Views
Humour:
1. Dirty Tackle
Dirty Tackle promises football, culture and nonsense and delivers all three – well enough football and nonsense to tide you over at least – with plenty of video clips and rambling musings on the game to keep you entertained.
2. The Offside
A treasure trove of a site overflowing with blogs, opinion and humour with one of the broadest churches for a site of its kind as it encompasses news and views from all four corners of planet football. Stumbling in here can easily lead to the loss of a working day.
3. Midfield Dynamo
If you love a top 10, Midfield Dynamo – the self styled home of cult football – is the place for you. Plenty of fresh content, easily navigated and a bountiful archive of video clips, curiosities and light-hearted football knowledge to be discovered.
4. The Spoiler
Another site gleefully shooting down the pomp and pretensions of modern football and having a laugh doing it, and probably the best in its class, the Spoiler has a laddish feel but is just about clever enough to pull it off.
Communities:
5. 3nil
A relative newcomer, 3nil does not provide its own content but asks readers to post what they have seen elsewhere, and then others to vote on it, with the most popular rising to the top of their news feed.
6. ExtraFootie
Many sites have attempted to claim the title ‘Facebook for football fans’ with varying degrees of success but Extra Footie comes closest.
7. Vital Football
A network of fans site that has managed to dodge the bullet of being taken over then run it to the ground by large media organisations Vital is a great first port of call for independent news, especially if your club is outside the Premier League.
Statistics:
8. Statto
Fantastic statistical tool that allows you to to pursue results, tables and all manner of numerical records across clubs, leagues and countries stretching back to the 1800s and even see how league tables stood after any given match day in that time period.
9. Soccerbase
User-friendly and painstakingly accurate reference point for results, transfers and head-to-head records of British football clubs and players.
10. The Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation
The dry presentation of this site should not detract from the sheer scope and majesty of its historical data from all corners of the globe and as a research tool it is a veritable Aladdin’s cave of trivia for anyone that way inclined.
Blogs:
11. Soccerlens
An open blog site but one that maintains high standards of writing in serious analysis, satire and the varied preoccupations of its writers, Soccerlens is always worth reading and offers links and direction towards other content you might be interested in and so acts as a useful entry point when exploring the tangled web of football blogging.
12. Inside Left
If you live in England and want to keep abreast of Scottish football you are probably already well versed in negotiating the maze of online options, with the print editions of most newspapers largely ignoring it. This excellent blog on the game north of the border, if it isn’t already, should be bookmarked immediately.
13. Off The Post
Off the Post is not, as it claims, the best football blog on the planet, but as a light-hearted distraction it is a more than worthwhile read. Has it’s own YouTube channel, though this continues to be a work in progress.
Highlights:
14. 101 Great Goals
Can’t be bothered trawling YouTube for the latest highlight packages, outrageous goals and football related clips that your friends will be sending round in a couple of days? Worry not, just let 101 Great Goals do it for you.
15. footytube
One of the most reliable destinations for highlights from games at all levels, footytube, like the general site that inspired it, offers a community feel with people able to upload content and share with like minded fans. Suffers from having clips pulled due to copyright infringements (be quick the morning after a Champions League night) but is easy to search and relatively comprehensive in nature.
16. 1000 Goals
A clean, well presented highlights site with excellent picture and sound quality on their videos, though slightly less broad than the other two sites in this section. If you are sick of straining your eyes watching grainy, blurred pictures for your football fix this is the site for you.
News:
17. Football 365
Despite coming under the auspices of Sky, Football 365 has retained its irreverent fans' feel admirably, combining a comprehensive news service with lively knock-about debate.
18. Soccernet
A comprehensive news site with an international reach but with a strong English flavour and an emphasis on the English leagues even before ESPN’s TV channel picked over the carcase of Setanta for live rights.
19. BBC Football
Free of the need to please advertisers and with the organisation's myriad tentacles reaching deep into the game in this country the BBC is in a privileged position but uses that privilege well. Highlights packages from every lower league match every weekend have added massively to its draw for many.
20. Goal.com
Truly international site that prides itself on breaking news – be that actual news or speculation – and is always lively and fresh. Comes into its own in the build-up to and during transfer windows, acting as an effective news aggregator across the globe's press, with a particularly strong take on movements across European . Probably the only site on this list to have a dedicated Indian version.
Overseas football:
21. Football Italia
Those of you who wistfully yearn for the days when Channel Four's Football Italia programme was part of your weekly football viewing may be disappointed to find not a sniff here of James Richardson craning his neck around an impossibly oversized ice-cream construction, but as a resource for news and features on Serie A there is no better English language version around.
22. The Global Game
The Global Game is based in the US but has a world view. Obsessed with how football plays a role in all aspects of life from politics, literature to art the thought and care put into this jewel of a site is unparalleled and I defy anyone to visit and fail to find something unknown and fascinating. The slightly cerebral approach may put some off - there are no transfer speculation stories or WAG galleries here - but will be as refreshing as ducking your head in a bucket of ice water to many more.
23. Soccer Spain
An unpretentiously simple, even old fashioned looking site, Soccer Spain makes up for what it lacks in looks with personality. And offers links and advice for those wishing to indulge in a spot of football tourism in the home of the current European Champions.
Others:
24. Footiemap
Settle arguments over where exactly in Chile Deportes Temuco play their home games and plan holidays to far flung places so that top level football is on your doorstep with this wonderful world atlas of countries and their football teams' locations then follow links to sites about their stadiums and clubs.
25. Football Ground Guide
Another site that is substance over style. The home page may look like the menu screen for an early Commadore 64 game but for the travelling fan looking for information on an unchartered destination you could do a lot worse than start here, especially when looking for hostelries amenable for away fans.