A ‘soccer’ lesson (Or … A few words from the States on the most contentious of words)   PDF here to read offline . By Steve Hendricks 6 December 2015 This month marks the 130th anniversary of one of the most traumatic events in British football. Lay historians may think I’m referring to the English Football Association’s […]

* IT would be nice to think that definitive answers exist to every question, that truth is absolute and there is only one way to see things – because then we could always be clear and what is right, wrong, true, false. But life isn’t like that, not any walk of life from medicine to […]

* In the first instalment of a new weekly Monday column, Tell Me Why, the Independent’s brilliant man in the north-west, Ian Herbert, asks why Manchester United needed to unveil a statue of their remarkable manager, Sir Alex Ferguson, even before Fergie has left the building. What does it tell us about Sir Alex, and […]

By Nick Harris SJA Internet Sports Writer of the Year 28 August 2012 Manchester United’s manager Sir Alex Ferguson, who has been attracting headlines in recent days for his latest episode of banning a reporter for doing his job, is an autocrat on the brink of yet another record in his extraordinary career. Since taking […]

By Steve Menary 22 May 2012 It seems almost certain now that the number of Welshman ever to have played Olympic football for Great Britain will double or treble this summer – from two in total at present since 1908 to five, six or even seven. The Welsh have been the worst represented of the […]

* JOHN ROBERTS wrote for the Daily Express, The Guardian, the Daily Mail and The Independent, where he was the tennis correspondent for 20 years. He collaborated with Bill Shankly on the Liverpool manager’s autobiography, ghosted Kevin Keegan’s first book, and has written books on George Best, Manchester United’s Busby Babes (The Team That Wouldn’t Die) and Everton (The Official […]

By Nick Harris SJA Internet Sports Writer of the Year 5 December 2011 Bill Nankeville is perched on the edge of his chair, explaining the ‘austerity’ tag routinely attached to the 1948 London Olympics, in which he ran for Britain in the 1,500 metres. ‘We ate stodge, ran on grass that became mud, didn’t do […]

By Nick Harris 19 December 2010 Few if any Manchester United fans can have failed to notice the recent coverage of Sir Alex Ferguson ‘overtaking’ Sir Matt Busby’s record reign as United manager, but in fact Ferguson overtook Busby 10 weeks ago. And the inconsistency in the way the ‘official’ United figures have been compiled […]

. Every book featured in this section is included on the personal recommendation of a member of sportingintelligence‘s panel of writers and authors, to be expanded over time. Our “We say” reviewers have included only those books they count among their personal favourites and would actively encourage others to read as outstanding. A full list […]

JOHN ROBERTS wrote for the Daily Express, The Guardian, the Daily Mail and The Independent, where he was the tennis correspondent for 20 years. He collaborated with Bill Shankly on the Liverpool manager’s autobiography, ghosted Kevin Keegan’s first book, and has written books on George Best, Manchester United’s Busby Babes (The Team That Wouldn’t Die) […]