Andrew Cherrie @andrew-cherrie ?

It was a messy divorce, one fraught with backwards bickering and confusion. Fabio Capello and the English Football Association could not agree over who had control over the kids: when the FA sent John Terry to the naughty step, it was the last straw for Fabio. They hadn’t agreed to that. Now, like an aggrieved ex-husband [...]

Sepp Blatter must have been delighted. For all of FIFA’s bumbling incompetence, even they could not have stretched as far the wretched ineptitude of Hampden Park’s scoreboard operator in displaying the South Korean flag in place of the North Korean. The only consolation for the organisers of the Olympic football was the shocking swathes of empty [...]

You know the feeling. Stepping off a flight into a mysterious land for the first time, the rush of exotic heat knocking you backwards as you descend into arrivals. Be it Benidorm or Brazil, Mallorca or Mauritius, upon first placing a tentative foot on foreign soil thoughts quickly turn to just one thing: sleep. You are [...]

Football: it’s our game. Nobody else’s. It does not belong to the overweight, ill-fitting suit wearing cats at FIFA or UEFA, nor does it belong to the overweight, ill-fitting suit wearing mercenary owners of many a club in the Premier League era. Though it may sound a touch contrived, football is the possession of the fans, [...]

Manchester United are a club who are defined by the virtues of loyalty, the Theatre of Dreams an arena which encases a history of faithful, enduring characters. Though of questionable conviction off the pitch, Ryan Giggs is an exemplary case of the more virtuous aspects of football: dedication, allegiance, dependence. Everyone who represents the club must [...]

There are a number of football cliches emanating from footballer’s mouths which grind the teeth of supporters, with players nowadays meticulously groomed in the art of saying an awful lot yet nothing at all. Repetitive, empty gestures permeate our television screens, radio programmes and newspaper columns. Footballers are suffocated by the sterilised nature of their profession, [...]

Something has clearly vexed David Beckham. England’s provider of dignified, unflustered chic appeared rattled to the core as he threatened to engage in combat with a mascot resembling the lovechild of a smurf and the cast of Dad’s Army after LA Galaxy’s 4-3 defeat to San Jose Earthquakes. After kicking the ball at an opponent down [...]

Two nations mired in financial crisis, scrounging their way around Europe like a penniless late night drunk looking for their bus fare home. Two nations on the verge of footballing immortality. For Spain and Italy, Euro 2012 could well be the saving grace for Europe’s blighted. For Italy in particular, the final marks an incredible sequence [...]

Football supporting should be an organic process; something that arises and grows spontaneously, without the help or hindrance of any outside instruments. There is no better sight or sound than a stadium chorus rising as one singular entity, emerging impulsively as one or two voices transform into thousands. There are many better sights, however, than a [...]

As a select group of mid-range Australian soap actors have been telling us for over 25 years now, everybody needs good neighbours. In football, however, it is a message often unheeded. You will never find Brazil doing Argentina any favours, nor will England and Scotland every lay their Home-Nations hostilities to rest. Spain and Portugal will [...]

For many this morning, that horrible Monday morning feeling would have felt a thousand times worse with the realisation that England had once again succumbed in a major international tournament to the dreaded penalty shootout. England’s exit from the tournament was anything but positive, a dreary and solemn performance against Italy coming at the end of [...]

A Turk, a Spaniard, a Ghanaian , a Tunisian and a Pole walk into a football tournament. They are much better than everyone else and play very, very good football, coasting past any obstacles with ease. They all play for the same nation. There is no punch line here, only the stinging realisation that Germany’s cosmopolitan [...]

When England step out in Kiev on Sunday night to face Italy, they carry with them a history between the two nations of fleeting yet intensely impassioned encounters upon their shoulders. Having met only six times in major international tournaments or qualifiers, the battle is one which has not had the breathing space to develop as [...]

Change is good. Change comes slowly and creeps up on us unexpectedly like a bump in the night. Though we don’t always realise when defining transitions are taking place, gradual change is essential for positive evolution. For England, Euro 2012 marks the moment in which a measured shift in personnel at last signifies the beginnings of [...]

The 4-4-2 formation is to England what bread is to the French: engrained in national culture, inseparable from national identity and bringing with it a righteous sense of ownership. It’s ours. Euro 2012 has seen the effective, if unspectacular return of two wingers, two frontmen and two little terriers tearing about the middle of the park [...]

Jamie Carragher has not often been lauded for his insight into footballing matters so far at Euro 2012, though was far superior to his colleagues in his recent comments about the extension of the European Championship to 24 teams in 2014. The crux of Carragher’s argument focused around denouncing the dilution of quality in pursuit of [...]

To say that Steve McMananaman was a pioneering maverick of modern English football would perhaps be entering the realms of hyperbole, though it could be argued that the winger’s move to Real Madrid in 1999 instigated a rush, or at least a mild charge, of English internationals to the club in the following years. His switch [...]

Football often throws up the most implausible surprises, yet there are some things in football that should happen, set in irrevocable stone. Real Vallodolid should beat tiny Alcorcon and reach La Liga. Steve Evans should never have been allowed to manage another football team. Cristiano Ronaldo should be the most impressive player at Euro 2012. However, [...]

As with most things in life which restrict our actions, we will forever strive to find a way around it, a loophole which allows us the freedom to do what we want. It is human nature to rebel against the controlling influences which limit our liberty. Though football is wildly removed from wider society, the rules [...]