Via

That Brentford and Brighton have become two of best English football’s through the use of data is well known. Less well known are the stories of Matthew Benham and Tony Bloom, the former partners who made fortunes applying mathematics to football betting before bringing much the same thinking into club ownership.

AmaZulu FC and the ever changing faces of South African football clubs

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AmaZulu FC are not one of the most famous clubs in South African, yet few have a history as distinctive. With close ties to Zulu monarchy and controversial returns to the top flight, theirs is a remarkable story that. It is a remarkable tale of survival sometimes at all costs.

Sanremese Calcio: Karembeu’s Ambitious Project on the Italian Riviera

Via Calcio England

The Italian Serie D is filled with historic clubs trying to find their way back, but few projects match that Sanremese. World Cup winner Christian Karembeu has taken control of a club long defined by financial instability, bringing other big names like Clarence Seedorf and Yann M’Vila into an ambitious rebuilding project.

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Never mind the big three, London City calling

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The WSL has traditionally been dominated by women’s teams attached to some of England’s wealthiest clubs. London City Lionesses break that mould: an independent side backed by billionaire Michele Kang, whose investment has already taken them into the top flight and attracted some of the game’s biggest names. Their rapid rise poses interesting questions about the future direction of women’s football.

No Vardy, No Party: Chaos in Cremona

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Serie B rarely needs much help producing drama but Cremonese have provided an early reminder of its unpredictability by sacking Marco Giampaolo hours after a cup victory over Parma.

Each week on Cultured Football we pick the five great football stories from the previous seven days.

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In Case You Missed It Here’s Last Week’s Most Read: Why Herrera is playing for free in Spanish third division

By Nathan Edwards for the BBC

After a career spanning Manchester United, PSG and Boca Juniors, Ander Herrera is back at his boyhood club. Real Zaragoza have fallen a to the third tier since Ander Herrera left them 15 years ago, but he has returned at 37, donating his salary in the hope that he can aid the rebuild.

Contrary to public perception, Belgium is not short of cities worth a visit. Indeed, there are plenty which offer a delightful mix of medieval squares, Gothic cathedrals, picturesque canals and, naturally, very good beer. Trips to Bruges, Ghent and Dinant, for instance, tend to make up some of Europe’s most enjoyable city breaks.

Enticing visitors to Beringen is, however, a bit trickier. The city has its own attractions but these are topped by a mining museum and a former spoil tip, both a direct result of Beringen being primarily a mining town for much of the twentieth century. They’re interesting enough for the right audience, but not the kind that many are willing to visit.

Still, it is unescapable that coal has shaped Beringen. It and the surrounding area had been largely rural before coal was discovered beneath Limburg towards the end of the nineteenth century. From that point, everything began to change. Mines opened, creating jobs and a need for workers who arrived from all over Belgium and beyond.

As happened elsewhere, this sudden boom resulted in a need for better, or at least bigger, infrastructure. Houses were built along with schools, shops and anything else needed by a rapidly growing community.

Naturally enough, that also meant recreational facilities.

In the early 1920s, the management of the Beringen mine began offering tennis for engineers and other senior employees. For the miners, the popular choice was football.

This led to the formation of Cercle Sportif Kleine Heide on the fourth of December 1924 with mining engineer Eduard Frenay elected as chairman and backed financially by the NV Kolenmijnen van Beringen (Beringen Coal Mines).

Quickly renamed as Beringen Football Club, the new side adopted red and black as its colours, a nod to the red handkerchiefs worn by miners to wipe away coal and dust from their faces. Their games were played, aptly enough, at the Mijnstadion - literally the Mine Stadium - which stood opposite the enormous Beringen colliery.

At first this was just a mere field with markings of a football pitch, but it gradually developed into a proper stadium. A monumental entrance was added in 1930 and, after the Second World War, this was followed by a grandstand and main building designed by architect René Van Steenbergen.

The football club playing inside it was developing too.

Beringen first reached the national divisions in the 1930s and continued climbing after the war. In 1950 the side won promotion to the Division d’Honneur, becoming the first club from the Limburg region to reach the highest level of Belgian football.

The city’s delight was short lived. Beringen were immediately relegated and spent much of the following decade moving between Belgium’s top two divisions. Another promotion in 1952 was again followed by relegation a year later. They returned in 1955, went down in 1957, came back in 1958 and were relegated once again two years after that.

A liftploeg – the Flemish term for yo-you club - if there ever was one.

Whilst the club fluctuated between divisions, there was still talent at Beringen. Michel Bensch, himself a miner, scored heavily regardless of which division the club played and even won three caps for his country. In another era, it is difficult to imagine a player with that record not being picked up by one of Belgium’s bigger clubs. Instead, Bensch’s eleven-year career was all spent with his hometown club.

As time passed, Beringen started to make more of that talent. In 1962, they returned to the topflight once again and this time they had some staying power. Tuur Ceuleers had been brought in as trainer that year and was allowed to build the team. A legendary striker during his playing career – he is still fourth in the list of all time goal scorers of the Belgian topflight – Ceuleers began to put together a team that combined grit with talent.

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Like any good story, this one begins somewhere unexpected: not on a football pitch,

It says a lot about the side that perhaps the most notable duo - Alfons Peeters, a defender and Armand Peeters, a striker - were renown more because they were twins than for any special talent. For sure, they were all very good footballers but this wasn’t a side built around stars.

Roger De Condé, Frans Gebruers and Julien Pooters formed a solid defence. Wim Mertens had to provide the attacking spark, with Cyriel Van Herle alongside him to offer greater physical presence. Van Herle was known for his extremely powerful shot that could easily decide a game. Also, up front there was Staf Kauwenberghs, a technically strong striker who added guile to others’ grit.

Tellingly, a number of those players still worked in the mine during the week before putting on the Beringen kit at the weekend.

Their first season back was hardly spectacular, ending with a thirteenth-place finish. Yet the following campaign would become the greatest in the club’s history.

Belgian football in the early 1960s was increasingly dominated by Anderlecht and Standard Liège. The Brussels club had already won nine league championships whilst the team from Liège had won three of the previous six titles.

Beringen had no right to challenge either. Nevertheless, as the 1963-64 season progressed, the miners’ club kept winning. Boosted by their formidable attack, they collected 41 points from their 30 matches, winning 16 of them and losing only five.

Only Anderlecht proved better, finishing four points ahead of them.

For a club that had spent much of the previous decade struggling simply to remain in the division, it was an extraordinary achievement. Crowds of around 15,000 were regularly filling the Mijnstadion as the town watched its team challenge the country’s traditional powers.

Yet even as Beringen were enjoying the greatest season in their history, events away from the pitch were about to take an extraordinary turn.

On 1 March 1964, Beringen faced Turnhout, a club fighting to avoid relegation. In the days before the game, two Turnhout officials, including chairman Jan Verbeek, allegedly used former Diest player Vic Verdonck as an intermediary to offer Beringen goalkeeper Frans Gebruers 40,000 Belgian francs to influence the result. Beringen captain Felix Geybels was also implicated.

Gebruers apparently had second thoughts before the match, fearing that Beringen’s directors had discovered what was happening. His suspicions were justified. On 9 March, the club wrote to the Belgian FA reporting the attempted bribery, prompting an investigation that uncovered the scheme.

The consequences were severe. Turnhout were relegated, with Berchem Sport spared in their place, while Verbeek, Verdonck, Gebruers and Geybels were initially banned for life. Incidentally, the initial result - a 2-0 win for Turnout - was reversed with Beringen handed a 5-0 victory, a result that catapulted them in second place ahead of Standard Liege.

Even so, for Beringen, it cast an unfortunate shadow over what should have been remembered simply as the greatest league season in the club’s history.

That controversy killed any momentum that Beringen had been building, not to mention that it deprived them of two key players. They would never get that close again.

The following season Beringen slipped to eighth and from there settled into a rather less glamorous existence in the lower half of the table. Eventually, in 1970, the familiar journey back to the second division returned.

Again, it did not last long.

Promotion in 1972 lead to another lengthy period among the elite and, for the next decade, Beringen became a fixture in the Belgian top-flight once more. There were no more title challenges, but some notable footballers passed through the Mijnstadion. Belgian internationals Wilfried Van Moer and Julien Cools both played for the club, while Dutch coach Kees Rijvers also spent time in charge

Survival occasionally required a little assistance.

Beringen finished in the relegation places in 1976 but remained in the division after La Louvière were punished over a corruption case. Five years later it happened again. Beringen once more finished in a relegation spot, only for Beerschot to be sanctioned and sent down instead.

Twice the trapdoor had opened beneath them but on both occasions someone else had fallen through.

Eventually, however, there was no reprieve. Beringen were relegated in 1982, immediately won promotion back to the first division and then finished bottom in 1983-84.

This time the decline proved to be more permanent, and they would never play top-flight football again. By 1988 Beringen had fallen into the third tier; eight years later they dropped into the fourth.

What happened to the football club cannot be separated entirely from what was happening outside the Mijnstadion. Belgium’s coal industry had been contracting for decades and the Limburg mines that had once provided employment for tens of thousands of people were approaching their end.

One after another they closed.

On 28 October 1989, the Beringen mine produced coal for the final time. The industry around which the town had developed was gone.

Beringen FC survived it, but only just.

The club continued playing in the lower divisions throughout the 1990s, a long way removed from the days when they were among the country’s best. Financial problems mounted and in 2002, they were forced into a merger with Vigor Beringen, the city’s smaller second outfit, even if it had actually been founded first, in 1913.

The two joined together to form KVK Beringen. Officially, however, it was Vigor that survived the merger, with the new club taking its place.

Echoes of the club that had come so close to becoming Belgian champions survived in the new entity, and supporters continue to keep its history alive. Yet for all that continuity, the truth remains that, after 78 years, Beringen FC had ceased to exist.

Honours Won:

Belgian First Division runners-up: 1963-64

Belgian Second Division champions: 1949-50, 1957-58

Belgian Second Division runners-up: 1961-62, 1971-72, 1982-83

The story of Beringen FC is now captured in this exclusive Cultured Football shirt. Featuring its original badge and a brief history, if you enjoyed their story you can now own a piece of football’s forgotten past.

Buy the Shirt

By Nathan Edwards for the BBC

After a career spanning Manchester United, PSG and Boca Juniors, Ander Herrera is back at his boyhood club. Real Zaragoza have fallen a to the third tier since Ander Herrera left them 15 years ago, but he has returned at 37, donating his salary in the hope that he can aid the rebuild.

Bundesliga season 2026-27: All you need to know

By Jonathan Harding for DW

There might not be much doubt about who the ultimate winner is going to be but, beyond that, the Bundesliga - which kicks off this weekend - is bound to be highly entertaining.

Inside Right to Dream: The Academy Shaping Football’s Next Generation

Via

Right to Dream has grown from an academy in Ghana into one of football’s most successful development networks, creating a route from education and youth football into the professional game. A growing list of graduates proves that it is a model that works.

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First John Stones, then Djed Spence and now Curtis Jones! The English invasion at Inter proves Italy is still an attractive destination for Premier League players

By Mark Doyle for Goal

The moves to Inter by John Stones, Djed Spence and Curtis Jones is a growing reflection of a generation of players that are less afraid of trying new experiences abroad than those that came before them. And whilst the Serie A may no longer be the destination it once was, for English players its appeal is seemingly undiminished.

The whispered rise of Polish football

By Stephen Ganavas for Scouted Football

Polish football spent decades struggling to recover from the fall of communism but the Ekstraklasa is now beginning to reflect the country’s wider transformation. With rising attendances, stronger clubs an increasingly impressive generation of young players and European results improving, Polish football is finally beginning to matter.

Each week on Cultured Football we pick the five great football stories from the previous seven days.

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In Case You Missed It Here’s Last Week’s Most Read: Is Turkey home to savvy signings or a new retirement league? We’ll soon find out

By Leander Schaerlaeckens for The Guardian

Turkey has always been famed for having the passion, rivalries and football culture of a major league. Yet it has never had as many widely recognisable stars as the latest transfer window has delivered. Whether it is enough to push the league up a tier, or simply prove to be a temporary spending cycle that leads to nothing and other leagues have experienced, is another matter.

By Jonee for Football Heritage

“Ultimately, a football club is a collection of memories. Some are shared by millions of people. Some belong to a few thousand. Some belong to one family. Some belong to one person. But they all matter. A supporter can remember a goal that happened thirty years ago with more emotion than a match that happened last weekend.”

Is Turkey home to savvy signings or a new retirement league? We’ll soon find out

By Leander Schaerlaeckens for The Guardian

Turkey has always been famed for having the passion, rivalries and football culture of a major league. Yet it has never had as many widely recognisable stars as the latest transfer window has delivered. Whether it is enough to push the league up a tier, or simply prove to be a temporary spending cycle that leads to nothing and other leagues have experienced, is another matter.

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Tzolis, Touré, Manzambi and the Premier League Newcomers We’re Excited to Watch in 2026-27

By Ryan Benson for The Analyst

Every new Premier League season delivers players with reputations built elsewhere looking to prove themselves in what is the most popular league in the world. Some succeed, others find that adapting to English football is not as easy.

Bonus Read: 2026-27 Premier League Season Preview

[ x ]

Has there ever been a summer that brought as much change to the Premier League as this one? Probably not. Which should make it all the more interesting. Especially if you’re Arsenal, I guess.

Ligue 1 Season 2026/27 Preview

Via

There might not be much doubt over who the ultimate winner will be, but Ligue 1 offers plenty of intrigue nevertheless. And the opportunity to see some of the world’s biggest talent before they become popular elsewhere.

How Independiente del Valle became South America’s wonderkid factory

By for

With Darwin Guagua’s move to Brentford, Ecuador’s Independiente del Valle added to their reputation as one of South America’s most prolific clubs thanks to an academy that keeps producing players coveted by Europe. Yet their model is about more than finding the next valuable prospect.

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In Case You Missed It Here’s Last Week’s Most Read: South America’s Best Badges

By Ben Dudley for Scenes we want to see

You’ve probably heard about and seen plenty of the biggest clubs in South America. But do you know Club Deportivo Morón from Argentina? What about Manta Football Club from Ecuador? More specifically, have you seen the club crests?

The following is an extract from the book Till I Die: Why Football Means Everything (Even When It Shouldn’t) by Damien Pearse and published by Oneworld Publications. It is available for purchase here.

I’m on a dog walk in February and feeling the impact of another Wolves loss on my mood.

It’s my usual circuit from a Saxon church, about 5 miles from Hastings; through the cemetery, past the pond, across open fields and looping back through woods where bluebells would soon stage their slow-motion resurrection.

It is one of those crisp, cloudless winter days when the blackbirds return, convincing you that spring might have arrived early. But my mind notices nothing of the beauty around me. As I crunch along the cemetery path, the dog jumps up for the ball, leaving a paw print on my jeans.

‘I haven’t got the fucking ball,’ I snap. ‘I left it in the car.’ He does it again. I’m easily irritated.

Before I get to the meadow, I sit down on a bench in the graveyard under a small oak tree. I fail to register why it’s there because my head is busy wrestling with an idea.

The emotional turbulence of being a football fan had been going on for years now, decades even, giving me moments of euphoria, but also ruining countless weekends. Not just for me, but for those around me too.

It was hard to justify, really.

Of course, I could understand why I might feel a little disappointed if Wolves lost or pleased if they won, but the profundity of my mood swings were disproportionate for an adult.

I didn’t even live in Wolverhampton anymore and these were a bunch of young men who wouldn’t recognise me if I walked into the home dressing room with their names tattooed on my forehead.

Why does a win feel like I’ve popped an ecstasy tablet, and a loss like I’ve been hurled into an emotional pit with no exit ramp? Where does all this rage come from?

And why am I compelled to watch games week after week, even when I know that the likelihood of feeling better at the end is low?

Sitting on the bench, I started to wonder if I could use some of the skills I had picked up over the course of my career to unravel this mess.

I have been a journalist for many news organisations, including the Wolverhampton Express & Star, the Press Association, the Guardian and Sky News. I have even dabbled in sports reporting and followed England football hooligans during international tournaments.

Over the last 15 years, I have learned to unpick the messy knots of the human mind as a therapist, working in the NHS and now privately as a trauma specialist.

What if I used these skills to address the question: Why does football matter so much?

Behind me, a blackbird starts up again, as optimistic as a pre-season football fan. The dog drops something indistinguishable and damp at my feet and looks up, expectant. I ignore him.

Where do I begin with this project?

I already had some data from the Liverpool game, where I’d made notes tracking what felt like a disturbing experience. In fact, I’d already sketched the bones of what would become the introduction to this book. But before disappearing into a 90,000-word exercise in navel-gazing, I needed to know if I was a bit of an outlier, a fringe lunatic, languishing in my away kit, many football pitches away from the normal distribution.

Or was this affliction – this compulsive, all-consuming emotional chaos – something lots of other people were suffering with as well?

I don’t think asking a few mates on WhatsApp will cut it. At best, that’s a biased sample, fewer than twenty men, all from the same Catholic state school in Wolverhampton, emotionally stunted in strikingly similar ways.

So I decide to go wider and test my premise on the Facebook group where I’d recently been complicit in Gary O’Neil’s humiliation. That might give me some proper data.

I write: ‘Hi, everyone. I’m writing a book about the madness of being a football fan, from the perspective of a psychologist. I want to answer questions like “Why does this game make me so dysregulated?” I want to check I’m not some weird, maladjusted oddball. I want to explore the emotions and behaviours other fans experience. What bemuses you about being a fan?’

Then I brace myself, genuinely uncertain of what I’ll get back.

These forums can get toxic very quickly. I am expecting abuse, some unpleasant trolling at the very least. The child in me covers his face and prepares for digital annihilation.

I wait.

I set off into the meadow, the low sun spilling over the wood ahead. I am glued to my phone, neck in a U-bend, arms tense, breathing shallowly. Will I be ignored? Laughed at? Maybe I’ll be reported to the group’s admin for misusing the forum.

Five minutes pass. Nothing.

I jab at my phone, refreshing the page with the frantic concentration of someone typing at high speed with one finger. The familiar weight of shame begins to stir in my stomach. I reach the edge of the woods feeling anxious.

I loop back towards the church, barely registering the snowdrops and daffodils jostling for space beneath the naked trees. Glancing up from my phone, I spot a group of walkers heading towards me, clutching poles, chatting, laughing, entirely at home in the landscape.

I suddenly feel self-conscious.

As they pass, I tuck the phone into my pocket and offer a hearty, countryside grin. I make some wholesome remark about the promise of spring.

They nod. And as soon as they are safely out of range, I pull the phone out again.

Still nothing. I begin to suspect I really am an outlier.

By the time I reach the cemetery, there are signs of life. A few likes. Then an actual response. And then the dam breaks.

Dozens of replies. Then hundreds.

There was despair, conspiracy theories, hatred of officials, unbridled joy, arrogance, pure, unfiltered rage, schadenfreude, relationship stress. The data was pouring in.

Then, something stranger happens. Private messages begin to arrive with friend requests. My phone is pinging constantly. People wanted to confess.

There were fans who said that they loved football as much as their children and partners. There were some who had planned weddings around fixture lists and skipped funerals for cup ties. There were those that had grieved the transfer of a player they’d never met but somehow loved.

One woman messaged me in desperation: ‘I’m so sorry I have hacked this group but we’re on the verge of divorce. He’s obsessed. It’s like I don’t exist.’

She gave an intimate account of their physical disconnection, finishing with a single, aching question:

‘Can you help me understand?’

Some wanted to meet me in person.

Others asked for professional help, as if, as a mental health professional, I held the antidote to whatever this unnamed affliction was.

And then there was John, who describes himself as an ex-hooligan. He tells me he’s moved his season ticket to the quieter upper tier of one of the stands not for the view, but to protect himself.

‘VAR, and the incompetent refereeing has me back in the red mist zone. Only the fact I’m high up stops me from doing something mad.’

I stare at my phone, amazed at how honest and open people are being.

Friends call me when they are in crisis. Some, especially my patients, might go so far as to describe me as calm. Yet football seemed to bypass all of that maturity and wisdom. It distorted my personality, as if I was being hijacked by a younger, more volatile version of myself.

Like John, I was unsettled by my inability to control it.

By the time I reach the church, I have 197 direct messages.

I sit down on the bench in the cemetery and try to take it in.

I click on a message from Andrew, a Wolves fan who’d moved to Detroit at twenty-six. He describes his fandom as an addiction.

‘It’s Friday evening. I’ve just eaten and should be relaxing, but I’m already feeling anxious about tomorrow’s game.’

He tells me how the recent sending-off of Matheus Cunha has knocked him sideways.

‘Honestly, I was quite distraught. Waves and waves of emotion and I didn’t know what to do with it.’

Then Andrew mentions something that would become central to the book: connection.

‘The Michigan Wolves supporters’ group. We meet at an Irish pub in Plymouth, Michigan. It helps. To share it.’

He tells me his mum has just died. He reassures me he has a therapist and is coping, but it feels good, nevertheless, to tell me.

Down the gravel path, I spot two girls, maybe twelve or thirteen, walking slowly. They approach a grave and lay down bottles of Prime. One begins to cry.

The grave is covered in football memorabilia: youth trophies, medals, footballs, a Manchester United teddy bear, colourful stones and pictures.

The grave belongs to Harry Dennis. He died at eleven years old.

Football, it seemed, had already been a defining part of who he was.

I didn’t know it then, but his mum would later help me understand something important about the irrational, fragile beauty of being a fan. And she would remind me about how football has immense power for good.

Making my way back to the car, my phone was still pinging.

About the Book: Till I Die: Why Football Means Everything (Even When It Shouldn’t) is an exploration of football fandom and the extraordinary hold it can have over our lives. Blending psychology, reportage, and personal reflection, Dr Damien Pearse examines why supporters invest so much of themselves in clubs that can so often leave them frustrated, heartbroken, or euphoric. Through conversations with fans, scientists, players, and online provocateurs, the book explores identity, belonging, masculinity, obsession, and the emotional extremes that football can provoke. Rather than focusing on the game itself, Till I Die seeks to understand the people who live and breathe it.

About the Author: Dr. Damien Pearse is a chartered psychologist specialising in trauma. Before entering psychology, he worked as a journalist, becoming one of the youngest specialist reporters at the Press Association, where he covered football hooliganism during the 1998 FIFA World Cup and UEFA Euro 2000. He later worked for both The Guardian and Sky News. A lifelong supporter of Wolverhampton Wanderers F.C., Pearse combines professional expertise with personal experience to examine the psychological and social forces that make football such a powerful part of people’s lives.

Each week on Cultured Football we pick the five great football stories from the previous seven days.

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Greece has struggled to recapture the heights of Euro 2004 over the subsequent two decades. Now there are signs of a new generation of players emerging, attracting attention of some of the continent’s biggest clubs. At the heart of this lies improving academy work at home and growing opportunities abroad, combining to give Greek football reason to look forward again.

South America’s Best Badges

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You’ve probably heard about and seen plenty of the biggest clubs in South America. But do you know Club Deportivo Morón from Argentina? What about Manta Football Club from Ecuador? More specifically, have you seen the club crests?

Don’t Delete the Ugly Frame | vs Port Vale

By for

This is a delightful recent discovery. Brett Patzke is Wolves’ pitchside photographer who, it turns out, is also quite good with the written word. Here he shares his appreciation for the renewed freedom to get close to the game again - something possible in the Championship but not Premier League - whilst reflection on technically imperfect photographs that end up being just right. Fascinating.

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The EFL Championship is like a thought experiment designed to drive football clubs round the twist

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The Championship returned this weekend with the usual belief that it is all up for grabs. With promotion carrying such extraordinary rewards, the result is a division where ambition and anxiety collide to bring about unpredictability. There are of course favourites but if history is anything to go by, holding tightly to those beliefs is a sure way of ending up looking foolish.

LaLiga 26/27 Season Preview

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If you’ve been following Cultured Football this past few weeks you know that I’ve been including a previous or two in every issue. And I couldn’t pass up this look at the La Liga, could I?

Each week on Cultured Football we pick the five great football stories from the previous seven days.

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In Case You Missed It Here’s Last Week’s Most Read: Why stadium design is getting more outlandish

By Tom Ravenscroft for Dezeen

When I first saw images of Birmingham City’s new stadium (above) I assumed they were AI-generated concepts produced by a fan. Instead, it is the winning design. Yet Birmingham are not alone. Clubs - and countries - increasingly want to build stadiums that are instantly recognisable, which often means going for architecture that projects a distinctive visual identity.

By Tom Ravenscroft for Dezeen

When I first saw images of Birmingham City’s new stadium (above) I assumed they were AI-generated concepts produced by a fan. Instead, it is the winning design. Yet Birmingham are not alone. Clubs - and countries - increasingly want to build stadiums that are instantly recognisable, which often means going for architecture that projects a distinctive visual identity.

Does Pre-Season Really Matter?

By for The Set Piece

Pre-season results are often dismissed as meaningless, but the weeks before the season begins can still tell us plenty about a football club. For, whilst the results themselves don’t carry any points, those games do reveal some truths.

What Are Transfer Fees Really Buying?

Via

“Transfer fees are not really buying trophies. They are selling hope, probability, and, most importantly, protection from being wrong.”

Bonus Read: Why ‘winning the summer transfer window’ doesn’t help Premier League clubs

[ x ESPN]

Fans might dream otherwise, but you DO NOT want to win the transfer window.

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The Meteoric Rise of Yan Diomande: From Nomadic Triallist to Bundesliga Superstar and a €140m Real Madrid Transfer

By Ryan Benson for The Analyst

Here’s what I don’t get about modern football. Despite almost endless resources, Real Madrid were not moved to sign Yan Diomande when he was playing relatively nearby at Levante two years ago. RB Leipzig were. Yet now Real are willing to spend a huge amount on his transfer (and undoubtedly his wages). Did Diomande improve that much over the twelve months he was in Germany?

Portuguese Primeira Liga - 26/27 Season Preview

By for GBE Expert Hub

There typically isn’t much doubt over who will win the Portuguese Premeira Liga; it will be one of the big three of Porto, Sporting and Benfica. That doesn’t mean that there isn’t much to look forward to as the new season kicks off.

Bonus Read: Coming up: six promoted teams to look out for in Europe this season

[Niall McVeigh x The Guardian]

Whilst things might be somewhat boring at the top of a number of leagues, it gets more interesting if you look elsewhere. Like, for instance, at some of the newly promoted sides.

Each week on Cultured Football we pick the five great football stories from the previous seven days.

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In Case You Missed It Here’s Last Week’s Most Read: The forgotten football federation that tried to dethrone FIFA

By Matt Snep for The Backpass

Current FIFA leadership seems intent on testing the limits of its power. That has prompted fresh questions about whether football could ever break away from its governing body, although the idea is far older than many realise. More than a century ago, another international federation attempted to build an alternative.

“It’s better to burn out than to fade away.” Few lyrics have captured the romance of impermanence quite like those words from Neil Young’s *My My, Hey Hey (Out of the Blue)*.

It’s a line usually reserved for musicians, artists and larger-than-life figures whose brilliance burned bright before disappearing. Through it, Young gave us one of popular culture’s most enduring reflections on legacy: that perhaps there is something admirable about a life that shines intensely, even if only briefly.

Football, of course, tends to see things differently. A player who explodes onto the scene before fading almost as quickly is rarely remembered as a success. More often than not, they become a cautionary tale; a career forever framed by what might have been. In football, greatness is measured not just by how brightly you shine, but by how long you can keep the light burning.

The same is true of clubs, only more so. Players come and go, managers are replaced and owners change, but clubs are expected to outlive them all. Their identity is built over generations, accumulating memories, traditions and supporters with each passing decade. Survival is almost taken for granted. Even those that suffer relegation, financial collapse or years in the wilderness are expected, somehow, to endure.

Which is why the story of Jokerit is so unusual.

Each week on Cultured Football we pick the five great football stories from the previous seven days.

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Like any good story, this one begins somewhere unexpected: not on a football pitch, but inside a brand-new ice hockey arena. When Finnish businessman Hjallis Harkimo completed Hartwall Arena in 1997 as the new home of Jokerit’s ice hockey team, he inadvertently set in motion a chain of events that would bring together not one but two football clubs.

The starting point was PK-35, a club with roots stretching back to 1935. Founded in Vyborg before being re-established in Helsinki after the Second World War, PK-35 had worked its way into the Veikkausliiga during the 1990s.

Success on the pitch, however, masked growing financial problems. By the end of the decade the club was struggling to survive. That was when Hjallis Harkimo entered the picture.

Although a lifelong HJK Helsinki supporter, Harkimo saw an opportunity. Jokerit’s ice hockey team commanded one of Finland’s largest and most passionate fanbases, but for much of the year those supporters had no team to follow. Why not create a football club that could carry the Jokerit name through the summer months?

Rather than starting from the bottom of the pyramid, Harkimo acquired PK-35’s Veikkausliiga licence and first team, rebranding them as FC Jokerit despite initially promising that PK-35 would not lose their identity. The original PK-35 survived, continuing with its youth and lower-division sides, but Finland’s topflight suddenly had a brand-new club that had never actually earned promotion.

There was also a more practical motivation. Harkimo was leading the development of a new 10,000-seat football stadium in Töölö, financed through a mixture of public and private investment. HJK would be the anchor tenant, but a second football club would help justify the project, fill the fixture calendar and strengthen the stadium’s commercial viability.

Initially, the plan was for FinnPa to do that. When that side was relegated in 1998, their main backers Finnair pulled out and the club was dissolved. The void was filled by FC Jokerit.

At first, the idea seemed inspired. They won their first-ever Veikkausliiga match, finished fourth in their debut season and, most significantly, lifted the Finnish Cup by beating FF Jaro 2-1 in the final.

Alongside this there was a good run in the Intertoto Cup where Jokerit were only eliminated by West Ham in the third round.

A year later, when playing in their new stadium they kept improving, finishing as runners-up in the league. The team had been considerably strengthened – Shefqi Kuqi, who would go on to enjoy a fine career in England, was the main addition – and the ambition of dethroning HJK seemed within reach.

Yet second would be as good as it got.

Things broke down quickly after that. A year later they were relegated, losing the decisive match against FF Jaro, and despite an immediate return to the topflight it was clear that the old ambition was gone. They survived one more Veikkausliiga season, achieving the modest objective of avoiding relegation, but that proved to be the end. Hockey fans hadn’t transferred they sympathies and the club was losing money.

Once the campaign was over, Harkimo sold the football operations to HJK Helsinki. The club was rebranded as Klubi-04 and moved to the third tier, where it became HJK’s reserve team. Just six seasons after playing their first league match, FC Jokerit had ceased to exist.

FC Jokerit compressed almost an entire life cycle into six extraordinary years: rapid success, cup glory, European nights, relegation and eventual extinction. It never became what Harkimo had imagined, but it had still been pretty eventful. In 2012, supporters founded a phoenix club, Jokerit F.C. Helsinki, determined that the name would not disappear entirely. But the original experiment was over.

* The original PK-35 did not disappear. Instead, it continued with its junior and amateur sides, gradually climbing back through the divisions until it once again reached the professional ranks.

The story of Jokerit FC is now captured in this exclusive Cultured Football shirt. Featuring its original badge and a brief history, if you enjoyed their story you can now own a piece of football’s forgotten past.

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By Will Dalton for

Argentine football has always been shaped as much by its stadiums as by the matches they stage. So it is at San Lorenzo where the cancha is far more than a backdrop.

The forgotten football federation that tried to dethrone FIFA

By for The Backpass

Current FIFA leadership seems intent on testing the limits of its power. That has prompted fresh questions about whether football could ever break away from its governing body, although the idea is far older than many realise. More than a century ago, another international federation attempted to build an alternative.

England's recent success owes far more to the EFL than it is often given credit for. While attention inevitably falls on the Premier League, the next generation of internationals is already making its name lower down the pyramid. Here are ten players who could one day make that journey.

Eddie Howe - Losing Confidence?

By Michael Martin for

Eddie Howe's departure marks the end of one of the most successful periods in Newcastle United's modern history. Yet, beyond a change in the dugout, his decision raises difficult questions about the club's long-term vision and whether that ambition matches that of their supporters.

Bonus Read: Can experience make Chelsea title challengers?

[ x Wilson’s World (of football)]

Chelsea have gone from signing almost exclusively teenagers to buying two experienced players in the twilight of their careers. Could it be exactly what they needed?

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Why Ritiro is the Sacred Summer Ritual at the Heart of Italian Football

By Dan Cancian for Destination Calcio

Every summer, while most of Italy heads for the beaches, its football clubs retreat to the mountains. The ritiro has now been part of Italian football for almost a century, evolving into one of calcio’s most distinctive traditions.

NTT20 Scouts: 10 future England internationals in the EFL

Via

Want to know how important the EFL is for English football? How about this: twenty of the twenty-six players who made part of the England squad at the World Cup at some point played in the EFL. Here’s ten players who could continue on that trend.

Bonus Read: Every Scottish Premiership Sides Best Signing... So Far

[ x Full Time Waffle]

Scottish football has already kicked off. Here’s the pick of most promising transfers for each club. One to bookmark and refer to at the end of the season.

Bonus Read: Historic Champions and Ambitious Minnows: Previewing the 2026/27 3. Liga

[ x The Bundesliga Chronicles]

And here’s a preview of the third tier of German football.

Each week on Cultured Football we pick the five great football stories from the previous seven days.

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In Case You Missed It Here’s Last Week’s Most Read: Campeones del Mundo

By Jordan Thomas for La Liga and Beyond

Spain didn’t win the World Cup because they have the best players, even if they have a group of fantastic individuals. They won because they were the best team.

Bonus Read: Max Dowman, Estevao, Cavan Sullivan and 20 NXGN wonderkids we can’t wait to see make their World Cup debuts in 2030

[Tom Maston x Goal]

Less than a week since the end of the World Cup, and some are already looking forward to the next one.

By for La Liga and Beyond

Spain didn’t win the World Cup because they have the best players, even if they have a group of fantastic individuals. They won because they were the best team.

Bonus Read: Max Dowman, Estevao, Cavan Sullivan and 20 NXGN wonderkids we can’t wait to see make their World Cup debuts in 2030

[Tom Maston x Goal]

Less than a week since the end of the World Cup, and some are already looking forward to the next one.

The country that doesn't play football... yet

By Nathan Edwards for the BBC

Football barely exists on Nauru, the tiny Pacific nation where Aussie rules has always been the dominant sport. Yet a small group of volunteers are trying to change that.

How LNZ Cherkasy become a wartime success story with few modern parallels

By Nick Ames for The Guardian

With football having taken a back seat to far greater concerns, there haven’t been many feel good stories to come out of Ukraine over recent years. LNZ Cherkasy’s is one of the exceptions.

Bonus Read: Antwerp: Gheysens to Vandenhaute

[ x On Belgian Fields]

A takeover has averted financial disaster at Royal Antwerp, but their new owners now face the far harder task of delivering success on more sustainable foundations.

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Farewell Hoppy - The Champion Talent Spotter

By for The Liquidator

Few non-WBA fans will have known of Steve Hopcroft, who passed away recently. Yet every club has someone like him, men who work hard to discover the next big talent. Football would be significantly poorer without them.

Serbian Superliga 26/27 Season Preview

By for The Football Life

It seems amazing to me that we are in July and there are some leagues which are kicking off. But, for those like me who are not huge fans of national team football, it is also wonderful. Thanks Serbia.

Bonus Read: Paraguay 2026 Clausura Preview

[ x Paraguay Ralph’s Substack]

Football is also resuming in Paraguay which will now also feature New Zealand’s unwitting social media star Tim Payne.

Each week on Cultured Football we pick the five great football stories from the previous seven days.

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In Case You Missed It Here’s Last Week’s Most Read: Can Paolo Maldini Save Italian Football?

Via Goalazzo

Italy was the big absentee from this World Cup (and the previous two). The task of ensuring that doesn’t happen again has now fallen on Paolo Maldini. It won’t be easy.

The following is an extract from the book The Creation of Modern Buenos Aires by Joel Horowitz and published by University of New Mexico Press. It is available for purchase here.

A Suburb and the Role of its Key Football Clubs

In Avellaneda [an industrial suburb of the city of Buenos Aires], two clubs—Racing and Independiente—embedded themselves, becoming two of the largest and most popular clubs in the country. [Soccer clubs were civic associations whose members elected the club leaders]. They became centers of sociability for members and sometimes for other local inhabitants, offering athletic and cultural activities and educational opportunities. The two clubs developed into fierce rivals on the playing field, and they also came to represent opposing political positions.

From its inception, Racing was tightly tied to the Conservative political boss Alberto Barceló, who dominated Avellaneda during almost the entire interwar period. Therefore, Racing was usually run by men connected to the local Conservative political elite. Barceló’s initial support for Racing came when football had not yet become important and before the voting reform of 1912, and therefore he was not looking for popular support. Barceló carried out a more traditional type of patronage, aiding his friends and relatives in something they wanted to do.

Racing’s initial supporters came from Avellaneda’s middle class. One direct predecessor was created by Argentine employees of the Ferrocarril Sud while another was formed after a meeting at the home of two of Barceló’s brothers. A member of that club, Alberto’s brother-in-law Leandro Boloque, later would lead Racing for three years.

After several twists and turns, in 1903 Racing was founded by Argentine males who were mostly under twenty. By January 1909, the club had 251 members and received economic assistance from the Barceló family. Opposition to the Barcelós caused some founding members to leave Racing and play for Independiente. Independiente had just moved to Avellaneda, and it became identified with Barceló’s opponents. Racing’s connection to Barceló had many other consequences. For example, in 1915 and 1916 the opposition paper in Avellaneda claimed that the local police favored fans of Racing over those of Independiente. In 1917, after President Yrigoyen intervened in the province of Buenos Aires, replacing a Conservative governor and charging a Radical with organizing new elections, at least three Racing players lost their city employment.

Racing dominated Argentine football from 1913 to 1919, and according to some, its manner of play began the start of a distinctive Argentine style. In 1920 Racing was the largest club in the country with 1,413 members. As it grew, Racing increasingly became a center for many types of activities, which increased its attractiveness. At the beginning of the 1920s members could participate in basketball, swimming, track, and Basque paddle ball. In 1926 Racing had 2,624 members, making it the third largest club—just ahead of Independiente. By 1931 it claimed slightly over 7,000 members, while Independiente had over 5,000. In 1935 Racing had 21,500 members, and its rival had 14,500. In 1941 the former claimed 17,053 members and the latter 17,454. Racing had continued to add sports. By the end of 1935, members enjoyed football, tennis, bocce, basketball, paddle ball, roller skating, field hockey, track, gymnastics, swimming, ping-pong, fencing, and Greco-Roman wrestling. Some sports were played by both men and women.

Racing also celebrated carnival; for example, in 1936 it scheduled six dances, each with two bands, one that played tango and one that played jazz. The club also held dances at other times, frequently with the same musical lineup. It established a beach for its members along the coast. For its young members it had a summer camp, offered excursions, and created a chorus and a theater. During the summer, Racing showed free movies, which nonmembers could attend. The club offered lectures by diverse speakers, including the Communist militant and historian Rodolfo Puiggrós, the educator Pablo Pizzurno, the physician and Socialist Alicia Moreau de Justo, and the Radical Party politician and historian Emilio Ravignani. It hung art in its facility and sponsored concerts of works by famous composers. The club organized classes, including cooking instruction by Petrona de Gandulfo (known as doña Petrona), the author of Argentina’s iconic cookbook. Racing also organized a football tournament in 1933 in which twenty-eight schools participated. It gave milk to 500 children three times a week. In other words, it was part of the community and a critical center of sociability.

Barceló’s influence over the club was extremely large. According to Juan Corradi, Barceló discussed Racing’s affairs with club leaders at his home. The club’s political connections are revealed by the indictment in 1916 of Barceló and several followers for using their official positions to influence elections. Three of the accused, Leopoldo Siri, Luis Carbone, and Pedro Groppo, had been or would be presidents of Racing; together, they held that post for thirteen years. All were absolved. In a study of the twenty-eight most influential followers of Barceló, ten belonged to Racing and one to Independiente. However, elections were often contested, and the close allies of Barceló were not always victorious.

…

Independiente gave its members and the community many of the same opportunities that Racing offered, though on a slightly smaller scale, but it was still a significant club. For example, in 1928 it inaugurated with the presence of the Radical governor of the province the first cement stadium in South America, which sat 60,000. Although its members could enjoy a variety of sports, the opportunities were fewer than those at Racing. Fewer cultural opportunities existed as well. However, it too was a center of sociability. Independiente sponsored lectures and classes of music, singing, and various needle-working skills. It hosted carnival celebrations and dances that paralleled its rival. Club members also created a theater company. In early 1936 Independiente opened a site for camping at a beach in the nearby community of Quilmes. The club also involved itself in the community and helped provide physical education for local schools. In 1935 it gave a year’s pass to its field to the two best students in each local school, and it held a celebration for the graduates of local elementary schools. When Independiente, as part of its expansion into the capital, purchased a preexisting facility, members could participate in dances and several sports there.

The larger scope of Racing is not surprising in a city dominated by Barceló, and to a large extent his opponents ran Independiente. Its first dominant figure was Juan R. Mignaburu, a lawyer, who had been intendente of what became Avellaneda in 1899 and served on the city council in 1902. In 1894 he had founded a newspaper that defended the political positions of Bartolomé Mitre (an opponent of the Conservatives). Mignaburu served as president of the club in 1911–1912, 1917–1918, and 1920–1921 and was active in the club for many other years. His successor as the dominant figure was Pedro Canaveri, a Radical who was president in 1919 and from 1922 through 1933 and from 1942 to 1945. During two of those years, he served on the city council of Avellaneda. Miguel Martinicorena, who was club president from 1938 to 1941, was also a Radical Party militant.

…

The two clubs created deep loyalty in Avellaneda, and even funeral homes got involved. Two funeral homes existed in the city: one owned by the Peruihl family, who were fans of Independiente, while the other was owned by the Corradi family, who supported Racing and not incidentally Barceló. When the two teams played, the victor’s followers would go to “their” funeral parlor, borrow coffins, and parade them past their opponents.

About the Book: The Creation of Modern Buenos Aires by Joel Horowitz examines how Argentina’s capital evolved into a modern metropolis during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Through politics, immigration, urban development, social movements, and everyday life, Horowitz explores the forces that shaped Buenos Aires and the identities of the people who lived there. The book offers a rich portrait of a city in transformation and provides valuable insight into the social and political environment from which many of Argentina’s most important institutions, including its football clubs, emerged.

About the Author: Joel Horowitz is a historian specialising in modern Argentine history. His work focuses on the political, social, and cultural forces that shaped Argentina during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Through extensive archival research and a strong emphasis on the experiences of ordinary citizens, Horowitz has established himself as one of the leading scholars examining the development of modern Buenos Aires and Argentine society.

Each week on Cultured Football we pick the five great football stories from the previous seven days.

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Via

Italy was the big absentee from this World Cup (and the previous two). The task of ensuring that doesn’t happen again has now fallen on Paolo Maldini. It won’t be easy.

Farewell, Leandro Trossard

By for The Non-Negotiables

Arsenal have rarely lacked star names under Mikel Arteta, but some of their most important players have been those which never really fell under the spotlight. As Leandro Trossard leaves north London, his time at the club is remembered not for headlines, but for the reliability and decisive moments that helped deliver results.

GOAL | Photo Series Celebrates Goalposts Around the World

Via Lower Block

“After a ball – and maybe a few mates – a goal is one of the most important parts of football. And they come in every shape and size.”

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Fabio Cannavaro’s Naples and the Streets he can Never Leave Behind

By Gates for Destination Calcio

Fabio Cannavaro's story is inseparable from the streets of Soccavo, and a training ground in the shadow of the Stadio Diego Maradona that helped define generations. Years after conquering football, he has returned to protect the place that first gave him a chance, completing a circle that ensures a future for the next generations.

Messi first met Yamal as a baby. The World Cup final will be their next meeting

By Chris Wright for ESPN

Before Lamine Yamal emerged as Spain's brightest star and Lionel Messi completed football, the two shared an unlikely meeting at Camp Nou. Now they arrive on opposite sides of a World Cup final, linked by a moment that feels almost impossible.

Each week on Cultured Football we pick the five great football stories from the previous seven days.

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In Case You Missed It Here’s Last Week’s Most Read: The Fall From Grace: Bundesliga clubs in the Regionalliga - Part One

By Benjamin Darby for The Bundesliga Chronicles

Football has always celebrated clubs that climb the pyramid, but the journey in the opposite direction can be just as fascinating. Germany’s lower leagues are home to a host of former Bundesliga sides whose glory days now feel a lifetime away, each carrying a different story of how quickly fortunes can change.

William McCrum: The Irishman who invented the penalty kick

By BBC Bitesize

The penalty kick has become such a constant of football that we rarely stop to wonder where it came from. Yet, like so many parts of the game we now take for granted, it all began with one person's idea.

South London: Home of Football?

By for Outside Write

Much of the modern game’s early story runs through South London. Is this the place football should call home?

No league tables, no trophies: how Norway made sport fun for kids – and built a football team that beat Brazil

By for The Guardian

Norway's victory over Brazil was remarkable, but perhaps not as surprising as many have interpreted it to be. Behind this generation lies a sporting philosophy that encouraging children to play, explore and choose their own path.

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62% Conversion: Why Are Defenders Still Taking Penalties At the World Cup?

By Oliver Hopkins for The Analyst

More on penalties. And the heading says it all for this one.

The Fall From Grace: Bundesliga clubs in the Regionalliga - Part One

By for The Bundesliga Chronicles

Football has always celebrated clubs that climb the pyramid, but the journey in the opposite direction can be just as fascinating. Germany’s lower leagues are home to a host of former Bundesliga sides whose glory days now feel a lifetime away, each carrying a different story of how quickly fortunes can change.

Each week on Cultured Football we pick the five great football stories from the previous seven days.

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In Case You Missed It Here’s Last Week’s Most Read: The Calcio Brandemic

By Luke Taylor for FORZA CALCIO

Conscious that Italian football no longer carries the weight it once did, clubs are increasingly turning to modern rebrands in the hope of staying relevant. All they seem to be achieving, however, is alienating fans.

By Sohini Desai for Defector

The World Cup’s official songs have traded local identity that marked them out at the start for global familiarity. Tracing that evolution from Chile in 1962 to the present, this reflects on what has been gained and what has disappeared. It also confirms that nothing beats 1990’s Un Estate Italiana…

Maradona to Messi: Why Bangladesh loves Argentina’s footballers

By Masum Billah for Al Jazeera

As the World Cup unfolds an ocean away, parts of Dhaka resemble Buenos Aires. Rooted in memories of Maradona and renewed by Messi, Argentina’s hold on Bangladesh stretches beyond results and have become a cultural phenomenon.

The Calcio Brandemic

By for

Conscious that Italian football no longer carries the weight it once did, clubs are increasingly turning to modern rebrands in the hope of staying relevant. All they seem to be achieving, however, is alienating fans.

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Inside Arabian Falcons: The Dubai football side managed by Jonjo Shelvey

By Matt Hardy for City AM

Dubai has become a familiar destination for ageing footballers, but one ambitious club is trying to rewrite that story. Arabian Falcons are betting on young talent, English coaching and an unconventional model that aims to turn the UAE into a stepping stone rather than a final stop, with Jonjo Shelvey at the heart of the project.

After World Cup goals are last year’s signings finally set to deliver for Newcastle?

By Ciaran Kelly for the BBC

Newcastle's recruitment looked almost infallible until last summer's arrivals struggled to make the expected impact. Still, after encouraging World Cup displays from Anthony Elanga and Yoane Wissa, there is renewed hope that patience, rather than panic, may yet prove to have been the wiser approach.

Each week on Cultured Football we pick the five great football stories from the previous seven days.

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In Case You Missed It Here’s Last Week’s Most Read: Why every World Cup country wears the colours it does...

By Joey D’Urso

Have you ever wondered why international teams at the World Cup wear the colours they do? Well, wonder no more.

At the turn of the twentieth century, cycling was one of San Sebastián’s most fashionable pursuits. Much of this was down to Julián Comet, a French entrepreneur who had settled in the city and become one of the sport’s leading advocates. Through his efforts, a velodrome was built whilst major events that attracted the sports’ leading stars were brought to the city.

Cycling flourished. In February of 1907, that enthusiasm led to the formation of the Club Ciclista de San Sebastián.

Football, meanwhile, was also beginning to take hold across northern Spain. Introduced by students and workers returning from Britain, the game was spreading rapidly. In 1904, the San Sebastián Recreation Club was established, adding football to the range of sports already played within the Real Club de Tenis de San Sebastián.

Just a year later, the club became the first side from Gipuzkoa to compete in the Copa del Rey. Its president, Jorge Satrústegui, would later become one of the three authors of the statutes of the Spanish Football Federation, while in 1906 the club opened Ondarreta Stadium, the city’s first purpose-built football ground.

For all this rapid progress, not everyone was happy with the way the club was being run. So much that in late 1907, a group of players had become disillusioned enough to decide to form a new side leading to the setting up of San Sebastián Football Club.

Whilst this new club could play in friendlies, competing in the Copa del Rey was an altogether different matter. Clubs had to be registered for at least one year to be allowed in, too much of an ask for the new club.

A creative solution was needed, and one was that was duly found. As their games were being played games at the Atocha Velodrome, making it an obvious step to set up a football section within the Club Ciclista de San Sebastián, and using their registration to get access.

Given that their participation had been at risk till the final weeks, what followed was remarkable.

Driven by Englishman George McGuinness, they first beat local rivals Athletic Club 4-2 and then overcame Galicia FC 2-0. McGuinnes scored five of those goals and he was again on the scoresheet in the final as Español de Madrid were beaten 3-1.

A cycling club had conquered Spanish football.

That success, however, was fleeting. Within a few months there was no longer any need for San Sebastián Football Club to rely on others to take part in national competition. All players returned back to their original club which would eventually become what we know today as Real Sociedad.

These days, cycling is still deeply woven into the Basque Country’s identity and the region is widely considered the traditional heartland of cycling in Spain. Yet, in the second decade of the twentieth century, it had to give way to football’s progress not only metaphorically but even physically.

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When, in 1913 Real Sociedad were looking for a site to build their stadium, the choice fell on the velodrome which hosted their earlier games and this was torn down to make way for the new Atotxa Stadium.

For Julián Comet this was a particularly bitter moment. According to local legend, he blasted that Real Sociedad “jamás serán campeones” – they will never be champions – and those years would come to haunt the football club.

Over the years, as one title after another slipped through their hand, Comet’s curse seemed impossible to shake off. It was only seven decades later, in 1981, that Real Sociedad would finally break it when they finally won the league title.

Incidentally, that same year, the Clásica de San Sebastián was launched, a prestigious one-day race that brings some of the best cyclists to the Gipuzkoa capital year after year. Coincidence? Perhaps not.

Honours:

Copa del Rey 1909

The story of Club Ciclista de San Sebastián is now captured in this exclusive Cultured Football shirt. Featuring its original badge and a brief history, if you enjoyed their story you can now own a piece of football’s forgotten past.

Buy the T-Shirt

By

Have you ever wondered why international teams at the World Cup wear the colours they do? Well, wonder no more.

Stay In The Game

By for

Bosnia and Herzegovina’s title race produced an unlikely champion in Abel Pascual, whose route to the top was shaped by far more than football. While his career seemed destined to slip away, family tragedy and perseverance carried him towards an unexpected opportunity that had an emotional pay-off.

The Dream Factory: Inside the ‘cruel’ system behind Argentina’s soccer empire

By Steve Fainaru for ESPN

Argentine football has long been celebrated for producing extraordinary players, but the path to the top is often far darker than the triumphs suggest. Beneath the romance of chasing a professional career lies an unregulated system that leaves countless young hopefuls vulnerable, raising uncomfortable questions about the price of football's greatest dreams.

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The hands behind the beautiful game

By Sunniya Ahmad Pirzada for Al Jazeera

In Pakistan’s city of Sialkot, generations of artisans have stitched footballs that travelled the world. Now, as their craft slowly disappears, they put all their trust in the hope that tradition still has a place in football.

Joga Bonito in Ravenna: Inside Ronaldinho’s Shock Serie C Move

By Dan Cancian for

Transfer news have taken a bit of a back burner during the World Cup. One of the few exceptions, however, has to be the story of Ronaldinho returning to football in the Italian Serie C.

Each week on Cultured Football we pick the five great football stories from the previous seven days.

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In Case You Missed It Here’s Last Week’s Most Read: The Doomed Nation

By James Bennett for Football Heritage

It is now has largely been forgotten but, as the Berlin Wall fell and reunification loomed, East Germany’s football team was still chasing a place at the 1990 World Cup. This is a story of a campaign played against the backdrop of a country disappearing in real time, with players, clubs and loyalties already being pulled towards a different future.

Bonus Read: Magdeburg’s Co-Managers: Will it ever work?

[Benjamin Darby x The Bundesliga Chronicles]

In Maltese there is a saying that a ship with two captains does not move forward. Will Mageburg prove that to be wrong?

By for

For many people living with Parkinson’s, walking football offers something just as meaningful: a chance to move, connect and briefly leave illness behind. In a summer defined by the World Cup, this is a different kind of football story, but no less moving.

The Doomed Nation

By James Bennett for Football Heritage

It is now has largely been forgotten but, as the Berlin Wall fell and reunification loomed, East Germany's football team was still chasing a place at the 1990 World Cup. This is a story of a campaign played against the backdrop of a country disappearing in real time, with players, clubs and loyalties already being pulled towards a different future.

Bonus Read: Magdeburg’s Co-Managers: Will it ever work?

[ x ]

In Maltese there is a saying that a ship with two captains does not move forward. Will Mageburg prove that to be wrong?

How Campobasso’s American Dream is Proving Molise Does Exist

By Lauren Canning for Destination Calcio

Molise is often dismissed as the Italian region that “doesn’t exist”, but Campobasso’s rise has made it harder to ignore. Rebuilt after collapse and carried by American investment, local devotion and a renewed sense of belonging, the club has become more than a football project.

Bonus Read: Lens – the problem of competing with the state

[Neil Fredrik Jensen x Game of the People]

What Lens have done in recent seasons has been remarkable. Yet, finishing second seems to be the only thing they can aspire to when faced with such a rich rival.

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The Falkirk lad and the miracle from the sky

By Stephen McGowan for

Despite the various efforts to commercialise (and ruin) the World Cup beyond recognition, football tournaments remain defined by the experiences gathered around them. In Boston, as thousands of Scotland supporters turned a baseball game into an unlikely Tartan Army gathering, one fan's trip took an even fantastic turn.

Why South America Is So Good at Football

By for

South American countries have spent generations confounding assumptions that football talent needs money, infrastructure and population size to emerge. The reasons are not always obvious, but they help explain why the continent continues to produce some of the game's most enduring powers.

Each week on Cultured Football we pick the five great football stories from the previous seven days.

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In Case You Missed It Here’s Last Week’s Most Read: ‘But...he’s rubbish.’ How a Championship reject became a 500-game icon.

By Simon Binns for More Than Just Football

You know the saying ‘one man’s meat is another man’s poison’? Seems that there is a football equivalent to it.

The following is an extract from the book Relegated by Todd Smith and published by Gallery Books. It is available for purchase here.

I’d chosen to come to Grimsby because I wanted to see football played in a place that had lost the other thing that defined it. Grimsby was once home port to the world’s largest fishing fleet. A 309-foot clock tower, a gift from Prince Albert, rose from the town docks as a beacon of strength and wealth. The Grimbarians, as they’re called, took immense pride in their successive generations of native sons who risked their lives in the dangerous North Sea to feed their nation. The threat of dying or being injured in their work was so real that when the sailors reached shore and got paid, they were known as “Three-Day Millionaires’’ because they blew all of their fortunes in epic runs of debauched gratitude. Once it became possible to preserve fresh fish in ice and transport it by rail, fish caught by Grimbarians in the morning would show up in London restaurants that night. It was the haul brought in by these men that helped usher in the craze for the country’s iconic dish, fish and chips.

Due to a myriad of factors—international fishing disputes, overfishing, labor shortages, bad government policies—the fishing industry and its jobs were eventually pulled clean out of Grimsby like the swift deboning of a northern Atlantic cod. By the 1980s, Grimsby suffered mass unemployment. The jobs never returned.

I was curious if that history would make the town’s football club a more important focus of its residents—a shared thing to rally around—or a secondary concern when there was so much else to worry about. Grimsby Town FC, est. 1878, were competitive through their first few decades, often beating teams fielded by much larger cities. From the start, they featured a trawler boat and fish on their team crest. Their peak moments came between 1929 and 1939, when they played the vast majority of their games in the top division of English football and made it to the semifinals of the FA Cup twice. After that, their performance was spotty. They became what’s known as a “yo-yo club,” swinging up and down through the different levels, in all switching divisions thirty-two times, with fifteen promotions and seventeen relegations. At the moment, they were in the fourth-tier League Two, with a real possibility of getting relegated again at the end of the season.

The day I arrived, Grimsby Town FC’s Under-18 team had an evening match. Youth clubs of this nature are known as academies—in American terms, it would be like a cross between an elite high school team and a farm team for a professional baseball club. I regrouped at my Airbnb after the grocery store and got ready for the game. First, I needed to pause in the vestibule of my flat while a man out on the street was having a psychotic event. I waited until there was a break in the yelling. Then I made it onto a bus, on which I rode with two women in tattered down coats who carried mop buckets with loaves of bread sticking out of them.

The bus dropped me off a few blocks away from Blundell Park, the stadium where the youth and senior teams both play. The legendary ground has been Grimsby Town FC’s home since 1898. As I walked, I could smell the sea. The stadium’s front gate rose out of the darkness like the Black Gate of Mordor from The Lord of the Rings. The walls were thick and metal and painted black and had spikes and barbed wire strung across the top in a lattice pattern.

Inside, things were far less intimidating. It was a proper old English ground, a relic to a humble and simpler time of football, and I absolutely loved it. There were no frills here, no modern amenities. Metal roofs hung low over three of the four sections. Wood beams and cheap plastic seats spoke to a bygone architecture and aesthetic. The bathrooms were fortresses seemingly built to survive the blitzkrieg. There was a pub underneath one of the stands. The walls were adorned with framed pictures of long-ago teams: the players in short shorts, long socks, and billowy blackand- white striped kits.

The U18 game I was there to see was meaningful to the town on two major counts. It was an FA Youth Cup match, and one against a higher-level opponent. Millwall FC played in the second-tier Championship division. The Grimsby boys had beaten the youth team of Premier League side Nottingham Forest to get here, and if they could pull off a second straight upset, it would be a big deal. However, the mood before the match was not at all celebratory, and for good reason. Grimsby Town U18 were playing their first game since the tragic deaths of their popular defender Cameron Walsh and his father, Dave, in a car accident.

The team warmed up in white T-shirts adorned with Cameron’s face. The crowd of supporters around me watched while talking low and taking long, contemplative pulls from their tea and coffee and pints. The stands were nearly full—impressive, I thought, for a Wednesday night in horrid weather. Sheets of mist blew in off the Humber Estuary a quarter of a mile away. Perhaps football was helping to bring a struggling fan base in mourning together. I stood along the field and watched warm-ups from a sideline railing.

An older man with a round face, chappy hat, and bulbous nose was next to me. He looked something like the cartoon mascot from the Andy Capp’s Hot Fries packaging. We nodded hello to each other.

“Terrible thing that happened to that young lad. ’Tis just terrible,” he said.

“Yes, tragic,” I agreed.

“Say, where you from, then?”

“I’m Todd from America.”

“Bob,” he said, shaking my hand. “What state are you from, then?”

“Minnesota.”

“Is that a Trump state, then?”

This question came up all the time. After learning that I was American, almost everyone I met wanted to know if I was from a Trump-supporting state or not. I would find myself wondering which answer they were hoping for, and tried to avoid politics as best as I could. The people of Grimsby had decidedly voted for Brexit and supported Boris Johnson—the conservative politician often compared to Trump—for prime minister. Johnson had even been photographed multiple times in a Grimsby Town FC hat. I told Bob that Minnesota was a purple state, explaining what that meant and flailing for an off-ramp joke about Prince. It was good enough to get us to move on.

After some small talk about American television shows and the Grimsby Town FC senior team and the purpose of my trip, I asked Bob the question most on my mind. “Did you know the young player who died? Or know his dad?”

“I didn’t know them. But I’m a Grimer,” Bob said. He paused for a long while, and I tried to give him space. It seemed like he was searching for the right thing to say. “I used to come here,” he continued. His words were uneasy and tottering, like the steps of a baby deer learning how to walk. He took a breath. Then he said, “I used to come here. I used to come to every Town game, home and away. I did that for a long time. I did that for far too long.”

I looked over at Bob. He stared straight ahead at the field, but I could see tears welling up that were too stubborn to fall. I didn’t quite know what to do. The heaviness of the night was so palpable there between us. The crowd behind us swayed and swelled as kickoff approached. I stayed still.

“I used to come here,” he repeated. “I used to go to every Town home and away match. I was going to all the matches and carrying on in the pubs. Things, you know, mate, went that way for too long. I tried to get better. But I couldn’t stop. I tried to get on with it. It was so hard to quit. I had to stop coming here. To get better.”

Because of my Crohn’s disease and migraines, I stopped drinking more than twenty years ago. Before that, I was a social drinker, not a very heavy one. In the time since, I’ve only had about four drinks, and all of them had been in the last four weeks. But I’ve known many alcoholics and addicts in my life. I’ve worked with them on blue collar jobs and counted them among my friends and family. I’ve been there in moments when life triggers something deep inside them and it unexpectedly rises to the surface. I told Bob: “Well, I’m glad you came tonight.”

Excerpted from RELEGATED: One American's Pints-and-Pies Journey from the Top to the Bottom of English Football by TODD SMITH. Copyright © 2026 by TODD SMITH. Reprinted by permission of GALLERY BOOKS, an imprint of Simon & Schuster, LLC.

About the Book Relegated: One American’s Pints-and-Pies Journey from the Top to the Bottom of English Football is part travel memoir, part exploration of football culture. Framed around the uniquely British concept of relegation, Todd Smith embarks on a months-long journey across England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland, visiting clubs at every level of the football pyramid, from the glamour of the Premier League to forgotten non-league grounds. Along the way he discovers that football is about far more than trophies and television deals. Through conversations with supporters, pub owners, volunteers, players, and local characters, Smith uncovers how clubs act as repositories of community identity, collective memory, and belonging.

About the Author: Todd Smith is an American writer based in Minneapolis whose work spans sports, memoir, and journalism. The son of the head athletic trainer of the former Minnesota Kicks, Smith grew up immersed in football and played the game himself through college. Before publishing Relegated, he spent many years working blue-collar jobs while pursuing a writing career, an experience that informs much of the book’s personal narrative. He is also the author of Hockey Strong: Stories of Sacrifice from Inside the NHL and co-author of Brave Enough with Olympic champion Jessie Diggins. His writing has appeared in a range of magazines and sports publications, and Relegated reflects both his lifelong love of football and his fascination with the communities that sustain it.

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