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What would football be without great creative players? Messi, Modric, Xavi, Iniesta, De Bruyne — the list of players who have inspired fans across the world with their ability to create glorious chances is extremely illustrious. For such players, football can often be seen as an art form, measured in special moments rather than pure numbers. However, it's impossible to ignore the importance of data and statistics within the modern game,...
Top teams regularly make illustrious claims about their status within the global football landscape. Clubs like Real Madrid, Barcelona, and Manchester United boast of having millions of supporters all over the world, while their stadium tours display jam-packed trophy cabinets to visiting tourists. When it comes to naming the most successful football club in the world, there are plenty of angles to come from and debates to be had. But in...
It's common in modern football for analysts and coaches to look far beyond the headline figures and statistics when assessing their team's level of performance. Despite pushback from some quarters of the football community, there's a growing understanding that looking at more than just final scores and total goals tallies can give us different insights about how a team is operating and how performances can be enhanced. A number of terms...
Traditionally, football in Britain was a weekly event: from Monday to Friday, fans would look forward to Saturday afternoon, when at 3pm they would visit their local ground and watch their team play. The match would be followed by celebrations or commiserations, a glance at other results, and some chat about the game, but attention would soon return to everyday life. Nowadays, technological advancements, huge cash injections into the...
The power that matchgoing fans have in motivating and pushing on their team can be vast, and the more people actively getting behind the side, the better. Some stadiums are capable of holding an extraordinary number of supporters, and generating incredible atmospheres on matchdays as a result. In this article, we'll be diving into some of those locations in depth. We're going to run through the main contenders for the title of biggest...
The official FIFA world rankings are an important tool used to measure the respective quality of the 211 FIFA-affiliated nations around the world. However, the FIFA ranking system is known for throwing up surprises and confusing fans. Belgium, for example, have repeatedly been placed towards the very top of the leaderboard in recent years, despite often flattering to deceive at major tournaments and consistently failing to live up to the...
Top-level professional footballers are amongst the richest sportspeople on the planet. Thanks to the huge amount of money that has been poured into the game over the years by fans, broadcasters, foreign investors and commercial sponsors, clubs have an abundance of cash to spend. As a result, player salaries have reached unbelievable heights in top leagues like the English Premier League. In the modern day, managers and head coaches are...
The structure of youth football in the UK has changed significantly over the last decade, with the implementation of the Elite Player Performance Plan leading to excellent results in terms of quality player production across the country. Created in 2012 by the Premier League with support from the English Football Association and various other stakeholders, the EPPP is defined as "a long-term strategy with the aim of developing more and...
Scoring a free kick in football is no mean feat. It takes time and effort to develop your striking technique, get your body positioning right, and beat the opposition defenders and goalkeeper. When fans watch top players step up to the ball and strike a successful free kick into the back of the net, they're seeing the final result of hours and hours of work. This dedication has been crucial to all the stars that have become known across the...
Birmingham City's relegation from the Championship in 2023/24, after 13 years spent in the second tier of English football, was a huge blow for supporters, players, and ownership. However, the atmosphere around the club since that fateful moment has been overwhelmingly positive; the team regained promotion at the first attempt, and did so in incredible style, amassing an English league record 111 points, and losing just three games all...
As transfer deadline day approaches and coaches put the finishing touches to their squads for the new season, there's an understandable focus on playing personnel, with directors and recruitment specialists honing in on which gaps need to be filled the most. However, even in August, there's still plenty of staff changes taking place behind the scenes, from new academy directors being brought into the fold at Premier League clubs, to...
Ownership in football has become a hot topic. Whether it's ethical concerns regarding the takeover of historic community football clubs by oil-rich Emirati monarchs with close links to Gulf regimes, or the creation of vast portfolios of clubs by ambitious, global-facing billionaires, the way our football clubs are owned and operated has changed enormously in the last two decades. Understandably, supporters are keenly interested in the...