Football Media

Update: Then again, maybe not. MyFC have called a ‘Special General Meeting’ to discuss changes to the Society Rules which if accepted, would allow MyFC to collect membership fees monthly as opposed to annually. An economic crunch makes it less likely for people to financially invest in a club they never supported in the first place…

I’ve been hard on MyFootballClub’s case, partially because I don’t believe critical decisions should be entrusted to a vote but mostly because when they first took over Ebbsfleet United, MyFC did not deliver on their promises.

In time though, they HAVE come through in several ways and have found a way to involve paying members, empower them and regularly put key decisions to the owners for debate (and voting).

(more…)

Posted by: Ahmed Bilal Posted under: Football Business Comments: 0

Soccerlens editor Steve Amoia recently had the opportunity to interview respected investigative journalist and film maker, Mr. Andrew Jennings, whose recent book, “Foul! The Secret World of FIFA: Bribes, Vote Rigging and Ticket Scandals” painted FIFA in a hue that many at the world governing body would have rather not seen. Mr. Jennings is one of the few journalists who have written extensively about the inner workings at FIFA.

What follows is Part 1 of the hour-long interview, where Andrew and Steve talk about football journalism and Andrew has some hard-advice for aspiring journalists and bloggers. Parts 2 to 4, which deal with the inner workings at FIFA, are present on Soccerlens (along with the full audio of the interview).

Steve Amoia: Mr. Jennings, welcome to Soccerlens. I am very pleased to have the opportunity to speak with you today.

Andrew Jennings: Pleasure to be with you! Let’s go.

(more…)

Posted by: Guest Authors Posted under: Football Journalism Comments: 1

The 2008 Soccerlens.com Writing Contest is now open. Here are the details.

Posted by: Ahmed Bilal Posted under: Football Blogging Comments: 0

Want to make money writing about football?

You mean they’re going to pay me for ranting and raving like a moron? Sign me up!

Blogging and the self-employment opportunities it offers (fewer than most people realise, but still) is an attractive proposition. Add the emotional escapism that football offers (if in doubt, think of the double life that Football Manager owners lead as real people) and you might have *some* idea of the ‘rush’ football fans get when they think about running their own football blog.

(more…)

Posted by: Ahmed Bilal Posted under: Football Blogging, Football Business Comments: 3

The Football Media forum (http://forum.footballmedia.com) is a place for football bloggers to:

• Network with other football bloggers
• Get info on how to get more traffic to their site from search engines, social media and other sites
• Learn how to make more money from their blog
• Hire writers / get a blogging gig
• Get links to your content

and plenty more.

Visit the FM Forum, sign up and join in the discussion. Hope to see you there soon.

Posted by: Ahmed Bilal Posted under: Site News Comments: 0

ITV, along with BBC, Sky and Setanta, is one of four major options for UK residents for sports programming. Currently ITV Sport hold the rights to Champions League football (shared with Sky Sports), FA Cup action (shared with Setanta Sports), rights to the next two World Cups (jointly with BBC Sport), plus exclusive rights to UEFA Cup football (quarters onwards) and rights to Football League and Carling Cup action as well (these will switch to BBC in 2009).

All in all, there’s a lot going on at ITV especially where football is concerned. In July 2008 ITV relaunched their website and their online content / promotion efforts. I think you’ll find (and Marc confirms it in the interview) that ITV is much more video-centric than it’s rivals, and as a branding strategy it’s hard to argue against it.

(If you’re interested in more sports, see itv.com/sport which shows off what other sports they have, including F1, other motorsport, cycling etc.)

Earlier this week I caught up with ITV.com head of content, Marc Webber, to talk about what football fans can expect from ITV in the coming months. Mr Webber is responsible for all web content, whether it’s social drama or football, and I was interested in finding out how ITV saw itself in relation to the industry as a whole and football fans in particular.

(more…)

Posted by: Ahmed Bilal Posted under: Football Business Comments: 0

As anyone with moderate traffic to their website knows, spammers and pissed off commenters are the scourge of the Internet. The anonymity the Internet provides – especially the lack of personal, eye to eye contact – allows people to say and do things they wouldn’t think of doing and saying in person.

Combine this with the emotions football evokes in people and it’s safe to say that football fans have a great potential to be assholes.

I’m not here to bash fans – we are who we are and I know first hand how strong those waves of anger and joy can be. The rush you get from baiting opposition fans, the thrill of beating down on them when your team wins, it’s war without bullets and it feels so good when you’re winning that one forgets all civil norms.

But is there a way to build an online community that doesn’t engage in such behavior without compromising on the passion that makes football go around?

(more…)

Posted by: Ahmed Bilal Posted under: Football Business Comments: 0

On the surface, a “super fan” is just like any other serious fan – wears the team colours, knows the history and follows the team with a passion bordering on religious devotion.

Underneath the surface though, the super fan is a channel through whom other fans can experience and bring to life their own love for the team.

(more…)

Posted by: Ahmed Bilal Posted under: Football Blogging Comments: 0

So…you want to be a football journalist? You want press access to all the matches and press conferences, one-on-one interviews with the football stars, dining with the biggest names in the game?

There’s good news, and there’s bad news.

The bad news is that your chances of ‘making it’ as an averagely-successful journo working for a top-of-the-line newspaper are less than 1 in 10,000. And your chances of being a really, really, REALLY successful journalist and ‘living the life’ (which usually involves writing a book, being called up by players for exclusive interviews and god knows what) are 1 in a 1,000,000. 1 in a million, and I’m being generous.

The good news is that most people quit at the first hurdle – the challenge of getting in. The real battle for the top starts once you’re in the business – as long as you’re on the outside, you’re nothing (or very little). And since most people quit before they’re in, your chances of success can be a lot higher (still very poor odds but better than 1 in a million, at least) as long as you can figure a path into the world of football journalism.

So how do you do it? I asked the same question to a few journalists – some successful, some getting there, but all of them with different backgrounds, experiences and tips to share. From our conversations, here is a collection of tips that you can follow to dramatically increase your chances of getting in – of becoming a football journalist.

(more…)

Posted by: Ahmed Bilal Posted under: Football Journalism Comments: 5

Football bloggers are (usually) intimately familiar with Google – their first blog was probably on Blogger, their first ad network was probably AdSense and their first concern in getting traffic was to get links to their site so that they can get traffic from Google’s search engine. You probably use Analytics, iGoogle and Google Reader as well, while some of the more entrepreneurial bloggers have used Adwords at one time or the other.

So how else can Google help you? By sending you more traffic (and quality traffic at that) from Google News.

I’ve done a whole writeup on how you can get your blog / website listed in Google News – have a read and hopefully it will help you get more readers.

Posted by: Ahmed Bilal Posted under: Football Blogging, Promotion Comments: 1