My football adventures all over the world
I am celebrating 40 years of closely following Calcio this season, where back in the day, come round 6 of the 1983/84 season I had found a regular source of getting my hands on Guerin Sportivo magazine (the Italian bible on football). It used to be a weekly magazine back then, now monthly, and despite … Continue reading Catanzaro on High, literally!
Just sixty nine days after watching my boys Inverness Caledonian Thistle put on a brave show in the 2023 Scottish Cup Final, the next edition of the competition was off and running. As the number of licensed clubs grows, those who have won certain leagues and cups, even if non-licensed, can enter. The need for … Continue reading North Caledonian Away
Think of football in the Catalan capital Barcelona, and the self named giant of the game will instantly spring to mind, even if the roundball game isn’t your interest. Everyone knows FC Barcelona, its reach is global, its commercialisation of the brand is colossal. Being an alternative option to such a club isn’t easy, and … Continue reading Viva Europa
Just three days after the last ball of 2022/23 was kicked in anger (almost literally, over the bar by Kvaradona) at soggy Hampden amid a tropical storm and a rain delayed fiasco, I found myself heading across the River Forth en route to an opening joust of the new season! Okay it was just a … Continue reading Summer Par-ty
Let me start by saying, Spanish football isn’t my world. Somehow if you are a Calcio fan and love Italy, Spain sits as the direct rival, and indeed you will often hear mutterings of discontent in an International or European game if the ref happens to be from Espana. That isn’t to say that in … Continue reading Lifting Levante
I have been lucky in life, and getting to watch any football abroad is considered a privilege. As the Copa Libertadores starts up now for the 2023 diet, I thought I would research some recollections of the 26 games I have had the opportunity to watch, thus far in a 2002 to 2015 period in … Continue reading Copa Libertadores Recollections
Anyone familiar with the Isle of Man flag will know it has a three legged symbol in the centre, and while not exactly identical, the angles are all different, Lake Como has three legs too, the Larian triangle as it is known . It was on the shores of this magnificent lake that I first … Continue reading Lecco Land
A little vignette of this piece will form part of FW editors tales from the magazine's trip to Milan, but I have buffed it up as my recollection of a day that will live long on my memory. The Football Weekends magazine 10 (the number in our party) left Milan Centrale on a misty, drizzly … Continue reading Ospiti views from Fiorenzuola
It was fully my intention to give a total boycott to Qatar 2022. It was relatively easy whilst in Istanbul with my girl, but occasionally we’d be in a restaurant or a coffee shop where someone was watching. A one man crusade seemed futile, and I became conflicted that this hideous event was increasingly going … Continue reading The World in Motion
What would you cite as your most random game ever watched? Perhaps such an occasion arrived on your CV almost by accident. Well that’s what happened to me while in Istanbul during the World Cup. I did get a morsel more notice than the day I was dropped off outside my hotel in Riga with … Continue reading Turkish Delight
Football Adventures with James Rendall 
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