“WE’LL SEE BEAUTIFUL days kids, we’ll see sunny days.” This isn’t the kind of song you’d expect to hear chanted at a football game, let alone by one of the most respected groups of ultras in the world ...

There is one man who towers above the rest when it comes to the uncomfortable entwining of football and politics: Zvonimir Boban. The former AC Milan midfielder enjoyed a richly successful club career ...

The history of football is often told as one of the great sides emerging before slipping away and passing that mantle to others. Despite that, there had been something crushingly perfect about ...

In an era of defined positions and rigid tactics, a lanky winger glad in Liverpool red broke the mould. Steve McManaman had all the qualities of a true winger. As a footballer, his talent was never a ...

Behind The Badge is a series by COPA90 exploring football’s unique crests. These Football Times teamed up with their COPA Collective partners to tell the story behind each one. Like meddling criminals ...

Nobody ever fully understood how Enrico Marone Cinzano managed to return from Argentina in the summer of 1925 with one of the game’s greatest finishers by his side. The new Torino president was not ...

The owner of an absorbent footballing brain, Xabi Alonso would become one of the world’s most perceptive and intelligent midfielders in the 2000s ...

Few things generate frustration among supporters quite like poor refereeing decisions. When the man in the middle appears to be giving everything in your opponents’ favour, it normally results in ...

The average attendance at League of Ireland matches in 2014 was just 1,559. In the same year, 120,000 Irish fans travelled to attend Premier League games, accounting for 15 per cent of overseas fans ...

The legendary Dinamo Kyiv side marshalled by Valeriy Lobanovskyi was widely viewed as a precise, scientific machine with clearly-defined roles. But there was one spark that stood out amidst the ...

The diverse scope of grounds around the world is a testament to the perseverance and omnipotence of football. The beautiful game is played in the remotest locations across the globe, while in the past ...