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Looking at aspects of maleness and football, Joyce Woolridge explains why the New Lads beloved of the media have little in common with the lads who actually go to watch matches

A few weeks ago at 6am I began a solo train journey from Bristol to Manchester to watch Manchester United lose to Chelsea. I’ve never been to a match alone before, but it happened that this time I was the only one with a ticket. As a solo traveller, I thoroughly expected to observe at first hand some spectacular displays of laddish boorishness, given that football is where the ‘new lads’ are most at home; where they gather to worship the cult of curry, boozing and birds whilst rejecting all standards of decent behaviour. 

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German politicians understand the importance of declaring an interest in football, though some are more sincere than others as Uli Hesse-Lichtenberger explains

Sometime in early May, Helmut Kohl walked into a cabinet meeting. As usual, he was the last to enter the room. Maybe this befits his position as party captain, maybe it is a superstition left over from his days as a footballer. ( He is said to have been a not entirely untalented midfielder when he was younger. And, presumably, slimmer). He looked like a man who had just heard the greatest joke of all time and yearns to share it with someone. He stopped dead in his tracks just as he was about to pass Seiters.

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If your team is both playing a new system and losing regularly, you may feel inclined to join Neil Dawson's crusade for a return to traditional values

I’m upset. I've reached that first stage of old age – standing in pubs saying “Football isn't what it used to be.” And why? Because of the current obsession with 5-3-2 formations and bloody wing-backs, that’s why.

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The Kick It Out campaign entered its second season with a presentation of a report, Alive and Still Kicking, produced by three researchers at Goldsmiths College,  Les Back, Tim Crabbe and John Solomos, who offer their views on the progress made by the campain

Monday, 21st October saw the latest relaunch of the “Let’s Kick Racism Out of Football Campaign”. With such launches now becoming something of an annual event and the media becoming a little tired of the subject matter, the sceptic might be left asking what new there is to say. Indeed, anyone attending last year’s launch might have been left to wonder whether there was any point to carrying on anyway, given the almost universal declaration from the panel that racism was not really much of a problem anymore.

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Mike Ticher explains why some Chelsea fans, himself included, feel that the tributes paid to Matthew Harding struck the wrong note

Reading the newspaper tributes to Matthew Harding in the days after his death, it was hard not to be struck by how easily the bare facts of his life could have been presented to paint an entirely different picture of the man.

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