TFN Looks Back at 2012: Part 2

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Here’s the second part of our 2012 Q and A. Happy New Year!

1. Favourite moment
2. Favourite player
3. Favourite Euro 2012 moment
4. Favourite goal
5. Favourite match
6. Young player
7. Breakthrough team
8. Joey Barton moment
9. Favourite album
10. Favourite gig

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Obscure Footballer of the Week #2: Dejan Damjanović

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In our second blog unearthing an obscure footballer, Matt Malone introduces FC Seoul’s Dejan Damjanović…

Dejan Damjanović is a name unfamiliar to most on European shores, but the 31-year-old Montenegrin striker recently became the highest scoring foreign player in Korean league history and continues to see his ever burgeoning popularity grow amongst the fans of FC Seoul. Continue reading

Diving Debate No Black and White Issue

False Nine writer, Matt Malone, tackles the issue of diving, which took up many column inches and press conferences this weekend, and asks for more understanding of a trait of modern football that’s increasingly difficult to officiate…

Whilst the issue of diving has always been a serious bug bear of managers across the country, in recent weeks it seems to have gone into overdrive and now, particularly after the incidents of the most recent round of Premier League fixtures, finds itself almost perennially on the back pages of most newspapers. Now so notably in the front of the minds of most people connected with football, it must be addressed and the FA must clarify its guidelines regarding what is described in Law 12 of the Laws of Association Football as an ‘attempt to deceive the referee by feigning injury or pretending to have been fouled (simulation)’. Continue reading

The FA Must Get its Own House in Order

False Nine writer Matt Malone was at Hillsborough on Friday and gives his thoughts on the night’s worrying scenes…

In a week in which the FA has made some big accusations and called for serious action to be taken after the ugly scenes in Serbia, events at Hillsborough last night are a great example of the old adage that perhaps people in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones. Continue reading

Premier League can be the platform for Belgian success

False Nine writer Matt Malone takes a look at the recent influx of Belgians in English football and asks what they might be capable of…

For many years, asking a person to name three famous Belgians proved to be a sure fire way to bring about a prolonged silence followed by the sheepish response that perhaps, despite being fictional, Hercule Poirot and Tintin must count as the two great detectives summed up a country that was far more famous for its beer and waffles then it ever could be for the great people that represented it on a world stage. Continue reading