For those of us who love football, there is no irony in the phrase the beautiful game. It is an art form, a grass-pitched battle. For those who possibly love it a little too much, it is a flawless, romantic dance. The rest of us will look on such descriptions with anything from disdain to(…)

It is not often we get to say nice things about celebrities. Usually when they’re doing something good, we see it as an act of self-promotion and little else. Or perhaps we’re just a little jealous of their lifestyle and are being generally unkind. We will leave that for you to decide. However. This week,(…)

I met a Brazilian couple in Egypt while travelling and they sold me on a visit to the country without having to say very much. The same was true for the incredibly intelligent Brazilian students I taught this summer. A country filled with contradictory elements like the favelas and 4 star hotels, there are so(…)

The World Cup in Brazil is just around the corner, and the eyes of an expectant nation will be on the home team. As they bid to win a remarkable sixth World Cup – five is already a record – minds will be cast back to the classic Brazil teams of the past, and the(…)

With the World Cup in Brazil just over a month away, football is on the minds of many a world traveller, and not just in South America. Germany hosted the World Cup in 2006 in 12 stadiums, or stadien, dotted around the country, and most saw their fair share of the high quality football and(…)