Fans saw the Glazers’ money tricks 16 years ago but no one listened

In 2005, a generation ago now, when supporters were first protesting against the pending takeover of Manchester United by the Glazer family, the approach of the football authorities was mostly to brush off their concerns. There seemed to be a sense among the blazers in the Football Association and the Premier League suits that the fans just did not really understand the mystique of a corporate takeover, or the excitements of having “investors” from America.

Glazers intend to stay and turn Manchester United into $10bn businessRead more

But football supporters are people, citizens, and they understood it very well indeed. The United protesters included corporate lawyers and accountants, and political activists who take heartfelt pride in Ma…

Expectations, tactics, armbands: Denmark’s Qatar postmortem begins

Was it the expectations? Was it the armbands? Was it the tinkering? Or did Denmark just not have what it took to progress as expected at this World Cup? The postmortem can now begin for the team ranked 10th in the world, because Kasper Hjulmand’s men are going home.

Their second defeat was in keeping with all but brief periods of their two other matches in Qatar: insipid. A team that had stormed their way to the semi-finals of the European Championship last year, and romped through qualification, didn’t look as if they had the belief to win a game against Australia.

It was a World Cup like no other. For the last 12 years the Guardian has been reporting on the issues surrounding Qatar 2022, from corr…

‘Bigger than any other’: St George’s Park showcases the best of disability football

“Football Your Way” is the name of the Football Association’s three-year plan to improve disability football at every level. Its impact will be clear this weekend at St George’s Park, where Sean Jackson’s way from Sunday league football on the Isle of Man to an FA Disability Cup final with Everton reflects a sport on the rise.

St George’s Park is staging the largest disability cup competition of its kind on Saturday and Sunday with the eighth edition of the FA Disability Cup. There will be six impairment-specific cup finals – amputee, blind, cerebral palsy, deaf, partially sighted and powerchair – each broadcast live on TNT Sports with highlights on Channel 4. For the England and Everton defender Jackson, the event and the ex…

Heisman Hopefuls heading into Rivalry Week

We’ve reached rivalry week of the college football season. Just one game remains before conference championships, so it’s now or never for the top teams in the nation. In less than two weeks, the Heisman finalists will be announced, and just a few days after that, we’ll have our winner. So with one (or two at most) games left in everyone’s season, this Saturday is the time to separate yourself as the Heisman winner. Here are the top five candidates going into the last week of most teams’ regular seasons.  Bo Nix, QB, Oregon source: Getty Images The Ducks QB remains at the No. 5 spot in these rankings, just barely ahead of a few guys outside the top five. Oregon had a tough loss to Washington a few weeks back, all but ending any CFP hopes. However, the signal-caller still had …

The Euro 2020 Mascot Is Just A Creepy Human Man

Creating a mascot for your international sporting event can be fraught with peril. Izzy, originally Whatizit, was the mascot of the 1996 Olympics and is still mocked today. London’s mascots for the 2012 Olympics and Paralympics were simply amorphous blobs. The 2006 World Cup, held in Germany, had a Jim Henson Company-created pantsless lion, with his terrifying talking soccer ball sidekick. Fun! But they’ll continue to make mascots. Occasionally they hit, like the 2018 Olympics and Paralympics mascots. And even if they fail, does it really matter? It’s for kids. But the mascot of the Euro 2020 tournament, which was recently put on display to mark one year until the European soccer championship begins, is terrifying. credits: Alexander Hassenstein | source: Getty Meet Skillzy.…

A 2018–19 NHL Season Preview Of Every Team, From Best To Islanders

Hell yeah, hockey is back! After suffering through three months of sports that do not involve ice, and night after night of 90-degree temperatures with no A/C (though that one might just be me), the most beautiful and fun game in the world has returned to save you from five-hour ALDS games and lopsided Alabama football wins, and also heatstroke. This is going to be an extremely fun season, and I’m not just bullshitting you to try and get you to scroll through a stupidly long blog about a relatively unpopular sport. By my count, there are as many as 22 NHL teams worth caring about—or at least watching on League Pass a few times—as we head into 2018–19. I’m excited to see all of them except for the vile and villainous Boston Bruins, so read this thing and get excited too. Team…

Manchester City Supporters Praise Jesus After Stoppage-Time Goal

Manchester City pulled out a win over Swansea City after Jesus showed no mercy to keeper Łukasz Fabiański and knocked in a rebound in the 92nd minute to give the home supporters a 2-1 win to go crazy about. City supporters can credit Jesus fully for the win, as the Brazilian forward scored his side’s first goal of the match in the 11th minute, only to see Gylfi Sigurðsson give the Welsh club an equalizer 70 minutes later. [Telemundo] …

The USMNT Died So That They Could Live

That just happened. They just did that. We—you—just did that! The United States lost today to Germany in their final group stage match. But they only lost 1-0, while Portugal beat Ghana 2-1, which means that the USMNT have pulled off what many thought to be the impossible: They entered the Group of Death, took on all comers, made it through pretty scathed but whole, and are now moving on to the Round of 16. And now that they're safely through, it's finally kosher to state what we all, deep in our hearts, know to be true. They backed into the knockout rounds. Ghana trounced the USMNT, beating them in every way but one, thanks to a late John Brooks header. Next were Portugal, in the rainforest. USA rolled them. The Americans dominated most of the match in possibly their gr…

This Is Your Last Chance To Vote For The 2011 Deadspin Hall Of Fame

Polls close at 11:59 p.m. (EST) tonight. Here is your roster of nominees: Metta World Peace | Brett Favre | Bill Simmons | Penn State | A.J. Daulerio | Pig Who Pooped On His Own Balls (NSFW?) …

Jameis Winston's Numbers Are More Historically Good Than His Interceptions Are Historically Bad

data-mm-id=”_5ht3y990f”>The Tampa Bay Buccaneers are going to miss the playoffs for the 12th straight season, but don't blame Jameis Winston. Even though he's thrown a seemingly impossible number of interceptions (24 and counting), he's done a lot of good for the Bucs' offensively and is putting up some historically significant positive numbers. With two games remaining, the Bucs sit at 7-7, good for second place in the NFC South. They have already scored a franchise-record 416 points this season. Jameis is currently leading the NFL in passing with 4,573 yards, which is already a franchise record with two games to go.He's second in the NFL with 30 touchdown passes, also a franchise record. He has an outside shot at overtaking Lamar Jackson for the league lead,…