By Nick Harris SJA Internet Sports Writer of the Year 5 September 2012 While the Premier League continues to be the most cosmopolitan football league in the world with players from dozens of countries, the most popular names across the whole of English football continue to have a familiar sound. The word cloud graphic below […]

By Brian Sears 21 November 2014 Fans of Southampton must have been pinching themselves over the last year or so, having built on the survival of their ‘return’ season to the Premier League in 2012-13 with two storming starts last season and this. They were ever-present in the revamped top division between 1992 and 2005, […]

By Brian Sears 31 October 2014 The Manchester derby on Sunday reminds us how the pendulum has swung to the blue side of the city in recent years, and the graphic below charts the dramatic change over time. Manchester City have only been in the same division as United for 17 of the past 22 […]

* By Tim Rich 21 July 2014 Before I was married, I used to go to weddings and sit at the back as the bride and groom danced to the first song – usually something utterly inappropriate like Careless Whisper or the Police’s creepy Every Breath you Take. I would wonder why it wasn’t me […]

* WHEN GFH Capital, a Dubai arm of Bahrain-based bank GFH, bought Leeds United in December 2012, executives including Salem Patel appeared on national television to assure the fans his company had the funds to take Leeds places. Patel said on the BBC (link here for video): “We wouldn’t have bought this club if we didn’t […]

  * By Jonnie Baker 6 December 2013 Anticipation is obviously reaching fever pitch over the unspeakably complicated group-stage draw for the 2014 Fifa World Cup (TM), which hasn’t been obsessing too many people at all. Certainly not to the extent that anyone would come up with a draw simulator, like the one linked here, […]

. The days when the world heavyweight title was routinely feted as the ‘richest prize in sport’ may be long gone, drifted east in its increasingly fragmented forms before coagulating as the sole preserve of a pair of precipitous Ukrainian brothers who swat all-comers with nonchalant ease. But the chance to fight for the same […]

By Nick Harris 24 June 2013 As tennis’s most prestigious grass court tournament begins at Wimbledon today, the presence of one particular American qualifier in the men’s singles draw highlights the sport’s deeply complex relationship with match-fixing, doping and whistle-blowing. Wayne Odesnik, 27, is the world No107 and has previously been ranked inside the world’s […]

* The Premier League has never been richer – and yet most of its clubs have never been more fretful. When the new three-year cycle of TV deals for 2013-16 begins this summer, some £5.5bn of TV cash alone will pour into England’s top division. That makes it more important than ever for clubs to […]

By Alex Miller 28 May 2012 The results of new research into every significant injury suffered by every Premier League footballer in the 2011-12 season reveal that Manchester City came out as clear winners in the injury league – suffering fewer major problems than any other side. The data has been compiled by analysts at […]