Football Documentaries

Guardian Joy of Six

1. City! (1981, Manchester City)
2. An Impossible Job (1994, England)
3. Club For A Fiver (1995, Leyton Orient)
4. Six Days To Saturday (1963, Swindon Town)
5. The Golden Vision (1968, Everton)
6. Hillsborough (1995)

I've only even heard of a couple of these, and I don't think I've seen any of them. There are lots of others mentioned in the comments too. Have you seen any of them? Which ones are worth checking out?

Football and Fascism was good.

Don't know many Docs or books.

One of the best ones that never happened: cameras not allowed to go anywhere near Newcastle two years ago.

frontline football: bosnia vs serbia
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-226288307908312137#

frontline football: palestine vs iraq
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2783589437630303588&hl=en

this BBC documentary about Barcelona during the 2003/2004 season
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CKJSDCcp6kE

Love that footage of the Ronaldinho signing - explanations round a desk, into corridor for some haggling, the secretaries' open-plan bit to type up an amendment, and finally signing the thing in some office ... then cut a few seconds later to Ronnie stepping back into the office from the balcony, crowd chants following him in - they'd been waiting outside all along!

The one where Peter Reid swears a lot is good. I'm inordinately fond of BBC Scotland's "That Was The Team That Was" series.

Hillborough wasn't really a documentary, tbh. Does that Mogwai/Zidane one count?

That one I have seen - thought it was terrible. Would've been more profound if they'd just showed normal highlights.

Premier Passions is on youtube. Watch it if you haven't. It's amazing.

best thing about it is the purported frustrated search for a new striker, purported because clearly the chairman is just unable or unwilling to spend money on a new striker and the whole search is just a pr job.

oh and also there's a sports psychologist who suggests having bee-like cushions in the away dressing room to psyche out opponents. the people from the club who hear this are, shall we say, nonplussed.

Premier Passions is on youtube

I can't find it. Mind sharing the link? My dad wouldn't let me watch it cos of Peter Reid's swearing.

Damn,well it used to be,iirc.or maybe it was Google video(can't check now,on my phone).

I've just watched One Night In Turin - in fucking tears at the subtitles of Uncle Bobby talking to his lads before the penalties

Watched this yesterday morning. What I found amazing, and what was probably lost at the time, was the long shot tracking Waddle after his pelanty miss. No one comes up to him for a good minute or longer, apart from one of the German players, who taps him on the head and moves off pretty sharpish. They're all crowding around teary Gazza.

Yeah that blew me away too, so much so I went back and timed it - 83 seconds. Amazing idea to take that shot. It's Matthaus who consoles him before going off to his own boys, then comes back to console Waddle again - so much respect for him after seeing that.

god matthaus...just watched the youtube of that. what a brilliant display of sportsmanship.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3N5CftU-EYo

class

Totally.

can't tell if that world cup was really iconic and memorable or that pavarotti track just makes it feel that way

It's all about context, isn't it? If you're English and under 50 it's iconic and memorable because it's the closest England have come to winning the World Cup in our lifetimes. And that Pavarotti track adds a poignancy that 'Aztec Gold' (for example) doesn't. And it was the last World Cup of the 'old football' era of the pre-Prem days which adds a tinge of nostalgia. But none of that would apply if you were French or Mexican or Russian or whatever.

or irish obviously! is my first memory of watching a world cup.

just watched "one night in turin" just now and i have to say i thought it was a bit disappointing. the script was full of the sort of sentiment you expect on a sky sports ad and it was also way too triumphalist. obv it's about england but i expected a more modern positivity. the part about the irish game in particular stuck out. i know we played bad football but it might as well have called us a bunch of pigfucking savages and that'd have been a step down.

beyond the triumphalism i thought the descriptions of things and the delivery were poor, it was littered with bad adjectives "gullit looked soft and rusty, gazza was hard and bright"...what? and cringey moments.

plus it had too much music in it and the choices were too obvious, i don't need to feel a vague association between the stone roses and football, it's already there in my head.

the one thing i did think, which NBS hints at, is, god how did that fucking horrendous shakira song pass for a world cup official record when 20 years ago we had pavarotti. not to sound too daily mail, i am fine with shakira but even on disposable pop terms that is genuinely one of the shittest most focussed group songs i've ever heard.

what a big man matthaus was... first thought not to celebrate reaching the WC final but to console waddle

oh see that was touched on above

yup, amazing moment

There was one about Chelsea's youth team in around 95/96 when Graham Rix was there. Jody Morris 'made it' and signed a pro contract at the end. We recorded it and I used to watch the video over and over again thinking, "That'll be me in a few years time, playing for Liverpool's youth team". I'm still waiting.

Morris has had a bad image over several legal and ethical issues. Chronologically, these include allegations that: he was one of a group of Chelsea players who drunkenly abused American tourists at Heathrow Airport within hours of the 9/11 attacks on New York City and the Pentagon;[10] that he was involved in a drunken brawl (in 2002);[11] that he was involved in a sexual assault (in 2003),.[12][13]