Best of SL
This section features the best articles written on Soccerlens. If there are articles that you think should be added to this list, please nominate them through this page.
Euro 2008 Review
The show’s over folks, we can all get back to work. If you’ve missed anything, here’s a quick recap of our Euro 2008 coverage:
Football Debt, Spiraling Wages and the future of European Football
Taking a break from the Euros, Ronaldo, babes and bad refereeing decisions, we come back to one of our favourite topics, football and money. Long story short – UEFA president Michel Platini wants to establish a financial criteria which would qualify clubs and allow them to participate in the Champions League and UEFA Cup. The…
Footballer Nicknames РPel̩, Pibe de Oro, Gazza, Becks, Zizou: A Century of Diminutives
Don’t call me Hugo any more. I’m English, don’t you know? So you have to change my name. At school, P.E. teachers insisted on branding me “Steckel”, although I suppose I should just be grateful I escaped that awful nom de plume that is the quintessentially British “Macca”. It’s 10:30pm, and a day both frustrating…
Football Fanzines – the perfect way to get your voice heard
First off, as a sort of disclaimer I would like to start off by conceding that I am by no means an expert on the topic of football fanzines. I have read a few in my time, but have not yet had the good fortune to contribute to one. Much academic work has been carried…
How to improve Grassroots Football in England
The English FA’s initiative to increase investment in grassroots football as well as formal recognition for the need to concentrate on helping referees, improving training / playing facilities and training the coaches is much appreciated – as any such initiative from a governing authority would be. The strategy outline can be downloaded here (8MB, so…
Keeping the Bench Warm — The Trials & Tribulations of Back-Up Goalkeepers
For one reason or another, this season has seen a number of long-suffering back-up goalkeepers finally venturing into the first eleven on a regular basis. Almunia at Arsenal has at long last cast off the albatross of Mad Jens Lehmann from around his neck, leaving Lehmann to vilipend and gnash his teeth together like Muttley…
A Tale Of Two Men…
It is the best of times, it is the worst of times… Football is at war. This war is being fought in boardrooms and courtrooms, in the media and in secret conversations and meetings between top officials and powerful businessmen who care far more about their longterm ROI than the game. And most importantly, this…
Professional Footballers’ Association – How The PFA Helps Players
“You give your life to football and then it often forgets you. Football clubs have a bad habit of taking players in, making the most of them, and then vomiting them up once they’re too old or injured [...] That’s where the Professional Footballers’ Association are so wonderful, because they do not forget anyone”. -…
Slavery in Football
The subject of slavery is one that rouses reactions verging from the understandably passionate to the frankly irrational. I can recall with a pang of melancholy the furore issuing from José Mourinho’s assertion that the French Football Federation’s treatment of Claude Makelele was tantamount to slavery. As such, slavery and football themselves share a formal…
Exposing The Mob Rule In Football
The globalisation of football is a fact – once that genie got out of the bottle, there is no way on earth, heaven or hell that you could put it back in. Football is now a universal game, and it will continue to grow as the #1 sport around the world. The commodification of football…
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