Because he’s a proper journalist, @shteyngart.bsky.social twice spent a week watching Russian state TV to get a sense of how media constructs our reality. I did the same, on a budget and various other professional commitments, with Real Madrid TV. It was weird. observer.co.uk/news/sport/a...

I know everyone hates the international break, and that qualifiers seem like a procession of pointless games with an obvious conclusion. But that is only the view from the world's major nations. And football isn't just for the major nations. (Even if it feels like it) observer.co.uk/news/sport/a...

A test for whether Bluesky is a healthier environment than Twitter: I broke my own self-imposed rule and wrote about football in Glasgow. I think the toxicity of the Old Firm/Glasgow derby is holding BOTH clubs back. I say this with love. observer.co.uk/news/sport/a...

The Champions League league phase is underway and Matchday 1 concludes tonight. But does is the new format conducive to more exciting games? @jonawils.bsky.social explains:

New Libero Welcome back to the Champions League! Can anyone challenge PSG this year? @jonawils.bsky.social @jameshorncastle.bsky.social @jackpittbrooke.bsky.social pod.fo/e/32b5f5

The Correspondent Newsletter has FLOWN 📫 This week, @rorysmith.bsky.social touches on: 🤔 The PL's 20 most interesting players 💙 A Grealish for the Labubu generation 🌳 The English top-flight's wildest owner 🤍 Why Spurs fans might miss Daniel Levy READ IT HERE: mibcourage.co/4gkf9b3

This week's @meninblazers.bsky.social newsletter tries to explore how transfer culture got bigger than actual football, and what that means for how we interact with players, how we watch the game, and who we are as fans. the-correspondent-rory-smith-newsletter.beehiiv.com/p/transfer-w...

I’d been fascinated by a mystery all summer. It was an itch I had to scratch. A question burning in my brain. Was…was Indy Kaila now a legitimate news source? An investigation into the man/men/myth legend who has dominated this transfer (gossip) window. observer.co.uk/news/sport/a...

As of today, I am back in the newslettering game, thanks to the lovely people at Men In Blazers. If you -- yes, you -- want to read the first one, and get a free map, then you should enter your email and no other personal details here. the-correspondent-rory-smith-newsletter.beehiiv.com/subscribe

We’ve now done two @liberopodcast.bsky.social episodes on whether football has grown too big for its own good. The first is mainly about why it is that one sport grew so much, so fast, in the 1990s. pod.fo/e/2f5917

PSG have won the Champions League, at long last, and all it took was eight managers, 14 years, £2bn in transfer fees, more in wages, one hyperinflationary spiral and the complete restricting of European football. Easy to love the team. Less so the project. observer.co.uk/news/sport/a...

Absolutely delighted to be writing, as well as talking, for @meninblazers.bsky.social. Newsletter will go out every Thursday, and you can read the first one — about Lautaro Martinez, and how we judge players — and sign up here: mibcourage.co/4kDA7CG

Talking Saturday's Champions League final with two of the biggest Premfaces out there, @jameshorncastle.bsky.social and @rorysmith.bsky.social. On today's @liberopodcast.bsky.social podfollow.com/libero/episo...

Dispatches from Libero's Bilbao Bureau bring word of an all-English final that was not the greatest advert for the 'Best League in the World™', so instead @jameshorncastle.bsky.social, @brewin.bsky.social and @rorysmith.bsky.social discuss the Italian perspective on football in 2025

The only time most of us engage with motorbike racing is when someone dies. I’d always wondered how they managed to race on when they’d lost a friend and a colleague. But I didn’t understand how being so conscious of death changes the way you interact with it. observer.co.uk/news/sport/a...

Carlo and Caipirinhas. An Italian in Brazil. The cultural moment. And what he has left for Xabi in Madrid with @rorysmith.bsky.social and @brewin.bsky.social pod.fo/e/2d51b2

New Libero. What are the secrets of Bodo/Glimt and can their success be easily emulated? And a look at Liverpool’s title celebration at Anfield. What does it mean for the fans, Arne Slot and FSG? @rorysmith.bsky.social @brewin.bsky.social @jackpittbrooke.bsky.social pod.fo/e/2ce9a4

PSG v Manchester City: who has the better strategy? @rorysmith.bsky.social and @jackpittbrooke.bsky.social on the new episode of Libero.

New Libero. Talking Paris Saint-Germain and Crystal Palace. How do football clubs represent their local area in an era of homogeneity? @rorysmith.bsky.social @brewin.bsky.social and @jackpittbrooke.bsky.social discuss podfollow.com/1804708562

Libero 006 out now youtu.be/Re46voPYfco

Are clubs slowly trying to get rid of season ticket holders? Is the Baller League the future? Is it OK that Chelsea sold their women's team to themselves? Episode five of Libero, with @jonathanliew.bsky.social @migueldelaney.bsky.social and @jonawils.bsky.social) podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/l...

Two debutants on today's Libero: @jackpittbrooke.bsky.social and @jameshorncastle.bsky.social, who would like you to know he speaks Italian. @jonawils.bsky.social and @brewin.bsky.social, too, talking about Trent and treachery, trophies and transfers. podfollow.com/1804708562

Thanks to the technological expertise of @tariqpanja.bsky.social, hot new podcast Libero (@liberopodcast.bsky.social) is now on the last uncorrupted algorithm in the world podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/l...

Received wisdom has always said that India, the world's most populous country, will never really love football, the world's most popular sport. With massive help from Christian Letourneau, we explored how true that stereotype is. (TL;DR: it isn't, really) www.nytimes.com/athletic/621...

Had a lot of fun on hot new start-up podcast @liberopodcast.bsky.social, with hot new voices @jonawils.bsky.social and @brewin.bsky.social. We talked about England, jam, Brighton and which nation is the foreignest www.youtube.com/@liberopodca...

In 2015, they said podcasts were too niche. They’d never work. Ten years later, here’s Libero, a podcast straight from the dark heart of the football content industrial complex www.youtube.com/playlist?lis...

🇪🇺 EURO POD! 🇪🇺 Get some of @acjimbo.bsky.social, @julienlaurens.bsky.social, @sebsb.bsky.social, @polballus.bsky.social & @rorysmith.bsky.social in your ears... 🇪🇸 Oh, Atleti 🫣 🇮🇹 Inter take advantage 🇫🇷 Could PSG do the treble?! 🇩🇪 Laterkusen are back Plus, McTominay loves tomatoes 🍅 pod.fo/e/2ba5fe

Real Madrid are at war with Spain’s referees. The president of Marseille is crying corruption. Turkey had to bring in a foreign ref to do a game. Feels like we’ve reached a watershed in football’s conspiracist tendency, and it is now genuinely dangerous.

You’re almost certainly online enough to know what CBS Sports’ CL coverage is like. You probably have an opinion on Henry/Carragher/Richards. Maybe it’s a trailblazer, maybe it’s a travesty. But it is (probably) the future of sport on TV. www.nytimes.com/athletic/609...

All traditions are a novelty at first. Feel like the climax to the new CL group stage might be one of those that becomes A Thing, like transfer deadline day or FA Cup 3rd round weekend. 18 games, all at once, all contingent on each other. It's...fun. www.nytimes.com/athletic/609...

There are a few players (Rashford, Grealish, Vinicius etc) who might attract as much scrutiny as Trent Alexander-Arnold. But the way people talk about TAA has always struck me as unusually extreme. I thought about why that might be. www.nytimes.com/athletic/606...

Harrogate is famous for lots of things: tea, scones, baths, water, Eurovision, white Land Rover Evoques (h/t Ben Machell). But it’s never been famous for football. It’s always been the sort of place where everyone supports someone else, mainly Leeds. Not any more… www.nytimes.com/athletic/605...

European football has loads of problems. Competitive balance, nation state owners, financial inequality, tanking TV deals, cost of access. So in many ways, fair play to A22's latest Super League proposals for solving...none of them. www.nytimes.com/athletic/600...

Been thinking about this for a while and have come to the conclusion that the new Champions League - with its landfill football and its extendable table - is good, but not for the people it was meant to be good for. And that is ultimately quite funny. www.nytimes.com/athletic/598...

My first Champions League game of the season, outrageously. I’ve missed the smell of pyro. Also I’ve learned a cool new song about “mágico Sporting.” It’ll be the sound of the summer.

My book, ‘States of Play’, is out now. It is really a modern history of football, and how it has been transformed by three main forces: geopolitics, especially autocratic states; a very western capitalism; the game’s own greed and failures of authority geni.us/StatesOfPlay

Struck me this week that it’s odd two of the best PL players of their era — Salah and KDB — might both walk for free this summer. Suspect Liverpool and City would like to keep both, but they have to gamble: how much are you prepared to pay to watch the sun set? www.nytimes.com/athletic/595...

Given that Paisley died two years before Gerrard made his debut, this feels like he might have been writing him off too soon.

You may not know that I record Football Between The Lines with @flavbateman.bsky.social twice a week. Today, we were honoured to have The Athletic’s @rorysmith.bsky.social on for an interview on United, Liverpool, the shifting powers in the PL & much more. Enjoy. ❤️ podfollow.com/football-bet...

A start, and an end. Today’s my last day @nytimes.com. (Monday is my first @theathletic.bsky.social) So for my final newsletter, I wrote about what (vaguely) coaching my son’s u7 team has taught me about football, parenting, and unfortunately myself. www.nytimes.com/2024/11/15/w...

🚨BRAND NEW POD!🚨 Join @acjimbo.bsky.social, @rorysmith.bsky.social, @oilysailor.bsky.social & @cdeccleshare.bsky.social for the latest on an interesting week 👀 😐The Coote controversy 😍The return of Ranieri 😠Kane speaks out 📺Misunderstanding MOTD pod.fo/e/282292