Apalak

For a sport that is so meticulously data-driven at the top level, football still remains wonderfully alive for diverse analytic opinions because the data only tells the facts and omits the context that provides the story. And in…

It was a long summer afternoon I remember like yesterday. The latest issue of the bi-weekly Bangla magazine, which had satiated most of my growing appetite for reading when I was eight, had arrived. That summer afternoon, about a month…

The 1934 FIFA World Cup was held under the auspices of the Fascist regime in Mussolini’s Italy. I would love to point out the differences which the 1934 World Cup and the recent ones, but I can't help but be inundated by the similarities.…

Through the grainy monochrome of a minute-long footage from a match that happened more than ninety years ago, one can still see a robust footballer dribbling past a nagging defender with confident ease. He enters the box, which came without…

The 1970 FIFA World Cup was held in Mexico. It was the first World Cup to be televised in colour, staged outside of Europe or South America, and allowed for in-match substitutions. Red and yellow cards were introduced for the first time in…

After a weak season by their standards in 1893/94 when they finished second, six points behind Aston Villa, Sunderland returned strongly for the 1894/95 season. Their first game of the season against Derby County at home is a famous one in…

To most football fans of our times, Sunderland has always been an average, if not categorically weak, football club that, despite its huge support base, has had no notable successes in the modern era. The club's biggest claim to fame in the…

The 1966 FIFA World Cup was held in England, the birthplace of modern football. The Beatles were preparing for the release of Revolver, the Vietnam War was ongoing, and Martin Luther King was leading rallies in Chicago. England were a…

The magical day on which Cape Verde achieved their first FIFA World Cup qualification will be remembered for a really long time.   Cape Verde had been under Portuguese rule up until 1975. Its football team played the first ever match…

Most football fans have one or a few iconic stadiums that come to their minds when asked what ground they would wish to experience a football match at. Some say Anfield, while many votes go to the Signal Iduna Park, and others suggest…