CLUB
Arsenal’s north London story began in Woolwich
Photo: Ed g2s · CC BY-SA 4.0Resized to WebP; display crops.
The route from a factory workshop to Highbury shows how a club can acquire a new home while carrying an older identity.
Read the storyThe Roots edition
The game. The life around it.
Stories for the clubs you live with and the countries you carry.
A wider view of football.
History. Community. The places in between.
Photo: Bill Damon · CC BY 2.0Resized to WebP; display crops.
CULTURE
In Boston, the football programme also makes room for poetry
Boston Scores combines a place on a team with a place for a young person’s own words.
COUNTRY
Brazil’s football archive is making more room for women
The Football Museum’s exhibition changes show why a national game cannot be understood only through its most familiar images.
COUNTRY
Canada’s grassroots rethink starts with who gets to train
The published model separates a child’s interest in learning from a fixed judgment about ability.
Photo: Anthony Parkes / Geograph · CC BY-SA 2.0Resized to WebP; display crops.
CLUB
Stamford Bridge had a sporting life before Chelsea
Athletics, a founding meeting and later cricket matches reveal a ground with more than one history.
COUNTRY
Haiti deserves to be read as football
Identity belongs in the story. So do the names, the details and the limits of what we know.
COUNTRY
Jamaica’s women made one goal count in 2023
At the 2023 women’s global football tournament in Australia and New Zealand, Jamaica reached its first knockout round.
CLUB
Lyon’s 2021 recruitment notice shows the work around football
A 2021 recruitment notice shows the range of advertised jobs around football, and why vacancies should be read differently from employment results.
CLUB
The Vélodrome keeps a cycling track in its name
Marseille’s football ground carries the memory of an earlier design through successive changes to its stands and roof.
COUNTRY
Mexico’s early women players are entering the public record again
An archive and two documented commemorations show different ways of preserving the generation that played in 1970 and 1971.
CULTURE
Little Haiti has a cultural calendar beyond the fixture list
A theatre, studios and a community room offer another way to understand the city around football.
CULTURE
In Saint-Michel, a house for culture as well as memory
Maison d’Haïti’s building history gives Montréal’s cultural life a concrete address.
Photo: MTLskyline · CC BY-SA 3.0Resized to WebP; display crops.
CLUB
Montréal’s football story did not begin with its league debut
The club’s history connects an earlier playing home, a new league and places where the next generation can play.
COUNTRY
Morocco’s women’s football has a development story beyond the team sheet
A national agreement and a continental coach-education course reveal different parts of the structure beneath international football.
CLUB
At Nantes, the academy story includes the classroom
The history of La Jonelière records changes in education as well as football training.
CULTURE
Little Caribbean puts a name to a living part of Brooklyn
A neighborhood identity and a football network show two different ways a large city becomes more specific.
Photo: King of Hearts / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 3.0Resized to WebP; display crops.
CLUB
What fifty small pitches add to a football city
New York’s Soccer Initiative shows why a playing surface and the rules around it belong in the same story.
The City Desk
Around the game ↗Photo: Bill Damon · CC BY 2.0Resized to WebP; display crops.
Boston
Football in the school week, with space for a young person’s own voice.
Photo: © 2011 P. Hughes · CC BY 4.0Resized to WebP; display crops.
Miami
The city before kickoff, and the neighborhood life that continues afterward.
Photo: MTLskyline · CC BY-SA 3.0Resized to WebP; display crops.
Montréal
A club with a long timeline, and places where cultural life has an address.
Photo: King of Hearts / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 3.0Resized to WebP; display crops.
New York City
A club, a neighborhood name and the practical space to play.