The Ball Is Round - A Global History of Football. By Andrew Goldblatt

This is about as comprehensive a history of football that I've read. It's a touch scholarly in tone - but that's ok because each page usually has one or two football facts that fire the imagination and thrill to the core if, like me, you are moved by such things.

Read this and that part of your brain that deals with football will become engorged with football facts and will grow distended and you will have to buy a new hat or perhaps even a mortar board for your misshapen head - (if your hat is a baseball cap then you have no need to worry - just stick to whatever Premiership player's biog. is coming next and your head, and all that there in is, will stay exactly the same.)

It is a very very good book.

We Don't Know What We Are Doing. - Adrian Chiles

Imagine a middle aged man sitting in the Hawthorns on a Saturday afternoon in February, and there under a low, cold, grey sky this man, whilst watching his team putting in a mediocre performance, finds himself quietly gripped by a mild existential crisis.

"Why Am I Doing This?" he asks himself.

And his answer is ... Well I'm not sure really - but the book Adrian Chiles wrote to try to answer his own question is highly entertaining.

It is also incredibly dour. How a book about football in the 21st Century can include a reference to German civilians drowning in the Baltic as they fled the Soviets I'm not sure. Read the book and you'll see how Chiles manages to include such a bleak detour - one of many in a book about football which of course is essentially a leisure activity.

For me the most memorable image from the book comes from his description of his watching West Brom. fall to another painful defeat on a TV in the Match of the Day office in the BBC Studios on a Sunday afternoon. It's strange to think that I was probably at home - reading the Sunday papers and idly wondering whether I could be bothered with watching Man City or whoever on MOTD2 that night - and as I was thinking this - the show's host was tucked away in an office in West London slowly falling out of love with life.

'Tis a good book - and I don't think you really need to be a West Brom fan to get a lot out of it.

This is the funniest thing I have seen at a football match

Adrian Chiles. We Don't Know What We Are Doing

Another quote:

this from the bloke who organises the Baggies coaches

"In about 1990 we played Newcastle at home midweek and we lost 5-1. Then we were playing Ipswich on the Saturday and I had so many cancellations I started to getting really, like, shirty with them. And when I was on the way to Ipswich I was thinking I'd just love to come here and win and that lot would have missed it. But we didn't, we lost 3-1."

...and here is a WBA related clip. They sing the Lord is my Shepherd a lot. (and there was me thinking they are a well and truly forsaken team)



Very Odd but quite cool

MyFC/Ebbsfleet stuff from last week

Thanks To B.T. being a little useless I was off line for a couple of days last week- but here is some of the stuff that I found about MYFC/Ebbsfleet which I thought worth posting

Here's a blogger's take on the project.
Here's a match report from last weeks mid-week John Ullman Kent Senior Cup match. From the official site
And here is another match report from the same match. (..according to this paper the Ramsgate manager was not there -so his brother stepped in - first time I've ever heard of that)
Ramsgate's website has a good match report. 'Tis a nice website ( and you should click on the HomePage just to see the brilliant advert which reads: "SEE RICKY (Hatton) IN VEGAS - at Southwood")
From last week but here's another blogger's take on the project.
Here's another (nicely laid out) blog from last week.

Roger Godsiff's Early Day Motion

This is the Early Day Motion by MP Roger Godsiff (Birmingham, Sparkbrook and Small
Heath) in the House of Commons today.

ENGLAND'S FAILURE TO QUALIFY FOR THE EUROPEAN FOOTBALL CHAMPIONSHIPS

"That this House congratulates Croatia and Russia on qualifying for the European Football Championships from Group E; acknowledges that the Croatian team which beat England were far superior in technical ability, skill and commitment than the insipid and inept England team; notes that £747 million was spent on the new Wembley Stadium but the match was played on a surface similar to those used by Sunday footballers on council pitches; thanks the efforts of the Israeli and part-time players of Andorra in trying to help England by doing their very best against Russia; commiserates with the fans who have spent large amounts of their hard earned money following England during these championships; believes that the over-paid, over-pampered and over-hyped English prima donnas from the Premiership who took the field against Croatia disgraced the England shirt once worn by legends such as Stanley Matthews, Duncan Edwards, Bobby Moore, Nobby Stiles and Bobby Charlton; and recognises that they will no doubt be consoled by the thought that while they are watching the European Championships from their luxurious holiday destinations their celebrity lifestyles will be protected by them still receiving their vastly inflated wages, provided by Sky and Setanta television money, from clubs in a Premiership League which is nothing more than a money making machine for players, agents and entrepreneurial club owners which does very little for promoting the well-being of football in England either at the grass roots or international level."

...I thought Beckham and Crouch did pretty well myself - but it made me laugh.

Chris Kamara. Always Good For A Laugh.