European
Racing to the bottom – RC Paris and the failed quest for glory
This article appears in Issue 17 of The Football Pink Fast cars, fast planes and deadly weapons all led one...
The Last Cup of Sorrow – the story of the Anglo-Italian Cup
This article appears in Issue 16 of The Football Pink which is available HEREMATTHEW CRIST remembers a short-lived and short-loved...
Conquering conservatism – Italy must return to basics to recapture the glory days
BY FRANCO FICETOLAWhat does it take for a nation to be successful at football? Is it economic wealth? Is it...
Chelsea’s Billion Pound Goal – Distorted Significance
BY BEN PINKNEYWe know it as ‘the billion-pound goal’; the goal that assured Chelsea of Champions League football and seduced...
Liniment and lost connections
DAN WILLIAMSON is second up in our 'What football means to me' series, and tells the story of his early...
The Alfredo Di Stéfano Affair
On the night of August 24th, 1963, the great Alfredo Di Stéfano of Real Madrid was kidnapped at gunpoint by...
Team Spirit
Pete Martin is a traveller, author, journalist and coach. This is the fourth in a series of articles adapted and extracted...
The Dreams of Youth
Pete Martin is a traveller, author, journalist and coach. This is the third in a series of articles adapted and extracted...
Sibling Rivalry, part 7: The Xhaka boys and the fluidity of borders
Here GERRY FARRELL explores the complex story of the Xhaka brothers - Granit and Taulant - and how one can...
Sibling Rivalry, part 6: The Baresi brothers – the great and the good
MATT EVANS examines the careers of the Baresi brothers, who encapsulated the rivalry in Milanese football with the younger sibling...
Sibling Rivalry, part 3: The sharp contrasts of the Hoddle brothers
Part 3 of our Sibling Rivalry series looks at the contrasting fortunes of the Hoddles; one had the world at...
Sibling Rivalry, part 2: The Invincible Goodalls
In the second part of our new series looking at football's more interesting sets of brothers, ALL BLUE DAZE recalls the...
Song 2
This article is from Issue 16 of The Football Pink fanzine which is still available. Details HEREAfter the successes of...
The UEFA Nations League: A new salvation for international football?
This article first appeared in Issue 15 of The Football PinkALEXIS JAMES poses the question: Who really stands to profit...
Heinz Krügel – National hero and enemy of the state
BY GARY THACKERHeinz Krügel was born in the small village of Ober-Planitz, near Zwickau on 24th April 1921 in what...
Why the Östersunds FK ‘fairytale’ demonstrates that football isn’t always black and white
BY JOZEF BRODALAWhen you think of the creation of most football clubs, it seems aeons away. Most of the clubs...
Frustration for Gateshead as North East fans turn their backs on them
BY ALEX JACKSONIt’s a sunny August afternoon at Gateshead International Stadium, and the native Tynesiders are running rampant in a...
The Never, Never Land of the Netherlands at the World Cup
BY GARY THACKERThere’s a poignant inevitability about the fate of the Dutch national team in the World Cups played out...
The myth and magic of Jose Leandro Andrade
This article first appeared in Issue 15 of The Football PinkWhen fame and fortune turned to decline and despair, one...
When the Germans invaded Derbyshire
This article first appeared in Issue 12 of The Football PinkIn the build up to the famous Euro 96 game the...
Thirty years and counting – the Football League play-offs
This article originally appeared in Issue 13 of The Football PinkOnce viewed with suspicion and reluctance, the Football League play-offs...
Blink and you’ll miss it, part 1: Maidstone United 1989-92
In the first of a new mini-series where we look at English clubs that spent the least amount of years...
The best of Buddies – when St. Mirren created a record that might never be broken
This article originally appeared in Issue 14 of The Football PinkKEVIN O’NEILL looks back on St. Mirren’s unlikely Scottish Cup...
Life at the London Stadium in West Ham fans’ own words
This article was originally published by VICE Sports UKBY WILL MAGEEWith the twilight of their first season at the London...
Zdenek Zeman – Bohemian Rhapsody in Serie A
BY LORENZO MALATERRA“Nowadays, football is more and more an industry, less and less a game”.This phrase, written on the main...
Remembering Ron Noades, the Itinerant Entrepreneur of London Football
This article was originally published by VICE Sports UKBY JIM WEEKS"Whatever the fans want you to do, you should do...
Total Footballer, Total Rebel: Johan Cruyff and the resurgence of Catalonian pride
This article originally appeared in issue 13 of The Football Pink. You can subscribe to our quarterly magazine in print via...
Bonfire of the Vanities: Manchester United’s 1994 humbling at the hands of Barcelona
This article was originally published by VICE Sports UKBY JIM WEEKSI remember only two things about November 1994 with any...
Before they were famous, part 7: Newcastle United – from near extinction to Entertainers
NICK WELLS takes up the baton in part 7 of our 'Before they were famous' series and focuses on the...
Before they were famous, part 1: The intertwined tale of Chelsea and Claudio Ranieri
In the first of a new series chronicling the bad old days of some of modern football's most successful clubs, GARY THACKER recalls...
Boom, bust, booze and benders: Memories of Bridlington Town
BY DARREN NORTONIt was a wonderful time, being a “Brid Kid” in the early 90’s. Not so much for the...
Blackburn Rovers shocked and humiliated – the night Burnley ‘twinned’ with Trelleborg
BY MARK GODFREYThe last few years haven’t been too kind to Blackburn Rovers; Steve Kean’s disastrous tenure in charge of...
Aad de Mos: the Mechelen Man
BY KEVIN O'NEILLWHEN KV Mechelen, a previously unheralded Belgian side, qualified for the 1987/88 European Cup Winners’ Cup, nobody believed they...
Waiting for Con – Ireland’s sports writing colossus
BY ARTHUR O'DEAThere are the tranquilised Fifties,and I am forty. Ought I to regret my seedtime?Robert Lowell, ‘Memories of West...
Raising the Bahr: One family’s kicking dynasty
BY MARK GODFREYIt’s been a week or two now but the shock of England’s humbling defeat at the hands of...
St. Etienne and the square root of failure
BY MARK GODFREYThe slightly decrepit, rudimentary wooden construction stands, perhaps a little apologetically, behind security ropes, affording it just the...
A.S. Velasca: a Milanese marriage of creativity and calcio
X STEWARTIn spring 1990, Alexander McQueen, newly graduated from a Masters programme at Central Saint Martins, moved to Milan to...
Les Ulis: France’s breeding ground
BY CHRIS ETCHINGHAMFor many Parisians who wish to spend their summer holidays in the south west of France towards the...
We need to talk about Milton
This article was first published in August 2015 in Issue 9 of The Football PinkIAN CUSACK debates whether it’s time...
Ireland United: Keeping the Home fires burning
1914-15 was a tumultuous time in Ireland, but amid the backdrop of civil unrest and disharmony, its national team came...
The game that changed Italian football
This article originally appeared in Issue 9 of The Football PinkPAUL GRECH looks back to 1920s fascist-regime Italy and an...
The Khrushchev of Burnley
This article originally appeared in Issue 9 of The Football PinkSome chairmen fancy themselves as being bigger than the club...
The Outsiders, Part 1: Berwick Rangers
Welcome to the first instalment of our new mini-series on teams who play their football in a country that is not...
A brief history of football shirt sponsorship
BY GLENN BILLINGHAMUpon reflection, there could be two schools of thought regarding the actions of Derek Dougan in January 1976....
FAC293 – Arrivederci, it’s one on one
This article appears in Issue 8 of The Football PinkFor the first, and possibly only time, an England World Cup...
Unlikely European Heroes, Part 4 – KV Mechelen
Next up in our series looking at the clubs who came from nowhere to win European silverware, we turn to...
Unlikely European Heroes, Part 3 – Eintracht Frankfurt
The third instalment of our unlikely European series focusses on Germany at the turn of the 80s.BY GLENN BILLINGHAMBum-Kun Cha....
Unlikely European Heroes, Part 2 – Dinamo Tbilisi
In part 2 of our series on unfamiliar clubs having their name etched on European trophies, we look back at...
Unlikely European Heroes, Part 1 – IFK Gothenburg
Long before the days when the Champions League gobbled up all of Europe's footballing attention (and revenue), and the continent's giants...
From Ice Station Zebra to the Promised Land – Oldham’s golden era
BY MARK GODFREYThey were the first, but wouldn’t be the last.Former Everton and Manchester City star Joe Royle had been...