Editor's note: This is the final part of furtho's brilliant three part series on Omiya Ardija, a Japanese team living in the shadow of their near neighbours, the Urawa Reds. Read the first part here, which looked at Omiya's remarkable promotion to the top Japanese division, a joy tempered as their inadequate stadium was demolished [. Click to continue reading...

We've been looking at English non-league football all week, and in something of a call-to-arms, Dave Boyle suggests that more supporters of non-league clubs need to take charge of their own destinies. The last five years as an AFC Wimbledon fan have immersed me in non-League football. Up to then, I thought of non-League in much [. Click to continue reading...

Do footballers have the same rights in the stadium that they have in the street? Sol Campbell argues so, as he told the BBC's Today programme today: If this happened on the street, you would be arrested. This is the 21st century and this is a human rights situation where sportsmen and managers are trying [. Click to continue reading...

A few weeks we featured footballshirtculture.com in this space, and given the interest that generated, I thought I'd mention that True Colours has relaunched with a much improved site. It's the website of the books of the same name by John Devlin, a graphic designer who has produced two marvellous full colour illustrated studies of British [. Click to continue reading...

Editor's note: This is the second part in a three part series by furtho looking at Omiya Ardija, a Japanese team living in the shadow of their near neighbours, the Urawa Reds. Read the first part here, which looked at Omiya's remarkable promotion to the top Japanese division, a joy tempered as their inadequate stadium [. Click to continue reading...

As we look forward to Euro 2008, we shouldn't be fooled that domestic Swiss football runs like clockwork. Joe Westhead explores the game there from the passion of the Zurich derby to tragedy in the "Disgrace of Basel". Derby Day It's never just a game. It's never just three points. Grasshoppers Club Zürich are not having [. Click to continue reading...

Editor's note: Urawa Reds spent the past week basking in the global spotlight at the World Club Cup, but there's more to Japanese football than them as Furtho explains in part one of a three part series looking at "Squirrel Nation". The Derby There's half an hour to go before kick-off. Away behind one goal, a huddled [. Click to continue reading...

Editor's note: In his first entry for Pitch Invasion, Joe looks at the growth of football in Liechtenstein, and suggests the talk about pre-qualifying would only stunt a fascinating story captured by filmmakers Sebastian Frommelt and Sigvard Wohlwend. "The celebrations went on in the restaurants and in the pubs in Vaduz until long after midnight," he [. Click to continue reading...

Abusing the referee seems to be a universal tenet of global football culture. In Italy, the daily newspapers grade them mercilessly and not even Pierluigi Collina can help his beleaguered brethren. The word "wanker" doesn't translate directly into Italian. Rather, Italians are likely to chant "buffone" at the ref when he makes a bad [. Click to continue reading...

With the 2008 Olympic soccer tournament approaching, China is eagerly preparing to completely miss the point: "Zhongguo, Zhongguo ha, ha, ha. Zhongguo, Zhongguo bi sheng," the crowd shouts, simultaneously beating yellow, stick-shaped batons to the rhythm. "Jia you, jia you." Rough translation: "China, China ha, ha, ha. Click to continue reading...

Once upon a time, the last thing any country hosting the a major championship wanted was for England to qualify. At Italia 1990, England were stationed on the island of Sardinia, with suspicions raised that FIFA had fixed the seedings to ensure the "English disease" of hooliganism was quarantined from the Italian mainland. Click to continue reading...

It's been a tough 24 hours as an English football fan. And our American readers will be delighted to learn, via Steven Goff, that "Steve McClaren is scheduled to run a clinic during the National Soccer Coaches Association of America convention in Baltimore Jan. 16-20." Good Lord. So to cheer all of us up [. Click to continue reading...

As you might have noticed, England haven't made it to the big dance. Despite the added pain, I'd almost rather that they'd fail to qualify for a World Cup rather than a European Championship: firstly, because the former is always fascinating even without a home team to support. Secondly, there are interesting non-European teams one [. Click to continue reading...

MLS isn't the only country crazy (or rather, cold) enough to conclude its championship in November. Last week, ФК Зенит Санкт-Петербург or FC Zenit St Petersburg for the cyrillically challenged won the Russian Premier League for the first time (they were victorious once in the Soviet championship, too, in 1984). Having the [. Click to continue reading...

Who doesn't love 1970s football kits? The simple designs are a thousand times more pleasing to the eye than most modern day shirts. The site footballshirtculture.com has a very impressive page with photos and renderings of each kit from the 1978 World Cup down to the smallest details. Beautifully done. The most surprising is what is [...] SHARETHIS. Click to continue reading...

Despite being the birthplace of organised football, ultras culture, so popular elsewhere at various times, has barely registered as a style of support at British clubs. But some are trying to grow the culture in Britain, such as Aldershot Town's Red Blue Army. Aldershot Town F.C. were formed in 1992 after the collapse of Aldershot F.C. [...] SHARETHIS. Click to continue reading...

Red Bull has not given wings (forgive me) to the football teams it has taken over in recent years in New York and Wals-Siezenheim, Austria. Let's look at the impact they've had in both places. New York's MetroStars were a troubled organisation, but their rebranding as Red Bull New York has hardly had fans beating down [...] SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "Red Bull: Fizzing Out in New York and Austria", url: "http://pitchinvasion. Click to continue reading...

We are both late and early on this (since we posted an ode to GOLTV commentator Ray Hudson some months ago, when he aptly captured the enigma that is Riquelme as a "big, beautiful zombie"), but the blog Hudsonia is burning up the soccersphere with a collection of his inimical style in text and audio [...] Click to continue reading...

I would not like to take a penalty in front of Urawa Reds' supporters at their Saitama stadium, myself. Watch this shootout from an Asian Champions League semi-final against South Korea's Seongnam Ilhwa last week, and marvel at the spectacle of the giant flags. It's really no surprise they won, is it? [kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/UVjKYntK5LY" width="425" height="350" [. Click to continue reading...

I've read in too many places that one billion people watched yesterday's 2-2 draw between Arsenal and Manchester United. Whilst that's probably nonsense (nobody ever cites where that figure comes from), it's fitting that in London's Observer today, James Robinson offers us a long overview of the shift in sport brought about by the power [...] Click to continue reading...

Fandom drives people to do a variety of outwardly strange things, from scarf collecting to lucky-shirt rituals. Via the Uni Watch Blog comes a great example: billsportsmaps.com, the site of a fan who crafts his own maps of various sports leagues around the world. Some are computer-generated, some hand-drawn, and all gorgeous [...] Click to continue reading...

I was at a bar full of Fire fans last night, watching my Chicago Fire beat DC United 3-2 on aggregate in the first round of the MLS Cup Playoffs. It was a thrilling and agonising game for both sets of fans, the Fire almost blowing a 3-0 aggregate lead, with DC's late equaliser ruled [...] Click to continue reading...

Don't worry, I'm not going to turn into Franklin Foer. But economist Dani Rodrik raises an interesting question with regard to the global consequences arising from the massive influx of African players into Europe in recent years. Consider that soccer fans have loyalties not only towards individual clubs but also to their national teams. So one [... Click to continue reading...

In recent weeks, we've featured several remarkable photos of Indonesian football supporters: as ursus actos noted in the comments, the passion displayed is both remarkable and surprising. Also in the comments were links from Yusuf, a filmmaker who features Indonesian football culture. The following clips from youtube offer inticing teasers of his work. Click to continue reading...

Since Setanta Sports wanted to extort $20 out of me to watch England blunder along for another game under Steve bloody McClaren, I decided instead to watch it via Sopcast, which for those that don't know is something of the Napster (circa 1999) of internet television. That is, it provides content for free when it [...] Click to continue reading...

Our blogging compadre 200percent recently ran down six of his favourite kits of all time. I have to say, though, I rarely remember kits/jerseys I like; but I don't forget the ones I hate, particularly when my team is wearing them. My team Brighton and Hove Albion's 1990/91 away kit was, I would argue, one of [...] Click to continue reading...

The Scotsman in the blue tartan kilt was swaying a bit as he put the condiments on his hot dog. "Ah've been drrrinking since nine o'clock this mornin'," he cheerfully confided as we stood at the Parc des Princes concession stand, "but ah feel prretty good." He did seem to be feeling "prretty good," as [...] Click to continue reading...

Twenty-one years ago in Mexico, Canada played in their first and only World Cup: three games no goals. Fast forward twenty-one years and even though there has been little success on the pitch, off the pitch things looked like they were turning around. This summer the country played host to the U-20 World Cup, club [...] Click to continue reading...

I have said it before, but in light of great articles from Soccernet's Uli Hesse-Lichtenberger, it bears repeating: the Bundesliga, not the Premiership or La Liga, should be MLS' role model. Uli's latest article on fan power in Germany has some great examples of why: Depending on the club, the cheapest Bundesliga ticket for an [...] Click to continue reading...

Imagine you live in a small Scottish city, and you're fanatical about your team. But maybe, as we Brits are prone to do on matchday, you've had a wee bit too much to drink before heading to the game. Perhaps you're feeling a bit nauseous, a little dizzy, your vision's gone a bit blurry. [...] Click to continue reading...

Editor's note: Michael Coroneos files dispatches for pitchinvasion.net from behind the lines of the Red Patch Boys, one of Toronto FC's supporter's groups. Here he brings us more news on the scalping frenzy as the LA Galaxy Travelling Beckham Circus shows up north of the border. The Beckham craze has finally hit Toronto. [...] Click to continue reading...

No, not a real battle, with fists and that. Instead, a battle to show what American supporter groups are all about, with the winner to be crowned Pitch Invasion American Supporters' Group of the Year. Or some other much cleverer title I'll think up later. For as Max mentioned here yesterday, some English writers still think [...] Click to continue reading...

Actually, I've never been to an ice hockey game, so I'm not making the comparison myself. But in a feature for Canada's CBC, a soccer-neophyte reporter is blown away on a visit to BMO Field to watch Toronto FC in the supporters' section. Whilst fans of rival MLS teams who have [...] Click to continue reading...

I spent most of Saturday in Stanford for the Chelsea-Club America friendly (click for highlights). I'd planned to write a story about how many Americans, with their disposable incomes and satellite connections to their clubs, have defied the "prawn sandwich brigade" label to become rabid and vocal supporters of teams abroad, even despite their [... Click to continue reading...

Myfootballclub.co.uk - a scheme to get 50,000 fans together to buy a football club and run it collectively - has attracted a lot of attention, and they already have 45,000 people pledged to support the venture. An interview on Wired with the founder of the site, Fulham fan William Brooks, gets into the topic quite interestingly, [...] Click to continue reading...