Gary Andrews

There’s already been hundreds of articles on how social TV will change your world in 2012. I’ve no wish to write another one (other than to say come this time next year I’m sure we’ll be thinking of television somewhat differently). However, my interest was piqued by rumours of Google and Apple to bid for the broadcasting rights for the Premier League.

Having these companies potentially compete against Sky is a fascinating future, so, in a rare piece that might appeal to both football and technology fans, I’ve considered what could be quite a fragmented future for football broadcasting over at Pitch Invasion.

written by Gary \\ tags: Apple TV, Facebook, Google TV, Pitch Invasion, Premier League, Sky

Exciting times. I’m now a published writer (of sorts).

A couple of years ago, due to some time off between switching jobs, I spent a week researching and writing a series of posts on fan ownership, activism and the successes and limitations for Pitch Invasion. I’m normally pretty critical of my work, and, as ever, there’s things I’d change, but it’s also some of the work I’m most proud of, given the amount of work I put into it. Oddly, I still get the occasional media enquiry to talk about fan ownership off the back of it.

A while back, Tom Dunmore, the editor of Pitch Invasion, contacted me to say he was putting together an ebook of the best of Pitch Invasion’s writing and would I be ok with including my work in it.

Naturally, I jumped at the chance.

That was some time ago, and I’d put it somewhat to the back of my mind until recently when the book became close to being finalised. Along the way it grew another head and Tom decided to produce a print version. I can’t wait to hold this in my hands.

So, yes, The Best Of Pitch Invasion is now out and available for Kindle, as an ebook or as a physical copy.

I’d urge you all to buy a copy – not really so much for my writing, but because there are a LOT of essays from some truly excellent writers. Pitch Invasion has always been a markedly different blog to many other soccer sites and there’s always a lot of thought, depth, knowledge and research in the pieces.

If you’re a regular reader of When Saturday Comes, World Soccer or even The Blizzard, it may well appeal (not that I think my writing can hold a candle to these publications).

So, yes, please buy a copy. You’ll be doing some in the knowledge that you’re supporting a genuinely independent publication, and will own a book that should at least make you think and look at football in a slightly different light.

written by Gary \\ tags: football writing, Pitch Invasion, Pitch Invasion book, The Very Best Of Pitch Invasion

Hi, it’s me. Yes, you may remember me. I used to write things on here. Not, perhaps, overly insightful things, but things – generally known as words – nonetheless. And then it went a bit quiet.

So, er, yes. Sorry about that. Things got a bit busy, then I decided to take a short break, then I changed jobs. And, in between that, I spent the best part of a week writing a lot of articles for Pitch Invasion on fan ownership and Supporters’ Trusts in football.

All the articles are collected here – and if you’re interested in this aspect, please do stop by there, have a read and leave a comment. It’s less about on-the-pitch, than off-the-pitch business and cultural aspects, although the game itself obviously informs things. I did several interviews for this and the answers were completely fascinating.

The articles, individually are:

An overview of the current state of Supporters’ Trusts

The successes, so far, in the Trust / fan ownership movement.

And the failures.

A break from me writing as Terry Duffelen explores the Bundesliga fan-ownership model.

An interview with Brian Burgess, ex vice-chairman of Brentford, long-standing member of Bees United and Supporters’ Direct board member.

How the concept of fan ownership is currently taking hold in England.

Where fan ownership goes in the future.

And that’s that. I think that’s more words than I wrote for my dissertation. Maybe I should do another degree on this topic.

Anyway, I’m now back, I’m slowly setting into the hugely enjoyable new job, my Macbook – which died last Sunday – has come back to life and I have a host of posts in my head.

So expect the next post on here sometime in May.

written by Gary \\ tags: fan ownership, Pitch Invasion, supporters' trusts

Over at Pitch Invasion, I discuss Gareth Thomas’s coming out and ask if we can expect something similar in football. The answer, I suspect, is probably not.

Out of all the things I’ve written on sport, this has definitely been one of the most thought-provoking pieces for me. One thought that occurred to me post-article was the treatment of players post-outing.

I’d imagine that there’s a few sportsman where their sexuality is reasonably well-known, but it’s not in the media’s interest to out them, giving they stopped doing that for the sake of it several years back.

But once they’re out, there’s nothing stopping the media going to town, if they want to. And that, in itself, may be worse.

Throw in, for football at least (which tends to be a lot less tolerant than rugby) the dressing room politics and the terrace chants and its easy to understand why Justin Fashanu remains the only footballer to have come out.

I never thought I’d find myself agreeing with Max Clifford, but he’s probably not alone in being surprised that we haven’t had another footballer come out in the last decade.

There’s a lot of other considerations in this that people with far better knowledge of the topic than I could discuss, but it’s interesting none the less.

And, at the end of the day, to me Gareth Thomas is a legend for his leadership and play during that Six Nations championship. He’s always been one of my favourite Welsh players (the fact he now plays for the Blues reinforces his). That is he gay is utterly irrelevant. I somehow doubt there’ll be any equivalent in football any time soon.

written by Gary \\ tags: Gareth Thomas, homophobia in sport, Pitch Invasion