Sport

Thursday, 11 July 2024 11:10

A radical reform of international football?

Written by Mark Griffiths

in Sport

I want to argue for the end to international football – or at least radical reform of it. Do you ever felt annoyed or ‘lost’ that club football is rudely interrupted for international ‘breaks’ (no break if you are a top player)? Do you ever not identify with the divisive…

Euro24

Monday, 01 April 2024 13:40

What's there to get hot under England's collar about?

Written by Mark Perryman

in Sport

Mark Perryman gets to grips with Nike v St. George, with image above by Hugh Tisdall "This virtue signalling, namby-pamby, pearl-clutching, woke nonsense must stop now. Any more and I'll be on the first flight to Rwanda." - Lee Anderson Wembley Stadium, Saturday morning – with a bunch of friends…

K2_PUBLISHED_ON Friday, 01 December 2023 10:45

The Ever-Changing Picture of Going to the Match

in Sport

Written by Mark Perryman

70 years on, Mark Perryman and Guardian football cartoonist David Squires (see image above) revisit LS Lowry's greatest painting Reputedly a Man City fan LS Lowry's 1953 masterpiece Going to the Match depicted not Maine Road but Bolton Wanderers' then ground, Burnden Park. A ground that no longer exists, long…

K2_PUBLISHED_ON Friday, 27 October 2023 10:39

Bobby, Frannie and what we have lost

in Sport

Written by Mark Perryman

Bobby Charlton: 1966 World Cup Winner, 1967 First Division Champions, 1968 European Cup Winner. Frannie Lee: 1968 First Division Champions, 1969 FA Cup Winner, 1970 League Cup Winner and European Cup Winners' Cup Winner. The red and the blue halves of Manchester have always been divided, yet for four years…

K2_PUBLISHED_ON Monday, 17 July 2023 12:40

Bradman: A Dialectical View of the Don

in Sport

Written by Sean Ledwith

As England and Australia continue the age-old clashes for the Ashes this summer, one name always hovers over the collective psyche of both teams as they take the field. Don Bradman is indubitably the greatest Australian cricketer of all time and, in the eyes of many, also the greatest cricketer…

Ashes

K2_PUBLISHED_ON Saturday, 24 September 2022 08:14

Commonsense socialism: Liverpool, Shankly and solidarity

in Sport

Written by Mark Perryman

The socialism I believe in is everybody working for the same goal and everybody having a share in the rewards. That's how I see football, that's how I see life. - Bill Shankly. In 1995 the newly elected Labour leader Tony Blair persuaded the party to drop 'common ownership of…

Labour conference 2022

Monday, 09 May 2022 07:32

Culture for All: Why Sport Matters

Written by Culture Matters

in Sport

As part of the Culture for All series, supported by the Communication Workers Union, we're proud to present a short film about why sport matters, by Michael Roberts. Why Sport Matters by Michael Roberts Sport is one of the most popular cultural activities in the world. It is essential to…

Super League Cycling Rugby Cricket Tennis Baseball

Friday, 08 April 2022 13:12

Culture for All: Why Football Matters

Written by Culture Matters

in Sport

Next up in our series of short films about culture and cultural democracy is a film by Martin Cloake on football, followed by the text of his talk Football is the great passion for so many of us. Going to the match is an escape, a chance to be a…

Cultural democracy

Sunday, 26 December 2021 16:15

Colliers, coalfields and communism

Written by David Douglass

in Sport

David Douglass review Colliers: Northumberland's Pitmen and Their Football League Team, by Jon Tait, Rough Badger Press ISBN 9798532247727 The coalfields of the 20's were a hotbed of discontent and militant communist agitation. The Bishop of Durham Dr Hensley Henson said that his Durham diocese was the most communistic in…

Friday, 02 April 2021 16:01

Building a popular, progressive sporting culture

Written by Mark Perryman

in Sport

Mark Perryman has been reading up on the sport we’ve lost, and what sport might become, as what seems like a never-ending lockdown gradually eases Way back when, during the first lockdown, March ’20, Jonathan Liew wrote a brilliant column on small sport vs big sport. What Jonathan meant by…