What’s in it for them is a common query that springs to mind when assessing football sponsorship and indeed, since the financial crisis of 2008 kicked in, one might ask the question more forcibly? Why did Coca-Cola, for instance, feel that a wet Tuesday evening encounter between Crawley and Stevenage or a juddering tackle from Stephen Hunt would help them sell more bottles and cans of their precious elixir? The list of companies that have felt compelled to put their name to the yearly machinations of the Football League is a varied one and still a relatively new concept, so how have each…
All posts tagged Sky
The Police and Sky Spoil Easter for Hull City Fans
Today, we revisit the topic of barmy kick off times. Matthew Rudd is a failing radio host, club DJ, newly-qualified lifeguard, prolific tweeter and, most relevantly, lifelong Hull City supporter and senior writer for the Amber Nectar fanzine, which is 15 years old this year. He also contributes to talkSPORT and When Saturday Comes on matters concerning the Tigers. … There is something about Hull City supporters that seems to bring out the worst excesses and prejudices in West Yorkshire Police. For many years they have shifted the club’s fixtures on their patch to more “manageable” (ie, wildly inconvenient) kick-off…
Speaking out on the Internet: Present Status and Future Prospects
One of this website’s latest followers on Twitter, Simeon F. W. Pickup states his interests as ‘Reading FC, Atheism, Labour. In that order.’ Although Ed Miliband’s negligible impact on the polls may have something to do with his party being relegated behind Brian McDermott and Richard Dawkins in Simeon’s thinking, I did read this as tongue in cheek. Nonetheless, therein lies a message. Football has always been a major tugger of primary impulses but in recent years, its importance has become more intense. While before, communities will have rallied around a political party, a cause, a labour union or a…
Book Review: There’s a Golden Sky
There’s a Golden Sky, By Ian Ridley Published by Bloomsbury, £18.99 ISBN: 9781408130407 It’s often been asserted that the one remaining advantage mainstream media has over bloggers is the issue of access to the game’s personalities – Jonathan Wilson made this point on establishing The Blizzard earlier this year and Kevin McCauley expounded on the subject in an overview of a spat between blogger Les Rosbifs and Teamtalk that fired up the twitterati last week. Given my limited appetite for another story that proclaims Robin van Persie to be ‘really happy to be scoring goals for Arsenal’, I turned to this new…
Lanterne Rouge: I'm not sure that that particular Denmark team deserve to be listed wi...
Mark: Also you forgot John Lillington the Bristol city secretary he had a lo...
Tom: "There a school of thought that goalkeeper is the one position one can...
harry m: That po match against Birmingham is my favourite football match ever....
Dominic: I saw Swindon take on Coventry on Good Friday. As a Coventry fan I tho...
