Health | From schizophrenia to social anxiety, ‘football addresses it all’

As similar programs in Italy have discovered (see 12 Jan 07), a London-based football league presents “regular, constant, holistic treatment” for those afflicted with mental health problems ranging from schizophrenia to social anxiety (Angus Watson, “More Than a Game,” Financial Times, Mar 22). (Mar 25)

Books | Alan Sillitoe, channeling the angry young football man

Alan Sillitoe’s work was on the syllabus in my short-story class as a college freshman. Naturally, the story considered most representative was “The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Runner,” consisting of a teenage cross-country runner’s interior dialogues upon liberation each day from the Borstal fetters (“I’m a human being and I’ve got thoughts and secrets and bloody life inside me …”).

But a fresh assessment on Sillitoe’s 80th birthday today suggests that the short story “The Match,” which takes its tone from the terrace gloaming at Notts County’s Meadow Lane, might be the best introduction. (Mar 4)

Religion | Holocaust-era exile haunts Chelsea manager’s father

In an interview Jan 11 with the Jewish Chronicle of London, Meir Granat—father of Chelsea manager Avram Grant—details the displacement and death that met the Hasidic family in wartime Europe (Simon Griver, “Shoah Horrors That Haunt Avram Grant”). (Jan 11)

Media | ‘De diddly dum de dum,’ then cue result from Stenhousemuir

The longest-running radio sports program in the world, the BBC Sports Report, celebrated its 60th anniversary on Jan 3. Recognition also goes to the Edinburgh inflections of James Alexander Gordon, who as part of the show has read the classified football results at 5 p.m. every Saturday since 1972 (see Andrew Baker, “Classified Football Results Make Music at BBC,” Daily Telegraph, Jan 3). (Jan 6)

Cinema | First impressions of ‘Bloody United’

On Stephen Merchant’s BBC 6Music program Dec 30, the actor who inhabited Tony Blair on screen and David Frost on stage said he soon will take on the persona of Brian Clough in the forthcoming film Bloody United. (Dec 30)

‘Beckham studies,’ the graduate seminar

David Beckham’s capacity to generate cultural comment (see Nov 20, Nov 7 and Jul 16 for three recent examples) and to bolster the CVs of tenure-track academics continues. (Dec 11)

Pathos | Manchester is united

Manchester, England, Dec 7 | Commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the 6 Feb 1958 Munich airplane crash that killed 23, including eight Manchester United players, will incorporate the entire city and avoid commercial tie-ins, organizers have decided.

Visuals | Round ball, flat art (w/ multimedia)

British Museum database shows football in mix of media

London, Nov 20 | Perusing institutional archives for football-related arcana has been made considerably easier in the Internet age.

A recent example is the quiet launch to the Web of a portion of 50,000 drawings and an even greater number of prints—so-called flat art—within the British Museum collection.

Lost generation?

Fallout from England’s last-minute slip against Croatia on Nov 21 continues to be felt in the Times’s microsite, damningly labeled “The Lost Generation.” (Nov 29)

England | Rough girls, delicate boys

England women try to surmount culture of contempt

Leicester, England, Sept 21 | With the United States and England preparing to meet in a Women’s World Cup quarterfinal Sept 22 in Tianjin, China, the contest matches players who, to some degree, owe their footballing fortunes to the deeds of Lancashire forebears.

We interview Jean Williams of the International Centre for Sports History and Culture on the early history of English women’s football and on the “contemptuous” attitude that has endured toward women playing the national game.

Wor(l)ds for football | From ‘ball-coise’ to ‘kaduregel’ to ‘voetbal’

A long explanation for why we include “socca’ ” and “socker” on our newest T-shirt offering.

Don’t smoke ’em if you got ’em | Coming ban in England stadia another blow to terrace nostalgia

London, Mar 16 | Any traces of the UK terrace culture after which nostalgists now pine may be snuffed out permanently as of Jul 1, at 6 a.m., when a nationwide public smoking ban comes into force.