Category Archives: Sport

The Finals: Index

Posted on May 20, 2023 by NFB

Prologue: The Moment Of Moments An outline of this series, and a look at just why international Finals are the spectacle that they are. 1896: A Disputed Beginning Did football take place at the first Olympics, and if so what … Continue reading →

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The Finals – 1906: One Half

Posted on May 20, 2023 by NFB

To read the previous entry in this series, please click here. It is easy to forget in these days when the Olympics is an event so massive that not even a worldwide pandemic can completely stop its course, that its … Continue reading →

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The Finals – 1904: A Scotsman In Canada

Posted on Apr 29, 2023 by NFB

To read the previous entry in this series, please click here. From discussions on whether a game took place at all to a three-way competition of clubs that was only recognised as such decades later, we come to the first … Continue reading →

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The Finals – 1900: The Amateurs, The Indigenous And The Students

Posted on Apr 8, 2023 by NFB

To see the previous entry in this series, please click here. Four years after the 1896 Olympic football final/demonstration that may or may not have taken place, both the Olympics and Olympic football were back, this time in a much … Continue reading →

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The Finals – 1896: A Disputed Beginning

Posted on Mar 18, 2023 by NFB

To read the previous entry in this series, please click here. It can be easy to forget that there was a time before wall-to-wall TV coverage, a time before radio, a time before all-encompassing reporting in newspapers, a place when … Continue reading →

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The Finals – Prologue: The Moment Of Moments

Posted on Mar 18, 2023 by NFB

Introducing a new series to the site, one that I hope will serve as something of a spiritual sequel to 211 To 1, my effort to provide a running collection of reflections to the qualification for, and Finals of, the … Continue reading →

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211 To 1: Reflections On Qatar 2022 (XVII) – Triumph, Despair And A Whole Lot In-Between

Posted on Mar 11, 2023 by NFB

To view more entries in this series, please click here to go to the index. We were down to the last four. Representatives from three different confederations ran a gambit: giants of the game, hard-working underdogs, no-hopers up to a few … Continue reading →

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211 To 1: Reflections On Qatar 2022 (XV) – The Promised Land

Posted on Jan 14, 2023 by NFB

To view more entries in this series, please click here to go to the index. If football, and especially international football, is a religion, then the World Cup has to be considered the good land, the land of milk and honey, … Continue reading →

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211 To 1: Reflections On The Road To Qatar 2022 (XIII) – Intercontinental

Posted on Jul 2, 2022 by NFB

To view more entries in this series, please click here to go to the index. At the start of June 2022, there were eight teams from five confederations left competing for three places in Qatar. The entire qualification process had come … Continue reading →

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211 To 1: Reflections On The Road To Qatar 2022 (XII) – Face-Off

Posted on Apr 23, 2022 by NFB

To view more entries in this series, please click here to go to the index. With all six confederations barrelling towards the conclusion of their qualification formats, March of 2022 came with added tension. In Asia the last play-off spot became … Continue reading →

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