PAUL SAFFER delves into a 1950s book for boys & finds more grit than glamour. And some imperialist football. Continue reading
Category Archives: Sport
Lenin on the goalpost
Long before the 2018 World Cup, a Radio 4 sitcom explored the links between Russia and football, says PAUL SAFFER. Continue reading
Purves power
PAUL SAFFER explains how Peter Purves invented modern football at Italia 90. Continue reading
From Rous with love
PAUL SAFFER remembers the last English president of FIFA. Sir Stanley wouldn’t have approved of the modern game. Continue reading
Kicking sport into politics
Ex-footballer George Weah has just been elected president of Liberia – but where are Britain’s sporting politicos? PAUL SAFFER finds a few, but has to dig deep. Continue reading
2016: Odds and sods
Some leftover highlights and lowlights of the last 12 months. Continue reading
‘Seagrove will run’: The Oympian I knew
He won Olympic medals, helped create the Commonwealth Games and, er, taught ALWYN TURNER. Continue reading
Stuck in the middle and blue
The quick blue Fox jumps over the Labour dog. PAUL SAFFER on the marginal Midlands. Continue reading
Obscure Olympians 8: David Bond
PAUL SAFFER on a champion so obscure that even his workmates didn’t know he’d won gold. Continue reading
Obscure Olympians 7: David Cecil
PAUL SAFFER’s series continues with a hurdler fictionalized in Chariots of Fire. Continue reading
Obscure Olympians 6: Hugh Edwards and Lewis Clive
From the Bullingdon Club to the International Brigade – PAUL SAFFER on a coxless pair. Continue reading
Obscure Olympians 5: 3rd Earl of Kimberley
PAUL SAFFER on the polo-playing missing link between Bertie Wooster and Winston Churchill. Continue reading
