Columnists

. Luis Suarez’s mouth-on-arm action when Liverpool faced Chelsea in the Premier League yesterday ensured a sea of headlines and that Suarez became the focal point of a debate about behaviour in football. Again. It goes without saying that his was an extraordinary act, one already punished by his club and certain to lead to […]

By Nick Harris 17 April 2013 Cardiff City’s guaranteed promotion to the Premier League means that half of the 92 clubs in English football’s four main divisions next season will have tasted Premier League football at some point since 1992. That means being in the Premier League is on the brink of being a ‘majority […]

* Until quite recently, the Belgium international football team, and particularly its national governing body, had fallen out of favour with fans across the nation. The Belgian FA were perceived as a hindrance and a negative influence on the game; the team were not embraced. Ian Herbert explains how things have changed, rapidly. This is […]

* Sunderland’s replacement of the sacked Martin O’Neill with Paolo Di Canio dominated a nation’s sporting agenda for the whole of last week. But, Ian Herbert argues, the real scandal of the Italian’s appointment has nothing to do with far right politics or his past affection for war-time dictators. . By Ian Herbert 8 April […]

* The Premier League has never been richer – and yet most of its clubs have never been more fretful. When the new three-year cycle of TV deals for 2013-16 begins this summer, some £5.5bn of TV cash alone will pour into England’s top division. That makes it more important than ever for clubs to […]

By Nick Harris SJA Internet Sports Writer of the Year                                             25 March 2013 The story of Robert Beal, also known as “The man who hoaxed The Times,” might be amusing if it did not […]

* IT would be nice to think that definitive answers exist to every question, that truth is absolute and there is only one way to see things – because then we could always be clear and what is right, wrong, true, false. But life isn’t like that, not any walk of life from medicine to […]

  * ALEXANDRA WILLIS is a multimedia tennis journalist who flits between Wimbledon, SportingIntelligence, the TennisSpace and a few other outlets, while tweeting copiously and trying to improve her (terrible) backhand in her spare time.    “If I were to go to a tennis tournament, it would be Indian Wells. No question.” That statement was not uttered by an […]

* Social networking has myriad upsides, few would disagree. And no journalist working on a national platform can expect that their work will pass without criticism. It’s never been quicker or easier for readers can make summary judgement, for good and ill – and many routinely hurl abuse. Getting that kind of feedback is par […]

By Nick Harris SJA Internet Sports Writer of the Year 26 February 2013 It was 125 years ago on Saturday, or 2 March 1888, that William McGregor, then the president of Aston Villa, wrote a letter to a small group of other football clubs, floating the idea that they should organise a league. In doing […]