Episodes

  • 132. Have Newspaper Football Journalists Lost Their Influence?

    132. Have Newspaper Football Journalists Lost Their Influence?
    Mar 13 2026
    It’s the view of Football Ruined My Life that many football supporters used to buy broadsheet newspapers specifically to read Geoffrey Green or Brian Glanville or David Lacey or Hugh McIlvanney – four hugely respected titans of the art of writing about football matches for the next day’s paper. In this edition, Jim White of the Daily Telegraph joins Jon Holmes and Colin Shindler to explain why his own career has coincided with the long slow decline of the influence of the football journalists. There was a time in the glory days when television knocked on the door politely and managers were much more afraid of Glanville and McIlvanney or even the local paper’s reporter than of the stilted television interview on those rare occasions when the match was actually covered by television. With the change in reading habits has it actually changed the nature of the job of a football reporter? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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    44 mins
  • The One With Michael Crick – Football And Nationalism

    The One With Michael Crick – Football And Nationalism
    Mar 6 2026
    This week Jon Holmes and Colin Shindler are joined by the investigative journalist Michael Crick whose appearances down the years on Newsnight and Channel 4 News have made him a familiar face on our television screens. Despite being a friend of Colin, he is a longtime supporter of Manchester United, having had the decency to grow up in Manchester. In this episode he talks about the power of nationalism and how it has affected the game at both club and international levels. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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    52 mins
  • 130. Do Football Crowds Reflect The Society We Live In?

    130. Do Football Crowds Reflect The Society We Live In?
    Feb 27 2026
    There was a time before 1966 when crowds were a lot friendlier and less angry than they are today. Supporters of opposing clubs stood together on the terraces and policing was relegated to one copper on a horse outside the ground as you came in. Crowds in the immediate postwar years were large and though the grounds were already starting to crumble, club directors saw no need to spend money updating them. The food and drink were mostly disgusting and toilet provision was virtually non-existent. But there was no hooliganism and nobody got stabbed or was hustled to hospital with a dart sticking out of his eye. Omid Djalili, Colin Shindler and Jon Holmes ask what does that tell you about society in the early postwar years? And why did it change? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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    53 mins
  • 129. The Matchday Experience

    129. The Matchday Experience
    Feb 20 2026
    Andy Hamilton, Jon Holmes and Colin Shindler ask the question “Has the match day experience improved over the years they have been going to watch football?” You would think the answer would be that of course it has. We all have a seat, the food, whatever the price, couldn’t be worse than it was in the 1960s and ‘70s, we are never caught in those frightening swayings on the terraces and the clubs appear to want to turn football into some weird version of show business. But… why don’t we see those marching bands on the pitch any more and what happened to Arthur Cager, the man in a white coat on a stand conducting the crowd in Abide With Me and She’s A Lassie From Lancashire before the start of the Cup Final. Is this new awkward marriage between show biz and football something the crowds really welcome? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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    46 mins
  • 128. What Happened To All The British Managers?

    128. What Happened To All The British Managers?
    Feb 13 2026
    The television interview with a British manager after a match has become quite a rare bird, although recent events at Manchester United and Chelsea have slightly altered that perception. Prior to those appointments, Eddie Howe, Sean Dyche and David Moyes flew the Union Jack and we currently also have Rob Edwards and Scott Parker – though their stay in the Premier League looks destined to be over in May. For some time though, Match of the Day has felt like a procession of foreign managers brought in by foreign owners. It seems that the only way to become a British manager in the Premier League is to be promoted from the Championship. Colin Shindler, Jim White and Jon Holmes ponder how this situation has come about. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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    44 mins
  • 127. Which footballers have been influential, either consciously or unconsciously, in affecting or impacting their nations positively (or negatively)?

    127. Which footballers have been influential, either consciously or unconsciously, in affecting or impacting their nations positively (or negatively)?
    Feb 6 2026
    Recently we had the Africa Cup of Nations with that absurd ending rescued by the grown up behaviour of Sadio Mane. During the course of the competition we were constantly reminded of how much Mo Salah means to the people of Egypt. However, Omid Djalili, Colin Shindler and Jon Holmes also look at the downside. When Luis Suarez was sent off for biting for the third time in the 2014 World Cup after taking a mouthful from the shoulder of the Italy defender Georgio Chiellini – they wonder whether the people of Uruguay were sympathetic to the way Suarez’ assuaged his hunger pains or whether they were properly embarrassed. Football throws up heroes and villains on a regular basis. How much impact do their actions have on the perception of their country? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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    42 mins
  • 126. The North-South Divide

    126. The North-South Divide
    Jan 30 2026
    When the Football League started in 1888 there were six clubs from the Midlands and six from Lancashire. Now look at the Premier League. Of the current 20 clubs, nine come from the effete South of England, in other words almost half. Jon Holmes, Colin Shindler and Jim White discuss whether this is a North-South divide or a London-versus-the-rest-of-the-country divide. We know to what extent football is ruled by money and we know that the North-South divide is a slightly euphemistic way of describing the disadvantaged North versus the over privileged South. So much is self-evident. But is this increasing concentration of wealth in the southern half of the country a good thing or a bad thing for football?” Listen to the podcast and let us know what you think (and where you live!) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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    47 mins
  • 125. Our Most Depressing Defeats

    125. Our Most Depressing Defeats
    Jan 23 2026
    Colin Shindler asks Jon Holmes and Andy Hamilton to relive their football related nightmares. They are forced under forensic questioning to remember what they had hoped they had buried forever in the deepest recesses of their memories. In other words, those defeats which evoke the very darkest of thoughts. They don’t have to be 9-0 thrashings to do that. They can be games when you’re 1-0 up and coasting and then two stupid, stupid, stupid goals in stoppage time turn victory into defeat. There can be narrow defeats in important games or games decided by the insanity and incipient blindness of the match officials. Either way you leave the ground wondering why you bothered getting out of bed and coming in the first place. The Football Ruined My Life audience knows exactly what that feels like. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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    47 mins