Béla Guttmann – The Greatest Comeback
The Greatest Comeback: From Genocide to Football Glory – The Story of Béla Guttmann is a compelling account of one of the great football managers, and a man whose life encompassed much of the tragedy and turbulence of the twentieth century. Charting the career of this Hungarian Jew and Holocaust survivor, author David Bolchover interweaves…
Atlantic Crossings (Football in North America, Part Two)
When today’s top football clubs routinely jet around the world for pre-season tours and lucrative friendlies in North America and beyond, it’s hard to imagine what an undertaking trans-continental travel was in the days before passenger flights. In the nineteenth century an Atlantic crossing in bad weather could stretch into weeks, though by the early…
France in the 1980s: The British Abroad
The 1980s saw a number of high-profile transfers of players from the Football League to the wealthier Italian and Spanish sides, a trend which gathered pace when English clubs were banned from European competition after the Heysel Stadium tragedy of 1985. Among these were Liam Brady, Joe Jordan, Trevor Francis, Graeme Souness, Ray Wilkins, Steve…
Football in North America: The Background
Football in North America, or soccer as our trans-Atlantic cousins prefer to call it, has a longer history than many people imagine. Canada and the USA contested the first international fixture outside the British Isles, at Newark, New Jersey, in 1885, where a group of British expatriates had established the American Football Association, the world’s…
South America: The British Abroad (An Introduction)
The British had extensive banking and business interests in South America, as elsewhere in the world, by the second half of the 19th century. They were heavily involved in developing the rail network, which took them to every corner of the Continent. There they established institutions including schools, social and sporting clubs for the expatriate…
ConIFA World Cup 2018 Review
The ConIFA World Cup 2018 took place in the UK last summer, a 16-team tournament held for minorities, unrecognised states, stateless peoples and regions unaffiliated with FIFA. 3,000 people attended the final on the 9th June, which saw Kárpátalja beat Northern Cyprus on penalties after a goalless draw at Enfield Town FC’s Queen Elizabeth II…
Genoa: The British Abroad
The northern Italian port of Genoa has strong English connections. The city of Christopher Columbus, gateway to the Americas (Genoese emigrants were among the founders of Argentina’s Boca Juniors), also flies the flag of St George. Genoa Cricket & Athletic Club was set up by a group of ten expatriates in 1893 to represent England…
AC Milan: The British Abroad
As well as creating the world’s first professional football league in England in 1888, the British were active in spreading the game around the world in the mid-to-late nineteenth century. From Sâo Paulo to St Petersburg, expatriate merchants, sailors and workers formed sporting clubs, often initially for playing cricket or rowing, but increasingly focusing on…
The Russian Goalkeeping Dynasty
One of the stars of Dynamo Moscow’s historic tour of Britain in 1945 was goalkeeper Alexei Khomich. Despite standing at only 5’ 8’’ in height, he had a spectacular leap, and was nicknamed ‘Tiger’ for his bravery between the posts by an admiring British press and public. Khomich was himself the latest in a line…
Dynamo Moscow Tour of Britain, 1945
For decades after the creation of the world’s first professional league in England in 1888, British football remained insular, sure of its superiority over the rest of the world. The arrogance of the game’s authorities and their isolationist stance was perfectly captured by FA committee member, Charles Sutcliffe, in refusing to accept an invitation to…
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