People always say that, to understand how far we’ve come, you need to look in the past. Whilst that sentence probably sounds a bit cliché, it could surely be used in discussions regarding the evolution of the common Premier League football supporter over the last 30-40 years.

If you’ll recall, the Premier League has only turned into a global league in the last 10 or so years. With the boom in the Britain’s biggest league came international contracts to show the matches in places as far away as Indonesia. Clubs like Manchester United and Chelsea are no longer secrets, nor are they really clubs: they’re now international brands.

Whilst the word “brand” makes Premier League purists cringe — and those who grew up with the game — many of us, myself included, understand that the global “brand” is what makes the league so appealing. Without the international television, there’d be less international flavour. And without the international flavour, I can guarantee you there’d be less money coming into the league.

With that in mind, I think most would be in agreement that the international influx in the Premier League has diluted one group that built the league: the British football supporter. Most of us only know of the club supporters we see on the telly, chanting their lungs out in the streets, but being silenced in the stands.

The supporters of the Premier League have changed drastically over the years. Today’s Premier League fan culture is a hodgepodge of fans from all over the globe supporting a club they’ve probably known for maybe 10 years tops. That’s not to say new fans are a bad thing; far from it. But if there’s one thing that used to make British football so intriguing, it was the fans.

Starting with the 1960s, a British subculture know as ‘casual’ culture was born. These were supporters who supported their club, but instead of wearing their club’s shirt to the match, they brought their news fashions to the football terraces instead (back when terrace football was still the rage).

The 1970s were followed by a mod revival that was brought on by Liverpool fans who introduced the rest of England to European fashions that they acquired while following the club at their European Cup quarter final in France against St. Etienne. Those expensive European and Italian designer clothes they were wearing when they came home were most likely looted from stores during violent outbreaks that were commonplace when supporters travelled abroad. It was just part of the culture and the times.

To get these designer clothes, football supporters travell abroad to the outer most reaches to get them by any means possible; or in some cased, find a spot that sold counterfit luxury goods that looked dead-on to the original. Soon enough, grafters from the Northwest of England were travelling abroad on a consistent basis, immersing themselves in new cultures, music, and closthing styles. Some came back after the buzz had worn off; others decided to stay and make a new life for themselves.

This is where Ian Hough comes in to the picture. Hough is a writer from Manchester who grew up in the ‘casual’ culture and saw it first hand. His first book, Perry Boys, detailed the “casual hooligan trend from its origins on northwest England’s terraces to its later metamorphisis into the rave/’Madchester’ culture.”

For so many of us who never grew up with the sport and are still novices to the history of the game in Britain, Hough’s first book gives us a great idea of what it was like growing up during the height of hooliganism is the country.

After his first book came out to great reviews, Hough decided to take his Perry Boys story a bit farther. His new book called Perry Boys Abroad takes a look at the Perry Boys from Hough’s first book; only this time Hough chronicles his own abroad experiences chasing in the height on Manchester’s changing fashions.

But Hough isn’t the only voice in this book. He takes the time to sit down and talk with these Northwest England grafters who made a life for themselves doing all kinds of legal (and sometimes illegal) work to live a different life in the outer corners of the world. This book isn’t so much about the ‘casual’ culture (most of which was centered around fighting at footbal match) at home, but rather what the culture did when they went abroad.

Like Hough said, “if you think casual culture was limited to fighting at football matches, think again.” I was amazed to read how these men gave up everything they knew for the chance to live a life as a relative vagabond, going from country to country, exploring everything they possibly could.

“Post-rave Brits,” as Hough calls them in his book, are few and far between these days. They truly are a dying breed that chased a different lifestyle most of today’s generation would never go after. But for those rare few who still exist in such places as Mexico, America, and Thailand, Hough allows them the chance to tell their story. And I can assure you it’s a story worth reading about.

Ian Hough is a hidden gem when it comes to writers who know British culture. Whilst there are plenty of people out there who can write a book about Manchester United’s history, there are very few who can write about the culture and history of those who sat and witnessed club such as Manchester United in the flesh, and lived to tell the stories in a way that brings you back to your childhood.

If you’ve never heard of the ‘casual’ culture, I emplore you to read Hough’s work to get a better idea of what it was like to live in the Northwest of England (Liverpool and Manchester played an intergal role) during the ‘casual’ culture.  There’s more beyond the history of the game than just the football on the pitch. The lads in this book lived a life most of us will never experience. But there’s one way you can live vicariously through their stories, and that’s by reading Hough’s new book.

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Favourite exceprt from the book: “Replica football kits were a new fetish item back then. Being poor in 1977, Christmas was my one hope of ever owning one. I remember nervously scrutinising the only red home shirt I ever had like it was a lunar astronaut suit. As the crackers and glasses of sherry made the rounds, I couldn’t believe I’d finally managed it. Mentally obsessed by that stadium and feeling unworthy of the colours, I made my trembling way into the world of Manchester United. I was branded for life, penned in behind those red railings with the other animals, my heart heald aloft on a roasting rod, sacrificed to the immortals who stroked that white leather pill about the park.”

Perry Boys Abroad can be purchased on Amazon.co.uk for £5.99.

England has a lot to look forward these days when it comes football. With the senior squad all but assured a place in next year’s World Cup and the U-21’s playing in the European Championship semi-final round, it’s safe to say things couldn’t be going better at the moment.

The coverage regarding the national squad and the Premier League around the country comes at a feverish pace that sometimes leaves many of us overwhelmed by the number of stories floating around the internet. For those of us that want the opportunity to read articles regarding the English game (namely the Premier League and the national setup) Sony and ITV have tried their best to build a website that would make football fans within the country proud.

The new “heart of England football” (that’s what they’re calling it at the moment) is a website called itv-sonyheart, a new hub for English football that claims to bring the best stories from around the country to a site that acts as a massive RSS feed for some of the biggest football blogs around.

The new Sony/ITV idea seems to be a very good one that takes the idea of building a football-based RSS website and improves it by giving readers a more specific product — in this case it would be news dedicated to the English game.

The layout is very clean and borderline futuristic in a sense. Once you register and login, you’ll be greeted by some floating headlines on your screen. You can click on the headlines, read the intro to the article, and then either read the entire article or click on another.

You’ll notice beyond the current stories floating on the site that there are other articles that are visible (but I honestly was never able to see what they said) in the background. If you click on the articles in the background, you’ll then be given a new list of headlines to choose from. If you agree or disagree with the article, the site gives you the chance to soundoff with a reply.

If I do have one gripe with the site, it would be with the floating headlines. Call me old fashioned, but I like to see the articles in a list. Whilst the idea of floating the headlines is unique, I like knowing when an article was published before I click on the link. The site does give you a timestamp, but you have to click on the article to see the published date.

What really makes the site so great is the fact that it relies on individual blogs from around the country for news. The heartbeat of English football really is coming from the fans who watch the game on a weekly basis. Aside from the blogs that are already linked to itv-sonyheart, the site is also giving those of you who currently have your own football blog the opportunity get even more exposure.

The exposure is free, and given that the site is run by Sony and ITV, I’d say chances are pretty good that you’d get some added hits for taking the time to email them with your interest.

Overall the site has a chance to be a big player in the coming months as we grow closer to the World Cup. Everyone in the country will be looking for a new view on England’s hopes and the upcoming Premier League season, and I’d assume a site with a pulse on some of England’s biggest football blogs would be a great place to start when you’re looking for some fresh perspectives.

They echo throughout fields all over the UK during the football season, and on many occasions have been known to give players a lift. I’m talking about football chants.  From Fernando Torres’ “Liverpool’s Number Nine” to “Glory Glory Man United,” songs and chants are a massive part of what makes football such a unique sport.

Some of the best chants out there rarely get the credit they deserve. And for those rare few who can come up with a proper chant, it’s time you stepped into the spotlight. In other words: it’s time to give credit where credit is due for those who come up with unique chants about their favourite club or player.

Directgov’s ‘Get On’ program decided to take matters into their own hands this year with the introduction of a ‘Chant Challenge’ that allowed supporters from all over the country to try their luck at coming up with the most unique chant possible.

Football legend, John Barnes, along with Barnsley FC’s resident poet, Ian McMillan, took on the task of going through over 300 entries to find nine finalists. The finalists, who represented such clubs as Tottenham Hotspur and Sunderland AFC, will be going to London in August prior to the beginning on the season to face-off for the chance to be crowned the chant-off champion.

“Chants are a great way of getting behind your team and can make a real difference to players on the pitch. I was really impressed by the level of skill and imagination that came through in the entries,” Barnes said.

The competition has been a huge success in its inaugural year, and has even garnered support from Liverpool’s Fernando Torres (Liverpool supporters sent in the highest number of entries), and Manchester United’s Ryan Giggs.

Here are just a couple of the chants that were entered into the competition this year:

Don’t wave at us David Jamo
Just try to catch this corner
All through your mishaps
And crazy haircuts
We still support you
Just hoof your clearance

[to the tune of ‘Don’t cry for me Argentina’]
Entered by Richie Turrell, Portsmouth supporter

I believe in a man of steel
His name is Lucas Neill
If you think he can score a goal
He’ll put you in hospital
I believe in a man of steeeee-eee-eeel
Our boy, Lucas Neill!

[to the tune of ‘I believe in a thing called love’ by The Darkness]
Entered by Jordi Greig, West Ham supporter

FA Cup Opposition Taunt

Oh when we get to Wembley in May
We’ll think of teams we thrashed along the way
And you’ll be watching when we win the cup
You’ll be so gutted when we lift it up
We’re going through to the next round baby
You know whose winning and it isn’t you
We’ll think of you in the next round baby
All of your hopes and dreams are blown away
What a magic day.

[to the tune of ‘Warwick Avenue’ by Duffy]
Entered by Lee Dooley, Manchester United supporter

So there you go! If you think you’ve got a chant better than some of the above, then I’d suggest you throw your hat into the ring next season to see if you’re good enough to be one of the nine finalists.  Make sure you take a look at Get On’s chant competition page in August to see who wins the right to record their chant in the studio with John Barnes.

My how the introduction of the new technology has changed football! Unlike in the past where you had to either live in the country of origin to see your favourite club play on the telly or fly abroad to catch it in person, you can now be the fan of a club from anywhere in the world and can conceivably watch every match from the comfort of your own home — provided you have an internet connection and a link to watch games on your computer.

Yes, the internet has really changed the way we follow our club. With the introduction of Facebook and other social networking sites in recent years, fans can now also find a way to keep in contact with other followers of their clubs, and possibly meet some new ones along the way.

With the increase in social networking sites as a whole, it only seemed like a matter of time before football social networking sites came along. ExtraFootie is one of the new sites on the block trying to make their mark with the introduction of a networking site that allows fans to interact with football fanatics all over the world.

The website, while still in the Beta stages, has a lot to offer for those willing to invest time in the site. Aside from being able to interact with fellow fans, the website also offers you points incentives for doing certain things on the website.

Some of the ways to gain points includes getting articles published on the homepage, creating a profile and getting friends to sign-up for the site. Just make sure you don’t bash another supporter! You can lose points for being crass towards others. (But aren’t football fans rude by nature?)

The points you earn can then be redeemed for various prizes. At the moment, you can currently redeem points for trips to watch Real Madrid and Barcelona play for a mere 16,000 and 17,000 points. I’m sure the site will be adding cheaper and more attainable prizes in the near future!

ExtraFootie may be a website where you can upload videos, talk to fans and write articles. But if there’s one thing that separates it from the rest, it would have to be the rewards you get for being an active member of the community.

Aside from that, the site is very easy to use. There’s minimal fuss in the sign-up process, and the layout pretty much speaks for itself. If there’s one thing that I found to be really interesting when I perusing the site, it would have to be their transfer page. The page allows users to add transfer rumours they hear during the summer and winter, as well as confirmed moves and transfer fees.

Overall I think the site has a solid base to hang their hat on going forward. The minimal fuss and points reward system make ExtraFootie worth trying out in the near future.

Trying to get information on your favourite club from one website is damn near impossible to do. First, there’s the difference in opinion. You may have one blog you go to for hilarious commentary, whilst another is for in-depth analysis and proper videos on your favourite players.

But when you add up the amount of time you probably spend going from one blog to the other, and the other things going on in your life (what, you do something other than just follow football?!) there’s a pretty good chance you’ll end up missing out on some quality content.

OminFootball is trying to change that by giving readers a hub to get all the information they could possibly want from their club in one spot. But what’s the difference?

Well the big difference is that OmniFootball is in essence a big RSS feed for football. That means you’ll get updates from club specific blogs whenever they add a new post. No more going back to each site and realising that there hasn’t been a new post in a couple of days. The site is aimed at making it easy and quick to get the information you need, when you want it.

That’s the good news for readers willing to give OmniFootball a try. But what’s in it for those wanting to give their blog more exposure? Well the site is also offering all club specific blogs from the Premier League down to League Two — who operate a blog — the chance to have their blog added to OmniFootball’s feed.

In return you’ll get more eyeballs on your site for free, and that’s more than enough reason to head over to their site and add your blog to their feed. You can gain new readers and possibly find a couple of new blogs as well to possibly link-up with in the future.

Each time you upload a new post to your blog, readers will then be able to click on the link via OmniFootball’s website to see your new post; they’ll also be able to visit your site as well if they so choose.  In the end, the site ends up looking like a win-win situation for both readers and bloggers alike.

For most of us the Premier League is a golden idol that we come to worship every weekend. It doesn’t matter where we are, we find a way to make the trip home to sit in front of our telly and bask in the warm glow of the greatest league in the world.

Many of us also worship our club and the players that step on the pitch each week wearing the shirt we love. To us these players can do no wrong (until they give away a pass in the opening minute). We tend to look away from our club’s wrongdoings and the nightclub antics all in the name of the golden idol and the club that makes us happy.

But below the shiny football veneer most see on the top is a seedy underbelly just waiting to be exposed. The Guardian and Observer’s sports staff exposes that underbelly in a new seven part series called, ‘Foul play: the seven deadly sins of football.’

Starting on Saturday (16 May) the paper will run one of the seven deadly sins each day discussing everything from greed to slothfulness in the footballing world. Each of the seven sins features two players that for one reason or another fall into that sin category. Some of the names range from squeaky-clean John Terry (we’re talking about Terry; not his mum) to Mr five-iron, Craig Bellamy.

Here’s the complete list of the Guardian’s seven deadly sins of football:

16 May – Greed featuring David Beckham and Ashley Cole
17 May – Pride featuring Andrei Arshavin and Mike Ashley
18 May – Wrath featuring Craig Bellamy and Roy Keane
19 May – Envy featuring Bruce Grobbelaar and Daniel Lloyd
20 May – Gluttony featuring Mark Bosnich and Gazza
21 May – Sloth featuring John Terry and Ian Rush
22 May – Lust featuring David Mellor and Robinho

So go out and pick up a copy of the paper this weekend (or read it online) and follow along with the Guardian on their tales from the football underbelly.

Picture this: You and a bunch of your mates are sitting around your flat on a Saturday night talking about your most recent team loss earlier that morning to a rival club up the road. Somebody then blurts out, “it feels like we’ve been on 12 points for the last month! When was the last time we secured a point in our Saturday league?”

The room grows silent and everyone blurts out a game they think you won or lost. To be honest, nobody in the room knows for sure. And unless you have a league website for your Saturday club — which isn’t likely — then you’ll have to give the league a call to get the answer.

But what if there was an easier way to get the answer? That’s where Teamstats.net comes into view.

Think of the site as your own personal club page that comes complete with a forum for your club, a gallery to post pictures of your most recent Cup wins, stats pages, ground information and much more.

The general layout is extremely easy, plus it gives you a homepage to call home for your club. No more excuses about not knowing when the next game is — the site has a spot to add your roster, team schedule, bio’s for every player, club finances, as well as club history.

Not only that, Teamstats.net also gives you an area on the site that allows the coach and the members of the team to rate the players on a game-by-game basis, as well as add a Man of the Match to each game.

In all honesty, the site is a bit overwhelming. The options you have at your fingertips are vast; that means you better have a good statistician on your team! It also means that your website could be just as good as say, Woking FC, if you have someone to take good care of it.

Seriously, take a look at Woking’s website and Norwich St. Johns on teamstats. The differences are minimal. So long as the site continues to be free of charge, I have a feeling it could be a big draw for clubs looking for a place to call home. They basically do all the work for you by giving you the layout — all you have to do is build your site up as you so choose.

If you’re a Saturday or Sunday league player looking for a hub for your club, then I’d highly recommend going over to Teamstats.net for a look around. The quality and no cost make it well worth a try.

If you take a moment to look at some of the bigger football club forums currently on the internet today you’ll notice one growing trend that has become somewhat of a nuisance in recent years. That nuisance is of course known to many as the “dreaded diatribe.”

These 800-1,500 word (and sometimes longer) posts regarding everything from club finances to player debates have turned many football forums into places where fans come to write their own football novel. Instead of making a quick point and letting everyone else chime-in on the discussion, these long posts end up turning fans off from the topic and away from future comments from said poster. In the end, short and sweet usual works best when trying to get your point across to someone.

The short and sweet idea is definitely part of Goalpostr.com’s mantra.  The website’s main goal is to bring football fans together from all over the world to a site that’s built on making astute and insightful comments regarding your favourite club (or any other club for that matter). You are the pundit, and everything you say on the site can — and will — be seen by your peers.

The site very clean and easy to use. Once you’ve signed up for an account (which took me all of about 2 minutes) you can head straight for the homepage. Goalpostr.com currently has club pages for every Premier and Scottish Premier League club, as well as club pages for the Championship, League One, Two and the Conference.

Once you’ve found your respective club page you’ll then want to figure out something to say. Unlike most sites, Goalpostr.com has a 500 character limit — so make your words count! If you want to talk about the loss over the weekend and the shoddy play at the back, you’d then type up a brief analysis and post your thoughts.

From there other fans of your club and members of Goalpostr.com will be able to view your post. If they like what you have to say they may leave you “respect”. More respect equals…more respect! Like most things in life, you want the respect of your peers. The only way to do that is to make a comment that users may find insightful or interesting.

The site then takes the amount of respect your post gets, plus other factors to come up with a level of “interestingness” that shows the most interesting posts of the day for each club on the site. You can then view the most interesting post for your club over the last 24 hours, 7 days or 1 month.

Here’s how Goalpostr.com describes the interestingness factor:

It’s a calculation we use to work out what are the most interesting posts on Goalpostr at any given time. We include the number of times a post has been respected, the number of friends you have and the amount of time since the post was made, and other variables. We try to keep things fresh, so we will change the algorithm we use from time to time. If we need to make a major change, we’ll try to involve the community in our thinking.

There idea of using an interestingness factor should lead to two things: shorter posts and more insightful comments. The shorter posts should then lead to more in-depth discussions. At least that’s Goalpostr.com is hoping for.

Another big plus behind the interestingness factor is that it allows you to take a quick glance at what members deem to be the best posts of the day. Forget having to wade through post after post on a regular football message board to find a good debate or insight comment.

The site claims they’re in the process of making some new upgrades over the next couple of months, but at the moment those upgrades aren’t as important as finding more users for the site. The more users they have going forward, the better the posts and variety.

Based on my time spent on the site, I found Goalpostr.com to be a refreshing site. I’ve already recommended it to some of my mates and would be more than happy to suggest the site for you as well.

If there’s one thing football fans hate more than anything else, it’s trying to search for a football related article on Google. If you’re like most people around the world, you’ve realised that Google is a little biased towards a certain brand of football — and it’s not the kind that’s played with your feet.

American football by far outweighs the number of football related searches on the internet. In all honesty, it’s not surprising given the fact that Google was born and is currently based in the United States. The thought of having more searches for a sport that dominates their landscape makes sense. But what about all those fans of the beautiful game that want to find a specific story about Steven Gerrard’s goal against Olympiakos in the 2004/05 Champions League?

That’s where Footballrama.com comes into the picture.

Footballrama is building search engines designed with the football fan in mind. The club themed search engines (currently they have homepages for ten different Premier League teams) are powered by Google but come with a unique twist.

Unlike an average Google search, Footballrama.com puts football first by altering the search algorithm itself to deliver much more accurate results when searching for information or news surrounding your club.

For instance, if searched for “Rafa” in Google, you’ll get links to Rafa Nadal and a load of other stuff unrelated to football let alone Rafa Benitez. But if you search for “Rafa” on Footballrama’s Liverpool search engine (Liveroo.com) it immediately delivers only results relevant to the Liverpool boss. There may be the odd link out of place here and there, but if you compare any results to the same search on Google you will see a major improvement.

However, if you search for general topics unrelated to football, Footballrama’s search engine delivers regular Google results. For example, if you search for “flats for rent in London,” the search engine delivers information on exactly that. I’ve been using the search engine for the last couple of weeks and officially made the Liverpool search page my go-to.

As with any search engine, the algorithm must be improved and tweaked constantly and the guys at Footballrama have told me they are doing just that. So it should only get better.

Footballrama currently has search engines for 10 different Premier League teams, and I’m told they have 4 more about to be launched and more to come after that (including some lower league clubs). So if you’re a Liverpool fan, just set your homepage to Liveroo.com and you’re set! If you’re a Tottenham (are there many of them?), Footballrama has a search engine for you, too. Each homepage is extremely clean and includes famous quotes and some great fan-photos that are pulled straight from Flickr.

People have tried to do football related search engines in the past but have failed miserably with the search algorithm. This is the first one I’ve seen that’s been geared to search for football articles that fans care about. It’s a thing of beauty when you try it out for the first time!

Let’s be completely honest here, one of the single most annoying things in the history of mankind is trying to find a proper football video on YouTube.

Sure, we can all claim that once in a blue moon we’ve seen a recap of a match we missed or a must-see goal that decided a match, but for the most part almost everyone out there would agree that every time you DO find a video the picture showing up on the screen is either A) not the video you were looking for or B) says “video now longer available.”

Like Indiana Jones looking for the temple, footy fans have yet to find their temple of gold that is on-demand football videos when we want them. Enter FootyTube.com. Whilst the site might not get the publicity of YouTube, it is slowly going a niche user group that is looking for one thing only — and that would be as much football as humanly possible.

The original version of the site had the occasional hiccup with sketchy video quality and a shorter video than you’d like to see on a recent match, but for the part the site got the job done. Well the new and improved FootyTube.com version 2.0 seems to take the issues we had with version 1.0 and make them a thing of the past.

Built with a sleek new look and an easy to use drop down on the top of the page, FootyTube 2.0 aims to make the search for a particular video as simple as possible. Whilst the old site made searching for videos a task, the v2 allows users the opportunity to see what the top 5 most viewed matches of the day were, as well as a top 5 list for the best goals and the most popular videos. The best way to put it is that FootyTube took the most important feature of the site, which was ability to search for a high-quality video in the least amount of time, and made it their top priority with the new version.

When you do view a video the site gives you the option to rate the match and nominate a goal in the video for goal of the week. It’s a football fans version of YouTube’s rating system — only geared towards the fan enthuiast.

It’s easy to admit that FootyTube.com’s v2 is the real deal. The site is currently looking for new users to demo the new site, so I’d suggest you get over there and try it for yourself. My only caveat is that you demo the site when you’re not at work since FootyTube.com has a knack for stealing hours in your day.