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Date: August, 2007
David Conn is the foremost investigative football journalist working today. Writing
for the Guardian and World Soccer (and previously the Independent) he has explored
the murky world of football finance and has written extensively and incisively on
the subject. He is the author of several books including the superb 'The Beautiful
Game? Searching for the Heart and soul of Football', one of our
Books to Read Before You Die.
But in his most important literary contribution to date, he became the first
person to complete Midfield Dynamo's Twenty Questions.
Though we didn't ask him what his favourite pre-match
meal was, he was at pains to point out that if we had, it would probably be
steak and chips.
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| 1. Team supported ?
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Manchester City.
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| 2. First football memory ?
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Age 6, seeing a goal scored in a 20-a-side game in the junior school playground
on my way to infants school; thrilled me into wanting to be a decent player myself.
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| 3. Most memorable match ?
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FA Cup Final replay 1981. We lost, Ricky Villa scored his ridiculous goal, but it
was a wonderful experience to be there (at a floodlit Wembley, on a school night...)
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| 4. Favourite goal ?
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City: Steve Mackenzie volley in that match.
Ever: Carlos Alberto for Brazil v Italy in 1970 Cup Final. Every football skill
is on display in that goal and Pele's final pass, not 10 yards, captures so much
that is beautiful about the game itself.
Personal: as you get older, you treasure memories of the games you played yourself
and I think sadly often about goals I scored a very long time ago in matches
where there were perhaps three people watching.
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| 5. Favourite ground ?
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Maine Road, rest its soul.
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| 6. Favourite football cliche ?
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Anything by John Motson. Including his chuckle.
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| 7. Most disliked figure in football ?
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I try not to have likes and dislikes, and stick to the facts. Honest.
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| 8. Shoot or Match? ?
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Not sure Match was going in my day. I was a Shoot diehard.
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| 9. Give us a great footballing anecdote...
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First manager I ever had, when I was 10. We played on a pitch, Drinkwater Park
in the shadow of a Salford colliery, which has been pictured by the photographer
John Davies as one of the most gloom-laden industrial landscapes in Britain
(http://www.johndavies.uk.com/age.htm).
We shivered in the freezing breezeblock changing rooms, barely lit by one weak
lightbulb, and the manager, a looming, fatherly six-footer called Julian Rosenberg,
told us all, in his deep, deep voice: "I want you to go out there, and play football."
Sums up the love of the game for me - and, without being pretentious, its appeal,
which is worldwide, as a means of transcending miserable environments.
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| 10. Should terracing be brought back ?
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It is still there in the lower two divisions and always has, remember.
So yes, in theory.
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| 11. Name one thing that was better about football in the 1970/80s ?
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The cheap price of tickets meant that young people could afford to go, and that
is when the great loyalty of today's 40-somethings to their clubs was born.
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| 12. Name one thing that is better about football today ?
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The toilets.
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| 13. Favourite football related moment on TV or film ?
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Football match in Kes.
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| 14. Do you know any really good football trivia questions that we could use ?
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Where were Nottingham Forest in the League when Brian Clough took over as the manager?
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| 15. Nicest person in football / media you've worked with ?
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Not being an air-kissing tart, but I have honestly met many very nice people,
many more nice than not.
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| 16. And the most unpleasant ?
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See answer 7 above.
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| 17. Will England win the World Cup in your lifetime ?
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I think they could do. It isn't about tactics, or even specifically players,
but the team needs to capture the free-spiritedness they discovered in the
quarter and semi-finals of the 1990 World Cup. Suddenly lost the self-consciousness
which inhibits the way so many England teams have played in internationals over
many years.
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| 18. Favourite World Cup moment ?
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Carlos Alberto goal. I was too young to see it at the time but between that ultimate Brazilian
glory, and Drinkwater Park in Salford, lies the whole football experience.
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| 19. If you could change one rule of the game what would it be ?
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Players and managers should be booked for arguing with the ref. I was always
taught (at aged 10, by Julian Rosenberg, see answer 9) never to argue with the
ref, and found it is the best way for the game to be played. Decision is final
and refs cannot change it. Do not understand why dissent is tolerated at the
top level and believe it sets a very bad example for parks football where
refs are vital to avoid games turning into pitch battles.
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| 20. Why do think few other football writers as concerned about the inequalities in football as you are?
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I went on an investigative journey into football at a particular time, 1996-97,
when the Sky millions were pouring into the Premier League, chairmen, not just
players and agents, were becoming exceedingly rich, and the parks pitches were
deteriorating into an even worse condition than they had been in my youth. It
opened my eyes, I have written two books about it, and so I have become much more
involved with the game's relationship with money as an issue and a way of
understanding football. I do believe it can and should be a force for good in
the lives of those who play and watch it, not a playground for global business.
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Read David Conn's column every Wednesday in the Guardian, or monthly in World Soccer.
If your club has been in trouble the chances are that David will have written
about it.
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Twenty Questions : David Conn (Football Journalist, Author)