Something happened in Luxembourg on Friday that will either bring an end to football’s transfer system as we know it, make the stars even richer, jeopardise player development and ruin hundreds of clubs across Europe, or it will make FIFA rewrite a couple of sentences in its rulebook. As Sliding Doors moments go, that’s a […]
Football’s dark arts. You may have read, heard or watched a bit about that subject this week. Wind-up merchants, rule benders, injury fakers, divers, pinchers, medical staff who love running on the pitch, time-wasters… every club has them, but how dark arts-y is your team? We can — and will — use metrics and data
Ranking each Premier League club for ‘dark arts’ Read More »
Deepdale was the venue of English football’s most interminable penalty shootout on Tuesday night. After playing out a 1-1 draw in normal time during their Carabao Cup third-round tie, Fulham and Preston North End took a record-breaking 34 penalties between them, with an astonishing 31 finding the net. Excluding FA Cup qualifiers, this was the
Breaking down the highest-scoring penalty shootout in professional English football Read More »
Welcome to the ‘Beverly Hills of Britain’, where the only thing missing is sunshine. There are luxury cars, fancy restaurants, gated mansions and enough high-level professional footballers to create the United Kingdom’s most dominant five-a-side league. ‘Elmbridge Borough Council welcomes you to Cobham’, the sign reads as you enter the village made famous by Chelsea
Three down, 35 to go. An international break is upon us just as the Premier League was clicking into gear. On Saturday, Arsenal dropped points at home for the first time since mid-April, Manchester City continued a 12-game winning streak and we were treated to the latest comeback from two goals down in Premier League
At Premier League HQ, it wasn’t just the summer transfer window that closed on Friday evening. There was also a deadline to apply for two senior positions in the legal department as — to quote from the job spec — “the scope and complexity of the league’s financial regulations continues to evolve”. That is an
Why the Premier League transfer window is messier than ever Read More »
