This episode was recorded in the run-in to Christmas 2014, but don’t worry it’s timeless stuff! We do have one festive feature for you, and a more serious look into a few momentous matches from history.

Lined up and ready for your ears then we have:

• Four Historic Football Matches (football matches that really have been matters of war & peace)
• #FestiveFootballers – A little quiz on daft festive footballer names
• A Pies, Pies, Pies update

…and our usual random chatter.

So, tune in and enjoy. Oh, and if you like this episode, don’t forget to check out our previous shows, and tell everyone how much you enjoyed them!

The post Show 6: Four Historic Matches, #FestiveFootballers & more! appeared first on Footballing Life.

It’s not all that well known, but the oldest known chant still in use today is ‘On The Ball, City’ as sung by Norwich City but it seems first written for ‘Norwich Teachers’ back in the 1890’s. The ‘chorus’ says a little about what has & hasn’t changed in football since then:

Kick off, throw in, have a little scrimmage,
Keep it low, a splendid rush, bravo, win or die;
On the ball, City, never mind the danger,
Steady on, now’s your chance,
Hurrah! We’ve scored a goal. 

Some big names in composition even wrote football ‘chants’ back in those days, Sir Edward Elgar for example who was a Wolves fan and wrote ‘He Banged the Leather for Goal’ after seeing them play Stoke in 1898. Elgar whose ‘Land of Hope & Glory’ is adapted as a chant these days of course.

…but anyway, with the rich heritage of football chants in mind lets take a look at those 3 classic football chants starting with…

Blaydon Races

Blaydon Races is the song best known of Newcastle Utd of course, though they’re often irritated by the fact that it’s been taken on by about a dozen other clubs (including Brighton, Shrewsbury, Blackburn, Man Utd, Bolton and more) with variations made to the lyrics such as ‘Burnden Aces’ for Bolton Wanderers.

It’s indisputably a north-eastern chant in origin though, written in the 19th century about races in a small town in Gateshead and first taken on by NUFC & Sunderland, it’s not clear when exactly but it’s certainly been in use since the ‘50’s.

The Fields of Athenry

 This one didn’t really kick off until the ‘90s, but I’d still argue it’s a classic. It’s an Irish folk ballad set in 1840’s Ireland which was put into words and music in the 1970’s by one Pete St. John. It got picked up by many Irish clubs, and also by Glasgow Celtic with their Irish ties and became a rousing call of unity in the stands (with a pretty sectarian alternative version mentioning Sinn Fein & the IRA of course).

Liverpool also took it to heart & adjusted the lyrics to suit themselves(making it The Fields of Anfield Road), which is so often the way with chants. One great little factette for this one is that during the Euro 2012 group stages, with Ireland four goals down against Spain & knowing they were imminently out of the group stages, Irish fans sang it in solidarity for a good 6 or 7 minutes until full-time and their departure from the competition.

And finally:

You’ll Never Walk Alone

The famous chant so closely tied to Liverpool FC of course, though also sung by Celtic and a number of European teams including Borussia Monchengladbach (whose fans we once joined in a chant of their version of ‘Roll Out The Barrel’ at a pre-season friendly) and even Japan’s FC Tokyo.

It’s from the 1945 Rogers & Hammerstein musical ‘Carousel’ of course, but found its way into scouse hearts through a cover by Liverpudlians ‘Gerry & The Pacemakers’ in ‘63 which ‘Gerry’ presented a copy of to Bill Shankly during pre-season who absolutely loved it, which the travelling journos chose to use for headlines suggesting it’d been adopted as the club’s song… sooner or later it effectively was & the rest is history.

And that was a bit of football chant history for you! A far cry from many of the songs used for modern chants, which we’ll take a look at in another post.

The post 3 Classic Football Chants (..& a bit of chants history) appeared first on Footballing Life.

In this episode we countdown some of the funniest chants in recent history, bring you the top 3 football chants of all time, and even reveal the very origins of the football sing-a-long.

Lined up and ready for your ears, we have:

• the history of the chant
• the funniest football chants
• the rise of the generic “one-size-fits-all” chant
• the answer to the question “how many Gary Linekers are there in the USA?”
• a brand new football song!

Teams mentioned this week include: Liverpool, Stoke City, Birmingham City, Aston Villa, Bolton Wanderers, Chelsea and Fulham (and loads more).

So, tune in and enjoy. Oh, and if you like this episode, don’t forget to check out our previous shows, and tell everyone how much you enjoyed them!

The post Show 5: Chants Special – I’m Better Than You At Football appeared first on Footballing Life.

A familiar away day sight.

A big part of being a football fan who regularly attends matches is the ‘Away Day’. As a devoted fan that means regular trips around the country by plane, train & auto-mobile… well not usually by plane in the UK, but as you’ll see below there are some distances that certainly warrant it! Lets take a look then at the longest hauls that we, football fans, have to traverse not just here in the UK but also further afield. [Caveat: naturally if the teams in the football league change there’s a slim chance these could!]

The Furthest Possible Football League Away Day

One of the joys of cup competition in England & Wales is that you could theoretically face any other team within the football league. So what’s the longest distance away day that could theoretically happen? Well that prize goes to Plymouth Argyle Vs Newcastle United (or the reverse fixture of course). At roughly 335 miles as the crow flies it is actually quickest to take the crows lead & fly, which’d take around 4 hours 45 minutes. It’s typically about 7 hours by road or 7 and a half by train, so as a round trip we’re talking a possible 15 hours… and that’s if there are no interruptions or traffic jams along the way! It happened as recently as April 2010 which saw a dedicated bunch of Toon fans head to Plymouth, dedication surpassed only by the fact that the fixture happened 3 times that season: twice in the Championship & once in January 2010 in the FA Cup when 60 Plymouth fans fought through blizzard weather and back to watch their team lose 3-0 at Newcastle. Top work!

The Furthest Possible Westernmost to Easternmost League Away Day

That first one is coincidentally also the northernmost and southernmost football league clubs facing off, so what about the westernmost to easternmost? Well the westernmost is, again, Plymouth Argyle (who seem to be a corner of the UK Football League universe) who to play the easternmost would be featuring in the fixture Plymouth Argyle Vs Norwich City. That fixture sees their dedicated fans travel roughly 280 miles, if flying like a crow, and travelling for roughly 6 hours by car or train (on a good travel day). Just a matter of 12+ hours and 560+ miles for an away day round-trip then…

The Furthest Possible Football League Away Day In Europe

Serie A? The Bundesliga? No our research tells us that the longest distance away day within one country’s ‘football league’ equivalent is within the ‘Ligue de Football Professionnel’ in France where there can be the fixture Stade Brestois 29 Vs Monaco which sees fans having to travel a stonking 656 crow flying miles to the match and then the same back again. We’re talking an overnight stay inducing 13.5 hours plus by road, or (far preferably budget permitting) a surprisingly do-able 3hrs by plane! [Yes, we’re ignoring the technicality of Monaco being a sovereign city-state so not strictly speaking in France]

The Furthest Possible Football League Away Day Worldwide [Away ‘Day’ loosely speaking here!]

We’re going to confess there’s a chance somebody out there can prove use wrong on this one, but research suggest the longest theoretical away day distance in the world is… in Russia (which perhaps in itself is no great surprise). There a football cup calendar might theoretically throw up FC Luch-Energiya Vladivostock Vs FC Zenit Saint Petersburg which would see away fans travelling… wait for it… 4,062 miles direct by air to the match. 8,124 miles return. 127 hours by road or 6 days & 6 hours by train. And by plane? 8hrs 35 minutes, only an hour longer than a Plymouth to Newcastle by car on a good day!… but a few quid more at roughly £300 return currently. But nobody realistically does that away day right? Well reportedly in 2006 3 Zenit fans did it… by car…the car then duly broke down in Vladivostock leaving them having to get the Trans-Siberian Railway back to Saint Petersburg once the match had been played, and on their return Zenit reportedly bought them a new car in tribute. Was it worth it? They won 2-0, so I’m sure they’d tell you yes. That’s footballing life.

The post The Longest Distance Football Away Days appeared first on Footballing Life.

On the buffet this week:

• How far would you travel to see your team? The longest away days in the world
• Think Alex Ferguson was at Manchester United a long time? Think again…
• … as we look at the longest (and shortest) serving UK managers
• Also, the best managers (on paper) in premier league history. It’s not Fergie at no. 1…

Teams mentioned this week include Newcastle United, Plymouth Argyle, Bolton Wanderers, West Brom, Wolves, Aston Villa, Leeds United, Chelsea and loads more.

Plus, there’s all the usual football culture chat! Click the Play button below to listen (or if you’re signed up to the Podcast you know what to do!)

The post Show 4: The Longest Away Days & Managerial Records appeared first on Footballing Life.

The post Neil Lennon Takes On Bear appeared first on Footballing Life.

Uruguayan manager at Sunderland in 2014 and former Chelsea & Spurs player

Asparagus Poyet

Former Arsenal right-back who later turned pundit for Match of the Day & Football Focus

Broccoli Dixon (groan)

A mouth on TalkSport who previously played for Notts Forest & Liverpool, allegedly punched then girlfriend Ulrika Jonsson and appeared opposite Sharon Stone in ‘Basic Instinct 2’

Stan Cauli(flower)more

Seville-based football club who won the Copa Del Rey in 2005 and whose notable former players include Marcos Assunção

Spanish football team Réal Lettuce (….ahem…)

Former QPR player, and manager who also took Spurs to an FA Cup Semi-Final against Everton in 1995

Cherry Francis (…more groans)

1990’s Romanian striker with 40 international caps and 21 international goals to his name. Played for 13 clubs over his career including 11 games for West Ham in 1996-1997

Florin Radishioiu

Former Bolton & Hamburg Danish international who earned himself 4 months in jail when celebrating with Danish players following the 2002 World Cup by head-butting the owner of ‘Café Ketchup’ in Copenhagen

Fig Tøfting

The post Fruit & Veg Footy appeared first on Footballing Life.

This week, we’ve got loads of football-related fun for you, as ever. On the menu this week:

• the pun-tastic fruit and vegetable footballers
• the most expensive team of all time. The priciest players in every position on the pitch
• Not the Team News: who’d be in your team of action heroes?

Teams mentioned this week include QPR, Sunderland, Chelsea, Real Madrid, Barcelona, Paris St Germain, Manchester United, Juventus, and Monaco.

Plus, there’s all the usual football culture chat! Click the Play button below to listen (or if you’re signed up to the Podcast you know what to do!)

The post Show 3: Fruit & Veg, Most Expensive Team & Action Heroes 11 appeared first on Footballing Life.

In the last episode of the Footballing Life podcast, we discussed some of our favourites, and our not-so-favourites. Here are our choices, starting with…

TheBottom 3

Yes, we realise it’s called “top 3 bottom 3”, but we can reverse the order if we like and start with the worst. So we have done.

Number 3. Gunnersaurus.

One word: lazy. A quick Google of why Arsenal’s dinosaur mascot came to be reveals that “Gunners” is the North London club’s nickname (er, yep – we knew that) and “saurus” is because it’s a dinosaur. Bravo, Arsenal. Bravo.

Number 2: Captain Blade

Sheffield united are the blades, yeah? And pirates have blades, right? Hence, bloke dressed as smiley pirate gets the mascot gig . Pretty insensitive given the real personality of pirates, I’d say. They’re ruthless criminals after all.

Anyway, “Blades” used to be the nickname of Sheffileds both Wednesday and United, because of the city’s steel trade. However, according to an online history,  in 1907, a cartoon appeared in a Sheffield newspaper drawn by an artist who was unfamiliar with the city, depicting Wednesday from Owlerton as an owl, and United as a blade. From then on the owl was used for Wednesday and United had the blades all to themselves, the site says.

See, that’s a good story. Now, why the pirate?

Number 1: the Deepdale duck

The Preston North End mascot is so bad, he was arrested! Well, according to some reports. In actuality, it seems he (she…it?) was thrown out of game for putting off the Derby County goalkeeper during a game.

In a game after the incident, the Sheffield Utd pirate mascot Captain Blade staged  a sit down protest at half time, calling for justice for the duck. Which is relatively amusing. The pirate displayed a banner reading “FREE THE DEEPDALE ONE”.

But why duck anyway? Simply alliteration? Why not the Preston Pig? Or the Lancashire…Lemur?

PS: the duck pictured is not the Deepdale Duck. For an image of the real mascot, see this story, which is about how the duck is related to Mitt Romney.

The Top 3

Number 3: Kayla the American bald eagle

Now, this is more like it. Crystal Palace have gone a step further than simply dressing a man in a duck costume. Kayla, who is reported in some outlets to be 25 years old, but is 19 on her official Facebook page (maybe she’s sensitive about her age) has a two metre wingspan and appears before kick-off at Selhurst Park.

I once took a visiting American friend to watch Palace and had to explain to him that there is not normally falconry at English football games.

Number 2: Hennes the goat

Right, staying with live animals, we’re off to Germany – specifically Cologne. Hennes is a billy goat, which is also the symbol of Bundesliga 2 club FC Köln. The current incumbent in the goaty mascot role is Hennes the eighth. For the fact fans out there, goats only live around 15years. Cologne have had a live mascot since around 1950.

It gets weirder. Hennes lives with a rabbit called Willi. He goes on the pitch to test the grass, and only after this has happened can the game get underway.

Number 1: the city gent

Our winner is a fat bloke in Bradford (well, he was fat). Bradford City’s “city gent” was not even really a character, it was just a bloke called Lenny Berry who was, in fairness, a portly gentleman who walked around wearing a bowler hat and rubbing his belly.

That’s not the end of it though. You will have noticed that we’re talking in the past tense. This is an ex-mascot – he is no longer around. That’s because even though the concept was ropy at best to begin with, last year the man playing the city gent got thinner, and was deemed no longer suitable.

He’d spent nearly 20 years in role, but he got diabetes and quite rightly set about losing weight. Unfortunately, because the city gent was based on Stafford Heginbotham (great name), a rotund former chairman, Lenny had to go – after declining the option of  wearing a fat suit.

Bradford also has as a more conventional mascot – Billy Bantam the chicken. But come on, surely even a skinny bloke with a bowler hat is better than that?

(Note: the picture is not of Lenny Berry. It is just someone in a had. Here’s the real LB).
Photo by Ronnie Macdonald
Photo by wonker
Photo by Richard.Fisher
Photo by sk8geek
Photo by NAPARAZZI

The post Top 3, Bottom 3: Football Mascots appeared first on Footballing Life.

Seriously though, we aren’t for a second advocating any yuletide preparations just yet. The opening line of this post was simply a lazy way to introduce our mini-feature on the more unusual pieces of footballing merchandise that are available out there in the weird wide world.

Every year, millions are spent on replica shirts – the staple item on any discerning merch buyer’s list. Ahead of the World Cup, for example, 78 official items of England clothing were available, more than any other European team. So, you see, we might be rubbish on the field, but you can always count on England to reign supreme in the marketing department. Marks and Spencer even sold the official England suit – a snip at around £260. And who doesn’t want to arrive at a business meeting dressed to fail at the first round?

Anyway, the suit is not odd enough to make our top five. Neither is the Mansfield Town ice scraper or the Bury FC hip flask. Let’s see what is…

5. Manchester United Pool Table

So – Manchester United appear to be sinking like the Titanic, but that shouldn’t stop you sinking all the reds on this official Man United pool table! Yes, that’s right, for just shy of a grand, you can get your hands on a 7 foot table for your Man Utd themed pool room. To put that in context, it would take new signing Falcao roughly 30 seconds to earn £1,000, if reports about his £280,000 a week salary are to be believed.

Sickening isn’t it? Anyway, it’s clearly not just the club that has more money than sense if fans are buying this.

4. Grow Your Own…..Anfield (or White Hart Lane, or whatever)

Yes, that’s right! You can finally live out those childhood dreams in the comfort of your own home. Remember in the schoolyard, being asked which footballing figure you idolised? Oh how you shunned those who aspired to be Beckham, or Shearer, or Lineker, or Gazza, or Giggs or (in my case) McGinlay. “No!”, you’d proudly declare. “I want to be the groundsman!” Or, for that matter, groundswoman.

Now you can – well, in miniature at least. A number of websites have a range of “Grow Your Own” football stadiums listed. Each kit contains a picture of the terraces, in front of which fans can grow a small square section of, and I quote, “the same grass blend as is used on the pitch” of your preferred club. Remarkable! Alas, it appears that although still listed on the site, the craze for mini pitch growing didn’t really take off. The items seem to have been discontinued. Such a shame.

3. Toast! And waffles…

Annoying, isn’t it, when your morning toast isn’t branded with your football club’s initials? Well worry no more. There are a range of solutions online. Of course there are. You can buy moulds and toasters for all sorts of clubs. Well, principally the big premier league clubs actually.

For the budget football toast enthusiast, you can buy a sort of sheath at goes around the bread to ensure parts of it don’t cook. Or for the serious football toaster, you can by…well, an actual football toaster. Here’s an Arsenal one, at £35.

Come on though, toast is so last century. It’s all about waffles these days, and Bayern Munich are among the clubs happy to offer a club branded waffle iron. The waffles even come out in the shape of the club crest. Classy.

2. Dartboards and skin-tight jumpsuits

Now, for crazy merchandise, there’s only one winner: Newcastle United FC. So often a source of laughs on the pitch, but this time a goldmine of ridiculousness off it.

The club’s NUFC Direct shop – which bears more than a little resemblance to Mike Ashley’s Sports Direct brand – is extensive. Move over all you clubs simply offering replica shirts and maybe the odd silly hat. NUFC has a dedicated fancy dress section! It offers everything from a full skintight jumpsuit to a quite frankly unacceptable “Toon Tottie” costume for the lasses. Way to set any progress made with regard to gender stereotyping back about 50 years, guys.

The best item though, for me, has to be the NUFC dartboard. If only because it sums up the life of a football fan perfectly. “Yes I love my club, but I want to throw arrows at it.”

 1. Nothing says I love my club like…inflatable arm bands

Bravo, West Ham! One of the only clubs to rival Newcastle in the merchandise department. West Ham bin? You got it! Claret and blue clothes pegs? Yes sir! Hammers travel adapter? Who’d travel without one!

My personal favourite though? The WHUFC arm bands. Perfect for holding one’s head just above water. Rather like Sam Allardyce, you could say.

This article is discussed in the latest Footballing Life podcast
Photo by Photocapy

The post Five pieces of downright ridiculous football merchandise appeared first on Footballing Life.