The Premier League kicked off again last weekend, and for fans raised in an era of wall-to-wall live televised matches it will be a shock to learn that 30 years ago the 1985-86 season began with not a minute of live action shown on TV… Continue reading
Global football stars earn some of the highest wages in the world. Cristiano Ronaldo’s contract at Real Madrid earns him around €350,000 (£265,000) each week. How much do you get paid compared with a top footballer? Use our calculator – part of the BBC’s A Richer World season – to find out… Continue reading
• Qatari-owned PSG’s average salary now the highest in world sport
• Football clubs make up four of the top five, alongside LA Dodgers… Continue reading
The current generation will tell you that Barcelona forward Lionel Messi is the greatest player in the history of Europe’s No 1 club competition, and perhaps the greatest player of all time… Continue reading
Saturday’s FA Cup final between Arsenal and Aston Villa at Wembley was watched by half a billion viewers in more than 120 countries. But what exactly was the scene at the original final way back in 1872?… Continue reading
The dawn of the Premier League in 1992 changed football forever: big-money TV deals, new stadiums and more foreign players. But was football better in the days of muddy pitches, heaving terraces and cheaper tickets? BBC News has been speaking to fans, ex-players and academics… Continue reading
There have been many things said about the game of soccer—some complimentary, some not. There are those who view it as religion, as life and death, and there are those who think it is the most boring spectacle they have ever laid eyes on. But everyone has an opinion… Continue reading
The Chelsea manager is close to seeing his team win the Premier League but of everyone involved in the Barça team in the 1990s, from Pep Guardiola to Julen Lopetegui, he is the outcast who now revels in his role as the dark lord… Continue reading
People from Catalonia have always seen themselves as cosmopolitan, as citizens of the world. We love feeling acknowledged by the global community, which may be why we derive so much pleasure from non-Catalans embracing our local football club, F.C. Barcelona, or Barça for short… Continue reading
Robert Colls rises to the challenge of arguing the case for sports history as a serious academic subject, digging deep into its beginnings in the 1960s and winning with a wealth of scholarly works and skilled rhetoric… Continue reading
Got some time to kill? Can’t decide what to watch on Netflix? These documentaries tell football’s greatest stories.
Sometimes it feels like football only exists game to game, from pre-match interview to post-match tactical analysis… Continue reading
Some of the best young talent coming through in the Premier League, picking one player from each club born between 1 September 1997 and 31 August 1998, an age band also known as first-year scholars. We will then follow their progress over the next five years: Continue reading
The traditional – and fairly violent – game of Royal Shrovetide Football is entering its second day in the Derbyshire town of Ashbourne. Played for centuries, its origins are now forgotten. But while the world may have changed, the game’s popularity remains the same… Continue reading
Although Barcelona have just beat Basel 5-0 in the Champions League, both teams can look back on a common thread in their histories – Swiss player Hans Gamper. Continue reading
With the January transfer circus in full flow, the rumours continue to spread, talks are under way, contracts are being negotiated, and the past, as it always does, makes its way to the forefront as clubs reflect back to the one that got away. Continue reading
In a phenomenon probably familiar to fans of RC Cola, Gatwick Airport or any Baldwin brother other than Alec, Aguirre is passionate about something that is not so much overshadowed as it is eclipsed. Specifically, Aguirre is the manager of Espanyol, a soccer team typically known as the other club in Barcelona… Continue reading
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