Crowded Out

Here’s something to ponder when you’re considering Richard Scudamore’s claim that it is vital that the Premier League plays matches abroad because they only have 335,000 consumers at home: last night, on a bitterly cold Tuesday night in March and with Champions League match available on non-PPV or subscription television, 169,592 turned out to watch [...]

FA Cup Fifth Round Review

With every round that comes and goes now, the inevitable slides closer and closer into view. Manchester United vs Chelsea for the second year in row, boring the hell out of each other (as well as all of us) with a terrible, attritional FA Cup final at the strangely echo-ey new Wembley Stadium. Still, never [...]

Tuesday Night Review

This week’s midweek matches, the vast majority of which were played last night, seemed to catch many people unaware. This certainly seemed to be what happened at The Reebok Stadium, where just 17,700 people took the time to drop by for their 0-0 draw with Fulham. The missing thousands must have known something. Meanwhile, Arsenal [...]

FA Cup Fourth Round Review

The FA Cup Fourth Round, played out last weekend, was most peculiar. There were sixteen matches played, involving thirty-two clubs, and not a single one was drawn. It was the first time that this had happened in a shade of fifty years. I bet no-one at the BBC saw that one coming. Equally strange is [...]

Saturday Night On Sunday Morning

West Bromwich Albion have been playing some reasonably attractive football this season, but, to paraphrase The Streets, my God, don’t they just know it? ITV ran something of a eulogy to them on “Championship Goals” this morning, in which they came across as a deeply unlovable bunch, from the supporters interviewed before their match [...]

FA Cup Third Round Review

If this year’s FA Cup Third Round has proved anything, it has proved that the supposed gap between the Premier League and the rest is nowhere near as great as many people would have you believe. Blackburn Rovers, Bolton Wanderers, Everton and Birmingham City all fell to lower division opposition, whilst others such as Liverpool, [...]

FA Cup Third Round Preview

Is it that time of the season again already? The first weekend in January means that, just after the chaos of the Christmas schedule, everyone can relax for a weekend and forget all about The Football That Is More Important Than Life Itself and enjoy (Enjoy! Fancy that!) the Third Round of the FA Cup. [...]

The End Of The Weekend

Arsenal, Liverpool, Manchester United and Chelsea all won over the course of the weekend. Derby lost. Spurs conceded a goal in the last minute and lost at home. Newcastle lost. Business, then, as usual in the all-singing, all-dancing Premier League this weekend. Alex McLeish must be wondering what all the fuss is about, having started [...]

The Weekend Ends Here (Slight Return)

I have to say that I have always held a sneaking regard for both Aston Villa and Martin O’Neill. I regard Villa, with their rich history and occasional bouts of being reasonably successful, as a “proper” English football club (though they lost about a million brownie points when they demolished the marvellous Trinity Road stand [...]

Another Weekend Round-Up

Ho hum. After all the excitement of the first two rounds, the Copa America is starting to come undone at the seams a little. For one thing, three groups of four is a deeply unsatisfactory way of organising the tournament. The first two quarter-final matches were both repeats of first round matches, due to two [...]