Sifted
A series of tech startup articles for the Financial Times-affiliated website Sifted. I was required to write accessibly but balancing that with authority and detail.
Sibling rivalry: A childhood absorbed in Tomy’s Super Cup Football
Inaccurate, infuriating and the source of many a family feud, the table-top game still offered the potential for magic moments – until the ball rolled ...
7 of the best performances by teams with 10 men
Barcelona can be forgiven for still being haunted by 2010's Jose Mourinho masterpiece as they prepare to face Inter in the Champions League for the ...
The members’ sale: A biannual shambles
The third Wednesday in July may not mean much to most people. But for a sizeable proportion of Liverpool supporters it is the most tense ...
Taro Izumi: ‘Tickled in a Dream’
Had my countless letters addressed to the directors of all major art institutions finally been heeded? Had my view that the Adidas Tango was, actually, ...
Javier Saviola: The little rabbit who never grew up
Picture the scene: a Brighton cafe sometime in 2000, me reading the tabloids with some friends, very much like a more hungover and less articulate ...
The 7 most nail-biting final-day deciders between direct rivals
With all but the last Champions League place decided before this weekend, we look back at the games when two clubs went head-to-head on the ...
Le Classique
Paris Saint-Germain made two pieces of history in recent weeks; the first of which being rather more welcome than their scarcely believable Champions League capitulation. ...
Pieces of Hate: Fantasy Football
As the dust settles on an underwhelming January transfer window, several million fantasy league players will have embraced the spirit of blind panic displayed by ...
In 2016 we lost Bowie, Wogan, Prince – and my dad
While many of us are lamenting 2016 as a traumatic year in news, some have suffered more personal setbacks. Olly Ricketts reflects on experiencing collective ...
Rick Wakeman: The Hero of Mexico 1986
In the early hours of September 19th 1985, a huge earthquake hit the outskirts of Mexico City. Over 5,000 people are thought to have died ...
Watch out, Leicester: 7 of the biggest post-Christmas collapses
Olly Ricketts plays Grinch as he provides a handful of examples to show why Foxes fans shouldn’t get too carried away with their side being ...
Pieces of Hate: Ruined Goals
In his song ‘Little by Little’, Noel Gallagher claims that “True perfection has to be imperfect,” before going on to accept that, “I know that ...
Hats, hacks and Hafnia: FA Cup firsts and trailblazers
The long and glorious history of the FA Cup final has produced its fair share of curious firsts, says Olly Ricketts… This Saturday’s Wembley showpiece ...
Top 10 title processions
Olly Ricketts recalls 10 other teams that strolled to the league title – including an even more resounding romp for the Blues… ...
2015: the year of the trolled?
Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the world wide web, famously believed that his creation could be used to “iron out misunderstanding”. The prediction seems laughably ...
Top 10 festive goal gluts: Evil Man United, Spurs’ Toon tonking, seven Gunners gunning
Arsenal 7-3 Newcastle, Dec 2012 The oft-repeated cliché about unusually high scores around Christmas is that defenders are still half asleep having over-indulged during the ...
The Christmas no.1: An enduring British obsession
“Christmas. The season of Noddy and Roy and the time of my re-entry into showbiz. The Britpop hordes have clearly missed me, as have the ...
The best football games of all time
The festive season always brings back a host of memories from days gone by, and is a natural time for nostalgic reflection. I remember the ...
Liverpool, you’re not alone: football’s other long lost title hopefuls
The Anfield outfit aren’t the only side looking to break a lengthy barren spell this season. Olly Ricketts looks at 10 European teams desperate to ...