Football is nothing without stories, but they don’t tell themselves. That’s where we – and hopefully you – come in.
Heart of Football was set up three years ago to sift through the clickbait nonsense and cover stories that hadn’t been told much or even at all, and to celebrate the heart of the game. Yes, we still love the World Cup and Champions League. We also love projects you’ve probably never heard of designed to catapult the most populous nation on earth from the doldrums to the summit.
All of us have been on the receiving end of endless broken promises. You know those old classics, like: “The exposure will be great for you”, “we can’t pay you yet, but might do soon” or perhaps even worse: “we will pay you, based on the number of clicks your article produces”.
You won’t find that here. We can’t even guarantee you a streamlined path to success, although we do have published authors amongst our ranks. What we can promise is a springboard of original ideas, a platform to showcase them, decent contacts with other like-minded outlets, and our own team of experts in writing, editing, graphic design and social media to lash it all together.
Already writing for other outlets but want to spread your wings? No problem. Drifted away from writing but want to re-engage your passion? Never lifted a finger to the keyboard in anger? We can guide you through the process.
Here’s a taste of what to expect from some of our regular writers:
Simon Toye writes about Canadian football and when he doesn’t, his articles relate heavily to Blackburn Rovers. If he can get a tenuous wrestling link surreptitiously woven into his text then he will, and if not he will blatantly include one without any care for the reader. He also has a real job.
Favourite article: “I think I’ll go for Eid-wood because it’s the one I had thought about writing for a while and more and more examples came along from the club to show their commitment to inclusivity of the south Asian community in Blackburn. It almost ended up being more difficult NOT to write about.”
Jack Wills gets very self righteous about others not writing more while enjoying multi-month periods of absence. He predominantly writes about his beloved, shitey Dundee United and spamming fan accounts to stad-pad his views. Often found watching Criminal Minds whilst eating garlic bread and drinking craft beer like a wanker.
Favourite article: “I’d go with my first ever piece, the beauty of the Scottish Cup. Managed to interview former Cup winners, and still put a lot of my narrative into it too.”
Bryan Moore is definitely not English, so much so he’s Irish. He tends to write a lot about his Irishness and about being Irish. He also hypocritically loves Liverpool and also writes about that. He loves to find an angle and write poetically around it while rarely getting to the point. Agrees with Jack about the lack of writing despite penning four articles in a day and then nothing for six months. Enjoys Asian food and movies. Like an old git.
Favourite article: “My heart says my Jack Charlton piece. Really proud of the last paragraph. But Pronunciation definitely caught the imagination.”
Andrew Flint once quit a solid job to go freelance despite having a family of four to support but, if truth be told, really so that he could spend an entire season on the road with a Siberian lower-league club for fun. For some bizarre reason he one day went from kicking gym sideboards in frustration at not actually being Maradona to running every day to raise money for Football Beyond Borders. At least we think he does, when his Russian internet allows him to update us.
Favourite article: “I am a sucker for long reads, deep dives into hard-hitting issues, but I think for personal indulgence nothing tops the exclusive interview with Championship Manager 97/98 legend Bjorn Heidenstrom. What a genuinely fascinating bloke, and a true gentleman who gave up an entire hour of his time to indulge my childish giddiness at speaking to the real-life version of a nostalgic collection of digits on a computer game.”
As a collective, there was little more exhilarating than our group coverage of the AFCON 2021 tournament, packed with original exclusive interviews, reaction pieces that caught the mood and social content to match. Being a part of that, on any level, is an immensely rewarding experience.
Heart of Football 
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