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The Chronicle
Football writing for people who still believe the game means something. No sponsored content. No PR quotes. Just the truth.
The 2034 World Cup Was Decided Before the Vote Was Announced. That Is the Point.
When FIFA announced that Saudi Arabia had won the right to host the 2034 World Cup, they described it as "the result of a competitive bidding process." There was one candidate. The other withdrew before the deadline. We need to talk about what a vote means when there is only one option on the ballot.
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The £120 Shirt and the £5 It Cost to Make It
A breakdown of every cost between the factory floor in Bangladesh and the fan walking out of the club shop, and why the margin in between is the most honest number in football.
VAR Didn't Ruin Football. The People Who Implemented It Did.
The technology was fine. The governance was the problem — as it always is. A forensic look at how a good idea became a byword for everything wrong with how the game is run.
The Clubs That Are Still Owned by Their Fans — and What That Looks Like
AFC Wimbledon. FC United of Manchester. Ebbsfleet. Wrexham (before the cameras arrived). A portrait of what football looks like when the people who love it are the ones making the decisions.
How Private Equity Learned to Love Football — and What It Wants From It
CVC. Silver Lake. RedBird. The names change but the playbook doesn't. They buy in, restructure the revenue, and extract value that used to belong to the sport. A beginner's guide to the new owners.
What Football Tickets Cost in 1990, Adjusted for Everything That's Happened Since
Not inflation. Everything. Wages. Cost of living. The price of a pint. The price of a house. The actual, lived economic context in which a working-class fan now has to find £52 for a matchday ticket.
Why "Just Enjoy The Football" Is Not a Neutral Position
Every time someone says this, they are asking you to accept the conditions under which the football is delivered — the wages, the location, the ownership structure — without question. We refuse.
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We publish football writing from real fans. No PR. No sponsored content. No piece that couldn't be written by someone who actually stands on a terrace. If you've got something to say about the game and the people who stole it — say it here.
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