Football Equipment

Football equipment has been available in the UK since in the early eighties. As teams and leagues started to form, entrepenuerial individuals saw an opportunity to meet the demand. The first “shop” to emerge was an outlet called “Diamond Sports of Hampstead”. If you saw the glossy advert, you would expect to find an expansive showroom with copious amounts of equipment to choose from,

The XFL is back… Should the NFL be worried? In 2001 “sports entertainment” impresario, Vince McMahon launched the XFL (“Extreme Football League”). As you might expect from the man behind the WWE wrestling brand it was designed to be a full on, razzle-dazzle, over the top affair. There were eight teams involved in the “Extreme Football League”, it had a spring/summer schedule with

Throughout the months of February and March it’s time for Britball’s Sapphire Series to sparkle on the gridirons across the country. Women’s Football supremo Jim Messenger has crafted a three tier structure as he continues to drive the women’s contact football game forward. This year there are eighteen teams competing in total, let’s see how it breaks down. All the teams

For quarterback Jo Kilby 2017 was a bit of a year! It started in February with a trip to Helsinki where the Birmingham Lions beat the Wolverines. Then in May she led the Birmingham Lions to their fourth National title in the Sapphire Series, and in late June she captained the GB Lions to a creditable fourth place finish at the Women’s World Championships in Canada. If you think she might

In October this year the GB Lions men’s team travelled to Sweden to play a “friendly” game (that terminology doesn’t seem right for American Football does it!, so let’s call it a game that wasn’t part of a competition). They took a large squad, and performed pretty well, considering the inherent issues that National representative sides have, i.e., the players are not used to playing

The city of Sheffield has a long football heritage, which dates back to the mid eighties when the city’s team were known as the Steel City Giants. Although they were never one of the league’s elite level teams, they were, as you might expect coming from South Yorkshire, hard nosed and determined. Wind the clock forward to more recent times, and you would find the Sheffield

Flag football is currently enjoying a great surge in popularity. The combination of fast-paced action without the level of contact that tackle football provides, is proving to be an attractive proposition, particularly with female players. At the head of the Women’s flag game in Britain, is veteran Britballer Andrew Gambrill. I caught up with him recently to get an update. I

With a chill in the air and the nights drawing in, baked bean sales rocketing and midweek binge drinking on the rise, it can only mean one thing, the students are back on the British campus’ and it’s time for some Uniball. Whilst some of the British student population will be fitting studies in between their revelry, there are a select band

Women’s Football in the UK has made great strides in the last eighteen months. Increasing numbers of teams in the competitive leagues in both the contact and flag formats, and an excellent showing in the Women’s World Championships in Canada are testament to the progress being made. I took the opportunity to catch up with one of the leading lights in US women’s football to get a view on

In 2017 the pinnacle of Britball competition had thrown up something different, a non-all London final. At the impressive Sixways Stadium in Worcester, all was set for a battle between the best of the North and the best of the South, Tamworth Phoenix versus London Blitz. Although the Phoenix had not lost a regular season game for two years, and had despatched the reigning champion

It’s almost that time…time for the College Football season to start in the US. For the next four months or so you need to clear your diary for Saturday afternoons and evenings, because you have the opportunity to see some wall to wall spectacular Football. The top programmes attract bigger crowds than some NFL teams, with their dedicated fan bases bringing a level of excitement

Football is truly going global, and not just by way of its viewing fanbase. The number of countries where people want to play, is also growing all the time. Currently we are seeing great strides being made in the development of the game in Saudi Arabia. At the vanguard of the movement is twenty four year old Youseff Ahmed, and his team, the Dammam Eagles. I spoke with the football pioneer