Outside the Box – Football on TV: A boring birthday for the FA as the stars fail to shine

For most people, an evening out at the local pub will be a largely stress-free excursion filled with raucous banter, sorrowful introspection and a touch of casual xenophobia. Nights out in this great country have followed that tight format for hundreds of years, never wavering in the face of adver...

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Outside the Box – Football on TV: A shortfall of laughs as Redknapp, Corden and co play the fools

In these bleak, recession-hit days of austerity and hardship, we are all frantically searching for ways to forget our woes and feel a little better about things. Often, we look towards our local footballing heroes for an escape, but even that’s turning sour right now. A game seemingly awash ...

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Outside the Box – Football on TV: Time is running out for the Football League Show but Reading and the Saints defy the odds

Back in the hazy midsummer days of August 2011, while hoards of frenzied teenagers were marauding their way through the streets of London setting fire to police cars, looting Poundland and generally ruining Boris Johnson’s holiday; I was indulging in a regular pre-season pursuit. Like every footba...

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Outside the Box – Football on TV: Manchester disunited but the magic of the FA Cup is alive and well

The much talked about magic of the FA Cup was present in abundance this Sunday during the huge third round Manchester showdown, in fact there was more magic contained in the 90 minutes than during a Paul Daniels swingers party. Chris Foy’s card tricks, a disappearing City captain and most mystifying...

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Squarefootball's Weekend Wonders in the Premier League

In a change to our regularly scheduled programming, our Team of the Week article has been revamped to become this new weekly fixture. Each week I, Mitch Waddon, will look through the best and the worst of the weekend’s Premier League fixtures in the hope to provide some insight into our favourite ga...

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3892: Women officials, know your pla

by : Colin Illingworth Portsmouth (6) vs Watford (19), KO 15:00 Portsmouth's brief moment in the top three has come and gone, but the team seem set for a season-long assault on a top seven finish. Watford have struggled to adapt and don't look like scoring enough goals to survive. Portsmouth will...

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3867: How To Cut Out The Abuse Of Re

by : Stephen Orford Britain’s favourite referee is in the spotlight again. Graham Poll showed a red card to Everton’s James McFadden in Wednesday night’s Carling Cup fourth round defeat to Arsenal at Goodison Park (November 8) for foul and abusive language. The Scottish international aimed a voll...

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3323: World Cup: Group F ends in cha

by : Sam Cullen In 2006, it is thought the age of corporate sponsorship, million pound contracts and wall to wall TV coverage has removed an element of farce and unpredictability from the World Cup. Nobody told that to Australia, Croatia, or Graham Poll. The game was always going to have some ent...

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2598: Arsenal / Chelsea: Jose & Arse

by : Sean OMeara What a breath of fresh air Martin Jol is to the Premiership. Seldom is the Dutchman to be heard criticising or blaming officials, or bemoaning bad luck. He even recently accepted that officials have a difficult job, after watching a perfectly good Jermain Defoe goal ruled out for...

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2428: Referee decisions: Spare us th

by : Hugh Larkin The Premiership weekend just past rang to familiar sounds of managers blaming officials for their team’s defeats. Steve Bruce, Steve McClaren and Bryan Robson all stepped into the spotlight to place the responsibility firmly on the men in black. Out of solidarity Rafa Benitez chipp...

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1051: PREMIERSHIP: Indecisive refere

by : Matt Margrett The F.A. may well have had a busier start to the week than usual. The odd complaint from a nervous manager feeling down on his luck probably passes as the norm for a Monday morning at Lancaster Gate, but when the normally docile Chris Coleman describes a referee as “crap”, it’s ...

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