Mark Perryman of Philosophy Football explores what Monday’s announcement of the England Euro 2016 squad tells us about modern Englishness I was six at the time of England winning the World Cup in ’66. Despite it remaining somewhat of an obsession of mine – to declare an interest I’ve just edited the collection 1966 and […]
Posts under ‘Sport’
The symbolic politics of England football: an imagined community of eleven people
May 15th, 2016 by Mark Perryman.
In a stink about a pink St George Cross
Apr 2nd, 2016 by Mark Perryman.Professional controversialist Toby Young has got himself all in a froth about a pink St George Cross at England’s international this week Oh dear. Toby Young is all in a lather, a victim once more of the ‘PC brigade’. Writing in the Daily Mail, he describes the scene he seems to have witnessed at Tuesday night’s […]
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Football for fans not consumers: they took the words right out of our mouth
Mar 19th, 2016 by Mark Perryman.Mark Perryman of Philosophy Football applauds Dortmund fans’ resistance to a European Superleague When the Borussia Dortmund fans held up their brilliant banner at White Hart Lane on Thursday night ‘UEFA Super League? Shut the Fuck Up’ for many fans in England too the response would be ‘you took the words right out of our […]
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Fantasy is not a good basis for sporting performance – or for judging the outcomes
Oct 5th, 2015 by Bryan Gould.The despair felt at England’s premature departure from the Rugby World Cup is understandable, but also informative. It tells us something significant about the problems facing English rugby, and perhaps English sport more generally. No one doubts that the “pool of death” was always going to pose a major challenge to the England team. That […]
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Assem Allam: don’t let the door hit you on the way out
Sep 18th, 2015 by Patrick Smith.Yesterday the multimillionaire businessman called on Labour Party MPs to set up a new centrist party or defect to the Liberal democrats. He told The Times “I will do anything I can if I am convinced they can form a strong opposition,” adding that he will no longer donate money to a Labour Party led by “Comrade […]
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Mark Perryman reviews the best of this summer’s sports books
Jul 2nd, 2015 by Mark Perryman.English football’s Premiership, the best league in the world? The same four clubs, well give or take one perhaps, could be jotted down on a scrap of paper every August with a cast-iron guarantee they will fill the Champions League places, year in, year out. Tedium: it’s the brand value the Premiership has become past […]
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Liberté, Égalité, Vélocité
Jun 23rd, 2015 by Mark Perryman.Mark Perryman makes the case for a two-wheeled revolution Le Tour is now as much a fixture of the Great British Sporting Summer as Wimbledon strawberries and cream, a flutter on the Derby, England’s bi-annual early exit from a Euro or a World Cup and the five-day drama of an Ashes Test, weather permitting. It […]
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When it comes to FIFA the FA’s not got a leg to stand on
Jun 1st, 2015 by Mark Perryman.Mark Perryman of Philosophy Football is unconvinced by English football’s occupation of any moral high ground vs FiFA Corruption I’m incredibly disappointed with the timing of what the BBC seem to be proposing with Panorama. To do it the week before the vote – I don’t think think it’s patriotic.” So said Andy Anson, Director of […]
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Autumn books: beyond the froth
Nov 16th, 2014 by Mark Perryman.Mark Perryman of Philosophy Football picks out the best of the autumn sports books I’m sorry but you won’t find here the just-in-time-for Christmas sports autobiography blockbusters. With just enough manufactured controversy to ensure blanket coverage when they are launched. Even a skim read will reveal that on the contrary they tell the reader very […]
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Stop foul play in Qatar
Oct 8th, 2014 by Newsdesk.The TUC has launched the campaign – Playfair Qatar – to draw football fans into the protests against Qatar’s treatment of the workforce building the infrastructure for its 2022 World Cup. The campaign will complement other campaigns already running by bringing in new allies. Fans – many of whom are also trade unionists – are as […]
