It’s all my dad’s fault! The reason that Our Kid (my brother for the benefit of those of you that don’t hail from the north west of England!) and yours truly are completely hopeless football obsessives is because my Dad is and always has been one. Throughout our childhood which was split between the Wirral, […]
Ever since our honeymoon, which we of course spent at the World Cup in Brazil, the missus and I have developed a particular penchant for attending the major football tournaments when they come around. Our usual approach is to pick some location(s) in the first week of the tournament (as the better half says, when […]
Game 3: Spain v Costa Rica Al Thumama Stadium With our next match a 7pm kick-off and the fact that our first two days had been completely dominated by football-watching, we decided that we ought to have a stroll and see what Doha was really like. We walked down from our apartment to Souq Waqif, […]
Game 1: Netherlands v Senegal Al Thumama Stadium Al Thumama Stadium before The Netherlands v Senegal match After watching about half an hour of the England v Iran game, a sizeable chunk of which was taken up by treatment for the Iran goalkeeper after a clash of heads with his own defender, the continuous replays […]
By now we all know how Qatar “won” the rights to host the 2022 World Cup. How FIFA’s ongoing corruption allowed them to essentially buy it; and why their appalling treatment of migrant workers, attitudes to women and the LGBTQ+ community, the astronomical cost of building the stadiums and infrastructure, the necessity to move the […]
A sign that I saw in one of the bars in which we sheltered from the winter drizzle amidst Bilbao’s mazy and narrow streets of the Casco Viejo (Old Town), said it all: “Dear Tourist please be aware that you aren’t in Spain, nor are you in France, you are in the Basque Country”. It […]
Mention the words “Tartan Army” to pretty much any football supporter, not just from the British Isles but anywhere in the world, over the age of 30 and it will instantaneously conjure up certain memories and images. Of the “well-refreshed (or “blootered” to use the appropriate colloquialism!) hordes”, that used to descend on Wembley on […]
In an unusual move for us, Mrs Football Nerd and I found ourselves looking into the potential for an autumnal sunshine Euro-break without basing it completely around relevant football tourism opportunities. We even found ourselves looking at some venues that… (don’t tell anyone will you?)… didn’t even have football teams! For all our yours truly’s […]
Even in the modern football world where satellite television coverage, the Internet and the growth of the major European competitions have diluted some of our beloved game’s exoticism and mystery; it is still possible to engage in football experiences that remind us all while we fell so hopelessly in love with the game in the […]
This season’s ‘off-season’ (if there ever truly is an off-season for football obsessives?) has provided me with an intriguing opportunity to compare and contrast the spectator cultures and experiences of two distinctly different sports in unusual contexts. First up, Mrs. Football Nerd and I headed off to New York City for our almost-perennial holiday visit […]
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