All Posts on Help Football

Help Football

This is part of our efforts to improve football. In this column we discuss the key issues facing football – using more technology, money in the game, diving / simulation, developing young players and football training in general, changes to rules (governing football and clubs) and a lot more.

Football Injuries and Modern Footballers [INFOGRAPHIC]

Football Injuries and Modern Footballers [INFOGRAPHIC]

It’s the bane of a footballer’s life. Not a salary cap, not kiss-and-tell scandals or even the dreaded, and eternally-blamed Credit Crunch (always a capital C for Credit Crunch). No, for any footballer- amateur or professional- the fear of injury is the biggest of all. Over the past few years football fans have edged towards…

Green football – is it possible?

Green football – is it possible?

In the current climate of renewable energy and methods of preserving the planet’s resources, it is a likely progression that the world’s most popular sport should adopt some ‘green’ measures to play their part. However, in such a consumer-based industry it is at times difficult to envisage how football can contribute to the greater good…

10 Possible Football Stoners

3. David Beckham - Now don't go getting me wrong here, Becks is about as virtuous and dedicated as professional footballers come (if you ignore all that pesky 'mistress' business from a few years ago) BUT the guy has confessed to having a 'weird friendship' with devout Buddist Snoop Dogg. Two words: 'Contact' and 'High.'

Today, as you may or mayn’t be aware, is 4/20 – The International Day of the Stoner. With that in mind, we thought we’d turn a wry (or should that be ‘red’?) eye on the footballing sphere and pick out a few candidates in need of the meditative, healing powers of marijuana and also finger…

We Get What We Deserve With Football Punditry

We Get What We Deserve With Football Punditry

Football is the biggest sport in the world. Its England’s national sport, beloved by millions and one of the few things, if not the only thing that really unites us a country and creates any sort of national spirit for a couple of weeks every two years (four or more years if we balls things…

Football and Cannabis – the truth about Marijuana and Football

Football and Cannabis – the truth about Marijuana and Football

April 20th (4-20) is Cannabis day. In that context, today we look at the relationship between the world’s most popular sport (football) and the world’s third-most popular recreational drug (after tobacco and alcohol). Marijuana, Football and the Law When you think about footballers and drugs, it’s either performance-enhancing substances or hard drugs like cocaine. Occasionally,…

Football and Smoking: Past and Present

Football and Smoking: Past and Present

When you look at many of football’s top talents, both past and present, many of them were/are gifted athletes, blessed with natural gifts that enable them to live the dream, to be idolized, immortalized, and imitated. Of course, that doesn’t mean that they don’t like to partake in activities that aren’t necessarily good for those…

Three things Pakistani football can learn from Euro 2012

Three things Pakistani football can learn from Euro 2012

The 2012 European Championships will kick off this summer in Poland and Ukraine. The Euro 2012 betting hugely favours Spain and Germany, but beyond the favourites and indeed beyond the 16 teams competing at Euro 2012, there are plenty of footballing lessons for Pakistan and Pakistani football to learn from, and hopefully apply to our…

English Football Finances – 1981 to 2011

English Football Finances – 1981 to 2011

Football finance has been a hot topic for several years now, and we often cite the influx of Sky money, the formation of the Premier League, the modernisation of FIFA and UEFA, football club takeovers and of course, the rise of player wages as key indicators of how football has become more and more a…

Kissing the badge – footballers delight and demonise themselves with their club loyalty

Kissing the badge – footballers delight and demonise themselves with their club loyalty

Above all else, in the passion of a competitive football match a player can show his dedication and love for his team by kissing the badge on his jersey. We have seen it on countless occasions – a player scores a winning goal and runs towards his adoring fans kissing the club crest; he is…

Should football introduce the ‘Vanishing Spray’?

Should football introduce the ‘Vanishing Spray’?

The ‘vanishing spray’ is used by the referee to mark 10 yards between the ball and the wall at free-kicks. This line is a clear indicator of where the opposition teams should be standing before the free-kick is taken and was introduced in an effort to stop the attacking team gaining advantage by moving closer…