You may not want to hear it, but it's the time of the year when stores are frantically getting ready for the holiday shopping season. The Christmas displays in shop windows seem to appear earlier and earlier each year. Football is not immune to this, of course. The sport generates a tremendous amount of revenue for [. Click to continue reading...

On last week's Match of the Day, BBC pundit Mark Lawrenson claimed that if tackles like the one Gael Clichy received at Bolton were banned, the game would be 'for the jessies'. The former Liverpool defender's words will certainly come back to bite him. First Gael Clichy. Now Man United's Rodrigo Possebon. Click to continue reading...

It's funny how football can become such a part of your life.



I don't just mean how it drives you to get up at some unearthly hour on a Sunday to watch Match of the Day because you missed it last night (as my lover and I did this morning).



Take for example the conversation I had with my lover after a visit to the supermarket yesterday lunchtime to buy food for the meal we were planning for friends last night. Click to continue reading...

[Scroll down for predictions - they are in this post!]

At the risk of upsetting the few lovely and loyal Newcastle supporters that frequent this site, I did find myself nodding at this article written by Matthew Syed in this weeks Times.

"The only way that Newcastle fans are ever going to be truly happy is when they have formed a collective to buy the club and have made a pig's ear, as they inevitably would, of a kind that would make Freddy Shepherd's last remaining strands stand on end. Click to continue reading...

Which is the better Premier League highlight show? BBC's Match Of The Day or TWI's Premier League Review Show? Millions of people around the world watch the highlight packages that feature the best bits of each Premier League match, so the shows should be quite similar, right? Wrong. Read on to learn the major differences between the [. Click to continue reading...

I thought I would include the highlights of the match of the day in the Bundesliga as Schalke 04 let their derby rivals Borussia Dortmund back into the game to gain a 3-3 draw.

Borussia Dortmund vs Schalke 3-3 13.09.08 Highlights Click to continue reading...

ITV to air Guinness Premiership English club rugby highlights | Media | guardian.co.uk: "ITV has secured the rights to show highlights of the Guinness Premiership English club rugby union matches this season in a new show to be presented by Craig Doyle on ITV4.

The broadcaster has signed the deal with Premier Rugby for the new season, which starts September 6, taking over from the BBC, which previously aired domestic club rugby highlights in Rugby Special. Click to continue reading...

Predictions are here.

I tell you what, never mind how good he is as a footballer (and rather weirdly, he's just been named by UEFA as Europe's Best Midfielder...), check out Frank Lampard's thoughts on the XXIX Olympic Games in Beijing, as published on the Chelsea official website:

"In general I liked the American Michael Phelps, who was a standout for dominating the swimming, and Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt was amazing to watch with his world records"

With incisive, penetrating analysis like that, it's clear that Fat Frank is going to be a shoe-in for the sofa on Match of the Day. Click to continue reading...

For good reason the match of the day in South East Asia today is in Malaysia where Selangor clash with a Kedah side on target for back to back trebles.

Meanwhile here in Indonesia we have an Independence Cup which has stopped for a weekend break! The ISL is on hold.

We are left with the Indonesian Premier League and there are a couple of more than interesting match ups in the two division league. Click to continue reading...

So how much football do any of us actually watch in real life compared to what we watch on TV? And how much is our opinion informed through the football media lens rather than through our own personal experience and knowledge?

Much of what we know, or think we know, is based on the journalists, presenters, anchormen, and ex-professionals that populate TV, radio and increasingly podcasts. Click to continue reading...

Gone for a Burton Some naysayers are suggesting that the game against Kazakhstan is a non-event not worthy of Lawro's droning words of wisdom on a live Match of the Day bradocast. The expectation to win will be there as sure as minnows are minnows, but on the other hand, many are worried that we run the risk of hurling the same obscenities of disbelief in England players' faces that came their way during the most unconvincing 3-0 victory in the history of football, against Andorra. Click to continue reading...

The journalist and broadcaster Danny Baker once noted that the primary role of a football commentator is to make the exasperated television viewer shout "WE KNOW!" at the television screen during matches, to the extent that it famously used to drive his father to his distraction. Sadly, Mr Baker Senior passed away earlier this year - not quite long enough to be able to raise a toast to the retirement of John Motson, the veteran BBC commentator, who has announced his retirement from live commentary from the BBC following their failure to secure major television rights ahead of the new season. Click to continue reading...

Having watched most of Euro 2008 spread out between the BBC and ITV I have come to the conclusion that both channels need a major shake up in the ways they cover sport. Both sides irritate people with different aspects of their coverage, for example they both need some new pundits and co-commentators in because [. Click to continue reading...

Is anyone else fed up with the speculation about Cristiano Ronaldo and whether he will leave the ManUre to go to Madrid?

Yes? Me too. So lets not talk about it.

Lets talk instead about last night's match.

I mean are those Italians spoilsports or what? Their style seemed to me to be characterised by a script along the lines of "We aren't actually going to put much effort into winning but we want to make sure you don't either". Click to continue reading...

OK, with the first match of the day done, we can turn our attentions to what promises to be not nearly as exciting. And that's all the more reason why you should be reading this liveblog rather than waiting to get home and watch the TiVo.

 

 

Click to continue reading...

BBC's Director of Sport Roger Mosey wrote an eye-opening article on the BBC Sport blog this morning. In it, he describes how the ratings for BBC's Match of The Day (their highlights show, which features Gary Lineker, Alan Hansen and others) has risen this season and that the ratings for MOTD were much higher [. Click to continue reading...

Nineteen years ago on this very date, 25,000 Liverpool fans traveled to Sheffield for the FA Cup semi-final against Nottingham Forest. In one of the darkest days in football, 96 Liverpool fans died at Hillsborough. Please feel free to pay tribute to those lost souls in a minute's silence at 3:06pm GMT/10:06am ET. Click to continue reading...

Many of you won't be aware but I've been feeling a little poorly of late, hence the lack of new articles going on recently. First of all, may I pass on my apologies for the temporary drop in service levels on our part, however I'm able to reassure you that my recent period of convalescence hasn't been a completely useless exercise.

While confined to my sick bed, I was at least able to view the goings-on in world football through my laptop-shaped porthole so that I can now report back to you as I begin the long road to recovery. Click to continue reading...

ON a schoolday Jack could sleep till midday. On a Sunday his sixth sense catapults him from his bunk bed at 7.39am. Why? Because of his beloved Match of the Day. It's one of the highlights of his week. Click to continue reading...

Bewildered and dumbstruck - that's how I felt when watching 'Match of the Day' on Saturday night. There I was, getting my regular fix of all the action from that day's Premier League matches when Gary Lineker announced it was time for the August 'Goal of the Month' competition.

Now at this point I should inform those of you visiting our site from overseas that the BBC's 'Match of the Day' is an institution in its own right. Click to continue reading...

Another weekend passes us by, but this one was different. A new Premier League season got underway, but what did we learn from all the hoo-hah and the nitty-gritty? Here's our thoughts on the matter...

1) Here in the UK, TV viewers tuned to Sky Sports for live coverage of the first game of the season, Sunderland v Tottenham, but something had changed. Click to continue reading...

The website redesign for EPL Talk is coming along nicely and may be live as early as this weekend or, at the latest, early next week. As soon as it's unveiled, I'll let you know here. I've mentioned it before, but the EPL Talk Blog that you're reading now will be moved to a different location, so thanks in advance for your patience and changing your bookmarks. Click to continue reading...