potential content, but simply because life circumstances have conspired to strip me of the time to devote to it. I still have some huge plans for the future of the newsletter - from stellar interviews to going on tour across Europe - but until the new season starts, these plains will be silent.

Before we close the shutters for a little while, I thought I’d wrap up all previously published articles. From left-wing activism in one of South London’s poshest enclaves, to eye-opening interviews, progressive German politics and the aforementioned Lionesses themselves (with solid helpings of poetry and film-based societal existentialism), there’s loads to sink your teeth into here.

Hopefully it’s clear from these articles just how much fun I’ve had with this project so far. I would also like to extend a huge, hearty and warm thanks to everybody who has agreed to take part and be interviewed for the project. Every conversation has been insightful, often enabling a glimpse into the world of fandom and cultural nuance that we so rarely get from the outside.

I’d also like to thank everybody who has regularly read, commented on and supported the newsletter. It’s been a pleasure to delve into each of these worlds, but that pleasure is doubled by the knowledge that there are actually people who want to experience them with me. So yeah, a huge thank you.

See you in August! x

October 2024 - Something of a Sport: A Day Out at Dulwich Hamlet

November 2024 - Looking for Light in the Fog: A Day Out at Bath City

January 2025 - Ancient Megaliths & Play Off Finals: A Modern Guide to Salisbury FC

February 2025 - Parts One and Two of My Bristol Rovers Experience

March 2025 - Windows and Souls: Two Female Poets on Football

April 2025 - This Roaring Renaissance: England’s Lionesses v Belgium

May 2025 - Money Doesn’t Talk Around Here: An Insider’s Guide to 1. Heidenheim 1846

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Everybody loves a romantic story, and football fans more than most. We romanticize giant killers and clubs that achieve above their station all the time, but those of us on the outside rarely stop to think about what the view from the insiders is. Sure, successive promotions and headline-grabbing victories always *sound* great; but what’s the reality for a club’s lifers?

That’s a particularly interesting question when the answer takes you to Germany. The Bundesliga, Germany’s premier division, is distinct from pretty much any other top-flight league, certainly in Europe. Its values-driven approach encourages and prioritises community, has a financial model that’s based around equality and never loses sight of what keeps the world’s most popular sport ticking: people.

It's in this context that we land for my conversation today. In recent years, it’s hard to think of a more romantic, epic narrative arc in German football than that of 1. FC Heidenheim 1846. They’ve been around for well over a century, though only in their current guise since 2007. Since then, they’ve achieved several back-to-back promotions and have bulldozed their way into Europe. Not bad for a modest industrial town of 50,000 people tucked away somewhere between Stuttgart and Munich.

There are many elements to this exceptional story, and it’s best told by diehards who have experienced it all. Helen and Jürgen are Heidenheimers through and through; it’s their bread and butter, their lifesblood, their world.

Over the last few weeks, I’ve been speaking to both of them about their history with the club, the cultural and social revolution that has taken the city by storm, politico-socio values in the German game, what life’s like for a small team in Bundesliga and much, much more. They have plenty of fascinating, thought-provoking things to say.

Helen

How did you become a Heidenheim fan? What’s your history with the club?

I was born in Heidenheim, and from the time I was a little kid my dad and I would go to games. These would be whole family outings, so my grandfather would come with us also, my brothers, so it was a big weekend activity. In 2007, when the club was split into different departments, we started going to every game. I am a lifelong member as well and did my internship with the FCH.

Are the rest of your family as into it as you are?

Yes, we all are. And I think it’s not necessarily because of this, but now that we have been playing in Bundesliga, I think everyone is interested. I’m talking to people here that I thought never would’ve liked football and because it’s now such a big thing, it becomes more lively here because different clubs are coming here every other week. People are coming for the weekend, we have new restaurants and new bars opened, so it's like the whole city is starting to awaken as well, which is nice.

It sounds like this has started a kind of cultural revolution then and opened the place up a bit. Does the town itself feel like a sort of closed world?

I mean it depends. I haven’t lived in the town for a really long time, so for me being back here it does feel closed. But I do think in recent years it has for sure become more diverse, and I do think as well that football has played a role in that because we have a football boarding school here, so people are coming from all over Germany to enroll their kids here. There has also been a boost in migration over the past few years, which has increased diversity and positively shaped local culture.

We also have two massive corporations, Voith and Hartmann, with their HQs in Heidenheim, so that does bring people from all over the world to our small city.

The Bundesliga has obviously changed a lot too. So many people are going, so many people are interested and people are passionate as well and are really staying with the club. It’s not necessarily that they haven’t done that before, but obviously now it’s even more interesting.

And do you think that’s because of a cultural vibe the club is transmitting, or do you think that’s because of the football itself?

It’s a mix of both, but I would say for sure the values of the club are important. If you look at Frank Schmidt, like, he’s the longest-serving coach in Bundesliga. I think the club is transmitting these values of honesty, fighting hard, being very ambitious but also down to Earth. I think that people here, especially in this region, value that a lot. We don’t like arrogance, we don’t like people that think they are better than others, and I think the club is really portraying this sort of family vibe and that we’re all in this together (laughs).

And I think it’s also the proven track record of these values being true right? We’re not saying that we’re fans of tradition and then changing what we do every season; we’re staying true to ourselves, and people can really see that.

Thinking about the culture around the club, have you noticed a particular vibe on match days in the city? Is everybody excited or is it just the faithful few that go to the matches driving it?

Everyone’s quite excited. I think right now maybe it’s more like we’re nervous because obviously there’s quite a lot at stake. When you see groups of people walking up towards the stadium, it’s like yeah of course they’re excited to hopefully see another good match, but at the same time there’s a lot of nervousness. We’re still selling out our games and so many people are coming, and people who don’t go watch it in cafes in the city. Everyone who is a football enthusiast is watching the game on a weekend somewhere, and you really feel that.

So do you speak to people who are watching Heidenheim games in far-flung corners of the world?

I mean my friends do yes, but that’s because I tell them about it and get so excited (laughs). But I do know that because a lot of people have left Heidenheim due to job opportunities in bigger cities… so for example my uncle lives in Berlin and there is a community of Heidenheimers there that go to watch the games together. My dad told me that in Gelsenkirchen there is a Heidenheim fan club. Pretty much everybody in the city is a fan of Schalke, so it’s quite funny that there’s all these little supporters’ groups starting up elsewhere.

The Current Season

I think we should probably talk a bit about the current season. The fortunes are so different compared to last year. Why do you think that is?

I personally think it’s because we now have two matches a week most weeks and it’s just been too much. I think it’s too much for the players, flying from A to B and then playing, and also we don’t – like, Chelsea has basically a whole second team. We do have quite a big squad but it’s not as big as theirs, and they can just switch out an entire team. And also of course we have some players we want to play in every game because they’re just that good.

But I do definitely think that it’s the travelling and being exposed to a whole different environment right? Like my favourite player is Omar (Traore) and he did an interview a few months ago and the journalist was like ‘can you believe that you’re playing against your idols?’ and he was like ‘no, I can’t’. And I think this is one of the big things as well; like it’s been so much in such a small amount of time, and well-deserved, but I do think in a way now we’re actually arriving in Bundesliga. Like, now this is actually it. Before everyone was excited, but now the players are actually starting to believe it and this kind of fear comes with that as well.

And how does this impact the atmosphere inside the Voith Arena?

It’s good. Our ultras are so passionate and never stop singing. Even when we don’t win games, people are screaming and standing up and are very involved, so I think it’s really them trying to motivate the club.

But also in terms of where it’s gone wrong, surely the pressure is a factor too. Not only the pressure of their own careers but also the pressure they get from fans. The fans are the ones singing for you, so there’s a real connection there, so the players do want them to be happy as well. There’s also the pressure of people’s jobs; the stadium employs so many people. And I do think the players are being told that, because it’s a really open conversation between the owners and the team.

So there’s no ‘Frank Schmidt Out’ movement?

No, absolutely not. It’s a little bit like ‘what’s Heidenheim without Frank Schmidt?’.

So what is it about him that makes him – and the connection he has with the players – so special?

I think personally it’s his brutal honesty. In any sort of interview or conversation he has, he just says what he thinks, and unapologetically. I think that’s why he’s so successful, because as I said before, in the area I live people are honest and straightforward. And also because he is from Heidenheim. The club does sometimes have ‘issues’ with people from elsewhere not really understanding the ways of communication, but he does so it just makes sense.

As someone who has supported Heidenheim all your life, is this the first time it feels like the wheels are coming off?

No. If the team wasn’t still fighting for their place, then I think we would be like ‘okay, things are starting to go wrong’. Maybe three to four weeks ago there was a phase – especially through the winter break – when fans were having moments of doubt. But now, seeing them fight again and seeing them be themselves and really play, it’s fine. Even if we get relegated, I would still feel that we’ve fought and tried and that this won’t be the last time that we’re in Bundesliga.

Fighting the Corporate Beast

In England, there aren’t many clubs that wear their socio-political and cultural values on their sleeves – they don’t really have political affiliations. It’s very different in Europe though. Do the Heidenheim ultras fall on a particular side of the political aisle? 

As far as I am aware, they’re certainly more left. They’re not like St. Pauli – you know, they’re left and they say it and display it whenever they can. We have instances where fans have displayed banners like ‘Never Means Now’ and ‘We don’t accept racism’, especially when we play against clubs with more right-wing ultras. The ultras are annoyed about ticket prices rising and they’re very against the commercialisation of football. They hate it when we play against RB Leipzig, they’re like ‘you’re ruining our sport’. So based on that I think they’re leaning more towards the left but they’re not as vocal about it as some other clubs.

The RB Leipzig stuff is really interesting, and Heidenheim ultras have a history of staging some quite outlandish protests against them. Why do the fans have such particular animosity towards that club? Is it that they don’t see it as being in the spirit of the German game?

Yes, that’s it. And it’s not just Heidenheim that particularly targets Leipzig. There’s a saying that goes ‘Ihr macht unseren Sport Kaputt’, which means ‘you are ruining our sport’, and that’s something that went through a lot of stadiums. We don’t like that owners having a monopoly in Germany. It’s not like in the UK where – and correct me if I’m wrong – there’s one massive rich person who buys a club in some cases and then that club belongs to that person.

What we thrive off in Germany is that our clubs are supported by multiple businesses, and if that’s not how they’re doing it then that’s not right. The Heidenheim model is unique because we have so many partners - over 500. The bigger clubs will still have a few sponsors, but they will be massive companies. Our biggest rival is VfR Aalen, which is like half an hour away, and their biggest downfall was that they had two billionaire sponsors who went bankrupt and the club got relegated into Oberliga (the fifth tier of German football), where they still play.

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Closing the Door on Everyday Sexism

What’s your experience been like as a female Heidenheim fan? Has it been almost entirely positive? Is misogyny a big problem at Heidenheim and in the German game more generally? 

I mean for me personally it’s been totally fine. As I said before, going to games has always been a protected family outing experience that I haven’t really encountered more than the usual sexism. But I’m sure that this can be very different for other women. I remember when I was a teenager I was approached by a group of girls that wanted to open a girls’ fan club in the ultras scene, and they succeeded and I was part of that as well. But then I moved away, but also I don’t see their poster up anymore, so I assume they don’t exist anymore. I have no idea. 

I think in German football in general people are quite weird when it comes to women’s football, though I think Heidenheim is improving on that. We have a women’s team and obviously they’re not as big due to lack of funding and years of less focus on their training, but the club is starting to promote them on Instagram and stuff, so it is going in the right direction. 

But I do darkly remember as a teenager adult men telling me ‘well women don’t play as good as men’ and it’s like ‘I mean, ask yourself why’, you know? And also is it even really true? So there’s this type of stuff that I still hear sometimes. But nothing that has caused actual harm to me at least. 

It’s depressing to hear that those attitudes still exist. Here in the UK we have an idea of German football that it’s much more progressive and more open. 

I do think that especially in the last two-to-three years, it has moved into a better direction and the talking down happens less. But it’s also like, what do you expect of a boomer that has been raised in that way? I’m not trying to justify it, but you can see where it comes from. It’s still around, but it’s definitely changing, especially in the bigger cities. The other day I saw an Instagram reel of the full Hamburg stadium cheering on women’s football, so people are becoming much more aware of it. 

And the Germany women’s team is pretty good right? They got to the Euros final before losing to England. Do you think that has driven some of the growing enthusiasm? 

For sure, but I also think the people watching that game… it’s a different sort of competitiveness because at the end of the day, even though England won it’s still a great step for women playing football everywhere right? I think any type of women’s football game, whether that’s in England or Germany or whatever, opens doors and allows the sport to become more progressive.

Final question; what do you think the future looks like for Heidenheim? What are your hopes, your fears and where do you think you’ll be by the end of next season? 

Well my hope is that we’ll still be in Bundesliga, and thriving again. Also maybe over the break making smart investments into players. My fear is obviously us being relegated. In addition to that, my biggest fear is us giving up. I don’t think we’re wired that way, but I think that would be a really big kick in the face if it happened. And no one really talks about it, because it is very far away but like what are we gonna do if Frank Schmidt is done with his career? 

Maybe you can prize Jurgen Klopp away from his shiny new job at Red Bull. Get him back into the people’s game. 

(Laughs) I don’t think anyone would want him here. But I also hope that we can keep doing things our way, or in a way that works for us, and hopefully becoming a European powerhouse in the next 10 years.

Jürgen

What’s your history with Heidenheim? When did you start following the club/become involved?

I was actually an enthusiastic ‘HSB’ fan at the age of 14/15 and travelled to away games on my moped with my friend. During my studies, I lost my intense connection to the club somewhat, and then during my first years of my career, it faded away completely. However I found my way back to the club in 2006, when we/Liha-Werbung started to produce and distribute fan/merchandising articles for the HSB.

At the time, the top league team had the most professional and largest product range. To this day, we are the exclusive merchandising partner of 1. FCH. Personally, I have been a fan advisory board member for five years.

What has been the biggest change that you’ve noticed during your time at the club?

The club has continued to develop since joining the Verbandsliga. Parallel to the sporting upswing, the infrastructure and the club itself has established itself ‘as a company’ to become a Bundesliga club (now 1st division). The ‘family’ approach and the ‘unbreakable togetherness’ is the DNA of 1. FCH, which is the most impressive thing for me, and certainly also the guarantor for the entire development.

How have Schmidt’s tactics played an important part in the club’s success in recent years? And what has been the most fruitful formation this season?

The very special thing about FCH is that nobody questions the formation in detail and every fan has 100% confidence in Frank Schmidt and the team. At the so-called traditional clubs, this is all questioned in the media for days on end, but that's not the case at FCH. We all know that Frank does an outstanding job every week. Of course, Frank also gets things wrong from time to time. But he usually addresses this directly in the press conference after the game. It’s like the German saying: ‘Wipe your mouth, let's move on’.

Do you feel that part of the problem is that Heidenheim haven’t been able to adapt to opponents quite as well this season?

Yes, that was also part of the additional challenges of the season.

With smaller clubs, it’s often the case that their best players get poached after a successful season (for Heidenheim, this would be the case for the likes of Jan Niklas-Beste and Tim Kleindienst). How much of an issue is player retention in the Bundesliga?

The ‘problem’ of players leaving a team in the Bundesliga is very much money-related. Smaller clubs cannot afford the player salaries and transfer fees of the big clubs. The 1st FCH is a club that also thrives on developing young players from the youth system or lower division and then being able to move into the ‘higher football world’.

Who have been Heindenheim’s key players/game-changers this season?

Patrick Mainka, Niklas Dorsch and Frans Krätzig.

What are your hopes and fears for the club next season?

No fears. The further development of the club will continue in the coming season.

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At the time of publication, FC 1. Heidenheim 1846 are in a relegation play-off against 2. Bundesliga side SV Elversberg. The first leg ended as a 2-2 draw at the Voith Arena. The second leg takes place in Elversberg on Monday 26th May.

There are fewer tunes in this month’s playlist, but that’s just because these are the songs that have pulled me through - via hundreds of replays - when I’ve needed them this month. From coruscating noise and quiet tension to gorgeous pop and epic sludge metal, there’s a full gamut of vibes here. I hope you find something you enjoy.

Black Country, New Road - Happy Birthday (2025)

Prodigiously talented and defiantly eccentric, for my money Black Country, New Road have finally made good on the hype with their new album Forever Howlong. ‘Happy Birthday’ (NOT a cover of the Stevie Wonder number) sits on a fault line between Sparks-esque theatrics and widescreen early Arcade Fire epicness, spurred by beautiful melodies and Tyler Hyde’s characterful, resonant vocals.

Lana Del Rey - Henry, Come On (2025)

Lana Del Rey only really does one thing these days, but the swooning and almost ornate string-section maximisation of ‘Henry, Come On’ is often as stirring as it wants to be. The storytelling and aesthetics put it somewhere in the literary universe of Richard Yates, so it feels inevitably special.

The National - Start a War (2007)

It often gets overlooked just how important dynamics are to the music of indie rock darlings The National. Aaron and Bryce Dessner, the guitarists and compositional visionaries behind the band, put their stunning understanding of subtlety on show on fan favourite ‘Start a War’, a gorgeous track which somehow manages to swell quietly.

Like the domestic disharmony that frontman Matt Berninger explores lyrically, it feels close and tense, melodically charming but deeply morose.

Addison Rae - Headphones On (2025)

There aren’t enough louche, late-90s Morcheeba-inflected vibes in pop music these days. ‘Thank GOD’, you might be thinking, but when they’re done as tastefully, emotionally and expressively as Addison Rae does here then they’re impossible to deny. This, to my ears, might be a bit of a classic.

Samia - Lizard (2025)

Samia Najimi Finnerty, aka Samia, was completely unknown to me before hearing her new album Bloodless. It’ll probably end up being one of my favourite alternative rock/pop records of the year, but ‘Lizard’ is a bit of an outlier in terms of its feel.

It’s one of the more straight-ahead and extroverted tracks, anchored by a beautifully woozy and minorly trippy keyboard hook and witty assertions based on feminist ideals.

Nirvana - Radio Friendly Unit Shifter (1993)

By the time ‘Radio Friendly Unit Shifter’ rolls round on Nirvana’s final masterpiece In Utero, you’re in a mental pit so deep that a coruscating, nails-down-a-blackboard exorcism is entirely necessary. Thankfully, its title notwithstanding, that’s exactly what this is; five-ish minutes of grizzled, muddy dissonance in which Kurt summons the last vestiges of his hook-centric genius.

Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs - The Wyrm (2025)

Newcastle sludge metal outfit Pigs x7 know how to churn out swampy, languorous epics like a hog knows how to roll in muck.

The intro and outro to the crust-smothered 7-minute banger ‘The Wyrm’ are defined by a stabbing single-note piano refrain and riffs that almost literally snarl, and between the two the quintet find time to flit between feel-good Motorhead-style aesthetics and time-sapping droneyness.

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It’s become one of those ‘where were you when…’ moments. I was in a pub in Bath – a city with an overlooked footballing history – surrounded by mates and their partners, all of us glued to the onscreen action. The sun was blazing, there were gasps of joy and frustration, several people biting their nails and lots and lots of hugging.

No, I’m not talking about the ousting of Donald Trump in 2020 (maybe the last time anybody got what they deserved on this godforsaken planet). I am of course talking about the final of the UEFA Women’s Euros tournament in 2022.

You know, the one where England eventually vanquished Germany in extra time at Wembley. The one where Prince William’s attendance lined up endless jokes about the Royal Family actually being Teutonic. The one that laid the groundwork for Mary Earps to scream ‘Fuck ooofffffff!!!’ when saving a penalty against Spain a year later.

Though the popularity of the women’s game had been gaining serious traction in the preceding years, the Euros final felt like a new dawn. It’s the first time I can remember an international women’s tournament bridging communal gaps and uniting people in pure, unadulterated passion.

If we’re honest though, that’s not the case. Before it was shunned out of mainstream attention by depressingly Victorian attitudes after the First World War, women’s football was a spectator sport that frequently amassed attendances of up to 45,000. Drained of resources by the burgeoning growth of men’s football, it became a game of recreation spaces and rugby grounds.

Daisy Maggs is somebody who knows that women’s football is a game of proud, glistening turning points. I met Daisy at England’s Nations League qualifier against Belgium at Ashton Gate in Bristol, but she’s been a passionate follower of the Lionesses for years, trapsing across Europe as a keen-eyed and well-informed spectator.

In our chat below, we talk about everything from the magnetic pull of the current Lionesses squad (both on and off the pitch) and her favourite memories and matches, to tackling the misogyny problem in football and the important activism that sees many players setting an example for young people everywhere.

Filling Wembley, Showing Misogyny the Red Card and Bringing it Home - An Interview With Daisy Maggs

When did you start following the Lionesses, and what is it that keeps bringing you back?

I only started following the Lionesses properly in 2019, with my first live game being at Wembley against Germany. Me and a couple of my friends managed to get tickets for £10 and we had an amazing day out, even though England lost 2-1 in the 90^th minute.

I’d say that accessibility is the main thing that kept me going back to the Lionesses games, at that time; the tickets were a good price and I wanted more. Although my first game had a whopping attendance of 77,000 people, I dream of one day seeing every seat at Wembley stadium occupied.

What have you noticed about the way the women’s game has grown in recent years, both internationally and via the WSL?

The Women’s game has been on the rise for several years now, especially since that incredible 2022 Euros win. Although I wasn’t lucky enough to attend any of the games during that tournament, I was able to watch every single England game on the tele, which is something that would not have been so accessible in previous years.

In the WSL, the majority of the bigger clubs are playing an increased amount of their home games at the main Club ground, which in itself opens the doors for more fans to come and watch. But it’s also growing off the pitch in more ways than one. There are a number of women’s football podcasts available, and I also recently attended the first-ever Women's Football Fair in Birmingham.

What has your experience as a fan at the games been like?

I always have an amazing experience as a fan, no matter which ground I’m at. I know it gets said a lot but there is always a happy and friendly vibe around the stadium on game days with a good mix of age groups, making it a really safe and welcoming space to be in. If anybody is thinking of attending a game, I would 100% say do it.

How big is the misogyny problem in football, and is the women’s game part of the solution?

Misogyny is a huge problem today in the women’s game, and unfortunately, in many other women’s sports. The Lionesses are amazing at standing up for what they believe in, and their voices are SO important.

I don’t think there is one single solution. Education needs to start at a grassroots level, the government need to back and fund these amazing women, and the media need to take some responsibility – from calling people out and banning abusive social media users to celebrating and covering more of the women’s game. There is a long way to go but the community is only getting bigger and stronger!

What’s the best Lionesses match you have attended?

The best Lionesses match I have ever attended has to be The Finalissima against Brazil at Wembley, April 2023. It was 1-1 after 90 minutes and we were going to miss our train home so we were feeling extremely tense… but we stayed, of course, and it was 100% the right choice! England won 4-2 on penalties and Mary Earps showed us all exactly why she is number 1.

I know you’re attending some of the knockout games at the Euros this summer. What do you think England’s chances of getting there are?

There is an awful lot of pressure for England to bring it home again in the Summer as reigning champions, but I don’t have any doubts at all. Group D (England’s group) is tough; with players like Viv Miedema, Kerstin Casparij, Victoria Pelova and Wieke Kaptein ALL playing for the Netherlands, this might be our toughest group game.

There is something about this current team with Sarina (Wiegman, England’s Head Coach), however, that makes me believe we can go all the way again. Lauren Hemp, Alex Greenwood and Georgia Stanway are currently injured – if they can recover in time and we have a full squad, I can’t see anybody beating us to that trophy.

What is it about England players like Alessia Russo, Leah Williamson and Beth Mead that inspires so much passion in people? Do you think their off-the-pitch personalities play a part?

I think Russo, Williamson and Mead (to name a few) are hugely inspiring on and off the pitch. There is something about the connection between the players and fans that feels like a friendship, but with the more media attention they are getting it’s a great way for the fans to feel ever closer to their idols!

These women aren’t earning millions of pounds to do what they do, yet they still find the time to meet with fans, sign shirts, and have photos after games. Beth Mead, Ella Toone and Lucy Bronze all recently shared deeply personal and individual experiences in the media.

There’s currently a lot of talk happening around the menstrual cycle and playing football whilst on your period. This has always been a topic that people shy away from and find awkward to talk about. Beth Mead and Leah Williamson are on a mission to ensure that young girls get the support they need, whether that’s being able to wear black football shorts instead of white, or ensuring as many girls as possible get access to the products they need. Campaigns like that are definitely part of the reason that players are so highly admired.

Regal and Streets Ahead - England v Belgium, Friday 4th April 2025, Ashton Gate, Bristol

Just after 5pm on Friday 4^th April, it’s an unseasonable 21 degrees in Bristol. At first it feels oppressing, but after 20 minutes or so, but after that it dissipates into that sort of balmy European city heat. In blistering sun and with The Horrors’ ‘Still Life’ providing the most ecstatic backdrop, I head along the harbourside towards Ashton Gate.

A pleasant breeze skips off the river’s surface, kids play on a wooden jetty and people cram the steps of The Cottage on the other side of the Avon. It’s a surprisingly serene picture, especially in this part of the harbourside; it’s surrounded by a conglomerate of slightly ugly of hulking, red-brick former factories and modest flat complexes.

After setting myself up via a couple of pints, I start walking towards the stadium. I find myself behind a group of men, one of them loyally sporting an Arsenal shirt proudly adorned with Alessia Russo’s name and number. Once I get inside the stadium complex, there’s only one way about it: it’s fucking busy. It’s about a 60/40 female to male split and it’s overrun with wide-eyed families.

As we approach kick-off, the atmosphere is a strange mix of calmness and ecstatic passion. There’s definitely palpable tension here, but it’s more wholesome than menacing. 20 minutes before kick-off however there’s slightly more attitude in the air, a kind of rowdiness that’s not quite ‘You’re shit ahhhh!’ but has that lurking in its peripheries.

The game itself, from an England fan’s point of view, is utterly thrilling. It’s one thing to say you’ve seen an England match where the likes of legends and playmakers like Williamson, Mead and Russo feature in the starting XI. It’s another to see them work their magic and stamp their dominance on the game within 15 minutes.

The first pay-off for all England’s possessional dominance and superior chances comes 21 minutes in, when Lucy Bronze puts England ahead (incidentally, the Belgian goalkeeper, Nicky Evrard, should do much better).

Belgium’s advances out of their own half come few and far between, and when they do get forward they never really look like scoring. England, by contrast, employ smart moves and quick-witted play at set pieces, but struggle to break their opponents down.

Towards half-time, most of the crowd is more interested in joining a Mexican wave as it dutifully does the rounds. England have a couple of decent chances, including hitting the woodwork twice, but to no avail. It’s truly a tonic, then, when Milly Bright scores from a corner on the cusp of half-time to double the deficit.

A New Renaissance

The second half starts with a little more vim and vigour from the Europeans, though England look calm and collected in open play, while keeper Hannah Hampton nullifies any threat from the wide areas. Belgium create their best chance as we approach 70 minutes through a quality pass that unlocks the back four. England defend the ensuing corner with aplomb, but they look slightly ruffled in the aftermath.

That discord doesn’t last for long, however. Seemingly out of nowhere, replacement left-winger Aggie Beever-Jones produces a worldie of a finish. From that point on, England regain their regal touch. Their fourth is conjured out of a defensive error, and Jessica Parker places an unbelievably cool semi-chip over Evrard into the bottom-right corner.

Keira Walsh can’t resist getting in on the action either, scoring a 5^th in the 88^th minute. The fact that it’s been a relative walkover by the Lionesses does nothing to stem the jubilation, and nor should it. That so many families and members of the next generation are so engaged makes the result sort of superfluous; the passion and love Daisy spoke about is delivered on.

A sumptuous evening out watched by just over 23,000 people is a great cause for pride. While these attendances fly off the back of the 45,000 almost 100 years ago, the stymying of the game and its subsequent renaissance is nothing short of glorious.

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