• On the Côte d’Ivoire Les Éléphants hope for more than the Group Stage
  • Border territ’ry neighbours far from breaking bad heads further south Super Eagles pass high up above the ‘happy to be here’ sea. In Eastern Europe a City boy boards a plane- history again No summer respite. Fernando, your mountainside will have to wait
  • The stars were trodden down in an atrium of enclosed sound. There’s a tribute to Big Sam on the floor of Middlebrook Boulevard where dignitaries illumine stars for shoppers then to walk upon. I’ve been to Bolton several times but I haven’t been to Bolton once or walked to Burnden Park. I wonder what to […]
  • In Westbourne Grove with Don and Stan playing games we had no poker face for, opening tears in space and time for Clement and Gillard to make their runs from when The Great West Road led to total football. A twin-prop from Copenhagen to Disko Bay took Stan to a five-a-side in Greenland. ‘There are […]
  • Agricultural football in strange formations: right back in the centre, youth team player lone striker. Between genius and madness is a fine line of nine central defenders over which you tread and re-tread, Felix, marking passengers for the development squad, those who pass and move for the dugout’s groove while balls float past with a […]