Here’s a truth that no football writer wants to hear: there is too much football writing. Even considering the huge appetite for football and anything connected with the game, there are more words written about football than can feasibly be read by anything resembling a worthwhile audience. Professionally there isn’t enough money to go around and, for those writers who are happy to write for love not money, there is too much competition for readers.

As a result, the arrival of a new football publication should probably be greeted with mixed emotions. It’s something else to fit in alongside the daily local and national newspaper coverage, fistful of magazines, hundreds of blogs, and thousands of 140-character tweets. But on this occasion you’re going to have to shift some things around, set some time aside, make room for something else to read. Because The Blue & White is really rather good. Read more…

Football

Forget about Fantasy Football, in the late 1970s there was only one imaginary soccer competition worth bothering with – the Scoop Inter City Superleague. The prospect of a football league presided over by a massive electronic overlord was a thrilling one for any imaginative young football fan, but the reality proved to be somewhat less exciting. The Super Scoop 2000 Sports Computer turned out to be a know-all control freak, and its story highlights the dangers of combining football and technology…

Read the full story over at Sabotage Times.

Football, Technology Sabotage Times

The Japanese edition of my book Unofficial Football World Champions was published this week by Asuka Shinsha. It’s available from all good bookshops, including Amazon.co.jp, and there’s more information (in Japanese, obviously) at the Asuka Shinsha website.

The book traces football’s alternative championships from the very first international match in 1872 via more than 800 title matches, involving legendary teams and footballing minnows, classic finals and forgotten friendlies, celebrated players and unsung heroes.

As it happens, Japan are the current Unofficial Football World Champions, having taken the title from Argentina back in October. However, the Japanese play South Korea on Wednesday in the latest Unofficial Football World Championships (UFWC) title match. You can read more at the UFWC website.

The English edition of Unofficial Football World Champions was published in January, and is available in paperback from all good bookshops, including Amazon.co.uk, and it’s also on Kindle. There’s more information about the English edition here, and you can order it using the links on the right.

Books, Football

I’ll swap you Titus Bramble for Wayne Rooney. That kind of offer might have Sir Alex Ferguson choking on his chewing gum, but it’s a thoroughly realistic proposition in the world of football sticker collecting. This is a world where there are few things more thrilling than tearing open a paper packet to reveal Dirk Kuyt, Emile Heskey, Steve Bruce, two Stoke City defenders and a shiny Aston Villa badge…

Read the full story in the September 2011 issue of FourFourTwo.

Football FourFourTwo