Latest articles by Paul Brown
What happened to football on Christmas Day? The lost history of a Victorian tradition
Premier League Football was once as much of a Christmas Day staple as the Queen's speech and pigs in blankets; but was it all festive fun or just a freezing farce? Paul Brown dons his silly hat...
Fans back in stadiums: The post-war football fandom boom in the late 1940s suggests the game will recover from the COVID-19 pandemic
Football fans haven’t been locked out of grounds for this long since the Second World War – when attendances rocketed as supporters reclaimed their beloved game. If this post-pandemic return is anything like that one, records will tumble
The man who stole the FA Cup – how a kleptomaniac pensioner ended the 63-year mystery
Features The baffling theft of the original FA Cup went unsolved for over six decades. Then came a confession...
A bizarre history of loans: Where did it really all begin?
Transfer news Permanent deals might not be so hot in January, but short-term ones could be – especially after the Football League scrapped the ‘emergency loan’ window last summer. But how did it all start, and what brought the most controversy?
Why Liverpool fans sing 'You'll Never Walk Alone'
FFT Best Chants Paul Brown explains the history behind Anfield's anthem and why the Reds adoped it for their own...
Why West Ham fans sing 'I'm Forever Blowing Bubbles'
FFT Best Chants It's a Tin Pan Alley waltz from a Broadway revue, so why has "I'm Forever Blowing Bubbles" become so associated with West Ham? Paul Brown investigates...
The football team destroyed by the Chernobyl disaster: FC Pripyat
FourFourTwo FC Pripyat were preparing for a cup semi-final and move to a new stadium in April 1986 when Chernobyl changed everything. Their former captain recalls how a progressive town and its football team came to an abrupt, tragic end
From hat-tricks to handbags to early doors: what are the origins of the strange language of football?
FourFourTwo Football phrases roll off the tongue so naturally that we barely stop to think about how weird and wonderful some of them are. Where do these odd idioms come from? And can FFT really stake a claim to one?
Why Stoke fans sing 'Delilah'
FFT Best Chants Paul Brown investigates why the Tom Jones hit is sung by the Britannia faithful...
Wiki Geeks: Meet the men keeping football's Wikipedia pages up to date
FourFourTwo If your club is linked with a non-league striker dubbed ‘the new Vardy’, the online encyclopedia is likely to be your first port of call. But who the heck is updating that goal tally? And, more importantly, why?
