Amateurs & A Yorkshireman: Sweden’s World Cup Finalists

Allsvenskan) in being completely amateur. Raynor worked wonders with the national team, his studious approach to tactics and preparation was a match made in heaven with the Swedes and, despite having to rebuild his side every two years, he achieved remarkable results.

My view on football writing

Football writing is a tricky business, especially when so many of us are starting from scratch. How do you start? Where do you start? Do you go alone? Do you join a website? Will you make a penny from this? The answers to all of those questions are not set in stone. In fact, the […]

El Dorado: When Colombia Learned Money Talks In Football

It’s hard to picture a time when being a professional footballer at the highest level did not mean astronomical wealth and lavish lifestyles. Yet, that was the reality for many of the world’s biggest stars in the early days of organised, professional football. There are bountiful stories of some of England’s biggest stars having to […]

The Long Ball Magazine Issue Six is LIVE!

After much delay and much stalling, The Long Ball Issue Six is finally live! We’ve put together a belter of an issue with some really talented writers involved so let’s see what they’re offering us up this time:

From European Comebacks to Sixth Tier Football: Uerdingen’s Wild Ride

Can you name the first team to ever beat Bayern Munich in a domestic cup final? No? Well, it’s safe to say the story behind their rise and fall is something that is as scarcely believable as the aforementioned fact. This is the story of Uerdingen… The city of Krefeld lies in the Western area […]

The Long Ball Issue Four Preview

It’s that time again as the latest issue of The Long Ball magazine is about to go live once more! The latest issue once again features plenty of exciting, fresh content and that means we’re going to take a look to see what’s on offer inside.

Dear Xabi

Dear Xabi, I usually begin any post on The Long Ball with some form of set-up but for this it feels impersonal. This is not a career retrospective nor a detailed analysis of why you were so good. This is a personal piece, something that I wanted to share with whomever would be in the […]

The Long Ball Issue Three – Live Now!

Hello once more! It’s been about six months since Issue Two and frankly you can blame my old laptop’s implosion and my lack of disposable income for that. The original August release date got pushed back and with changes in my personal circumstances, I was able to gain a laptop but lose almost all of […]

Managing At The Grassroots #2 – Pre-Season: New Signings & Positive Signs

Welcome back to Managing At The Grassroots, the series on The Long Ball where Huw Owen lets us into the world of management at grassroots level. In this part, we see how pre-season has gone with some new faces and positive signs… First of all, I’d like to apologise for a lack of blog action over the […]

“AK-86: Two Shots In The Heart Of Scottish Football” Review

On the face of it AK-86: Two Shots In The Heart Of Scottish Football is a pretty niche book. Focusing on Hearts’ brush with a league title 30 years ago, Grant Hill looks at how Hearts squandered their chance at glory and the man that fired the goals to deny them, Albert Kidd. So far, so […]