"Without Fans Who Pay At The Turnstile, Football Is Nothing. Sometimes We Are Inclined To Forget That."

Pele and Maradona competition: terms and conditons

OPEN TO:

All fans, of all teams.

GUIDELINES:

Send a picture of your teams football shirt for a chance to win a signed jersey from Pele or Maradona.

Ball Street wants all fans to #ClubTogether so that we can create better coverage for all fans of all teams.

You can enter via 3 routes, just follow the instructions and read the terms and conditions below:

  HOW TO ENTER:

Twitter

Upload a picture of your team's shirt to Twitter and mention @ball_street.

Remember to also type both the hash tag - #ClubTogether and also a hash tag for the name of the team (e.g. #pompey) on the picture.

You must be a follower of @ball_street on Twitter to qualify.

Instagram

Upload a picture of your teams shirt to Instagram.

Include the hash tags #ClubTogether #ballstreet and #YourTeamNameHere (e.g #PartickThistle) on the upload.

You must be a follower of ballstreet on Instagram to qualify.

Facebook

Upload a picture of your team's shirt to our page.

State your teams name on the post.

Like our Facebook page, www.facebook.com/BALLSTREET

GENERAL CONDITIONS

Must be an actual shirt that you or someone owns, not just a picture from the internet.

You may enter as many times and as you like using the methods above, provided each picture submitted contains a different kit (i.e. it can be the same team, but must be from a different season or home/away etc.).

One entry will be drawn at random from the entries received from each of the following channels: Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

Those three finalists will be entered into final draw, where again the winner will be drawn at random.

The winner will be asked to choose their prize, either a signed Pele Brazil shirt or a Argentina jersey signed by Diego Maradona.

Employees of Ball Street Ltd. and their relatives are not permitted to win the prize.

Our ability to control User Generated Content is limited, however Ball Street Ltd. reserves the right to disqualify and/or block any entrant who is deemed to be, in the opinion of Ball Street Ltd, abusive or misusing the services.

Closing date TBC.

The decision of Ball Street Ltd. is final.

WIN A SIGNED PELE or MARADONA SHIRT

The Ball Street #clubtogether competition.  Click this link (http://bit.ly/SRSBRW) for how to enter and T&C's.   Good luck!!

Ball Street's first YouTube football show with Ian Wright - here's the promo for 451.

Isn't every league a 'premier' league?

by Matt, Ball Street

First things first, this isn’t it.   People keep asking what we’re up to and we’ve some exciting things in the pipeline - more of which soon.   For now we thought we’d do a blog to introduce ourselves and tell you about where we are coming from.

I’m a Huddersfield Town fan.  In all my time watching the Terriers we’ve never graced the top flight of English Football.  But every year, we’re in a league that matters more to me.  Last year it was League One; this coming season it will be the Championship. 

Now, like me, something like 80% of fans that actually attend matches support teams outside the top 6.  You wouldn’t think that from the coverage our teams receive or the quality of the analysis. 

Sure, Man United’s global fanbase of 333 million has to be catered for, but are the majority of football fans in the UK getting what they need from the media?

It’s still the usual suspects serving up the same old, pre-packaged lack of coverage be it on telly or online.  In our version of the ‘Usual Suspects’, the greatest trick the devil pulled was convincing the world that there was a ‘premier’ league so that we put up with this.

We don’t hate the Premier League, far from it.  We just think that every league is a premier league, and there should be a place where all fans, all teams, get the top six treatment.

Over the coming months and years, Ball Street’s going to try to do something about it.

twitter: @Ball_Street

Ian Wright introduces Ball Street.  Subscribe to Ball Street on YouTube - http://www.youtube.com/user/Ballstreetchannel

Ball Street is looking for talent!!

This was an honour...

Everyone follow @ball_street and check out this video!! bit.ly/451Promo can't wait to watch the show @ianwright0 !!

— Mo Farah (@Mo_Farah) March 26, 2013

This is our new YouTube football show with Ian Wright and Jimmy Bullard: 4 Leagues | 5 topics | 1 show.  We'll be covering more than the top 6.

The heart of football

by Stuart, Ball Street

I was going tell you about Ball Street, however I can’t let events at Ibrox pass without comment.

It’s a tale of self-destruction with a vengeance, true of all parties involved in the toxic cauldron of Scottish football.   But that’s for another day.  Today let me tell you a story about football and the fan.

Rangers are the club of my uncles, two of whom had heart attacks at Ibrox watching the Rangers.  One sadly passed; the amazing medical staff in the ground saved the other, who was the first to take me every other week.

It’s also the club of my late father, who worked on the rebuilding of the Main Stand and salvaged the old wooden seats and fittings to craft a handsome fireplace for his living room.  Every time we went to the back shops, we would occasionally stop by old Jimmy’s to see if he needed any messages.  Only later did I find out that Jimmy was Jimmy Smith, scorer of 225 goals in 234 appearances for Rangers between 1928 and 1946.

I know my history.  I know that a love that’s been shared by generations of my family doesn’t exist on the balance sheet of Sevco 5088.   The club can’t be taken away by liquidation, player departures, rulings or the ill-feeling of others.

A football club lives only the hearts of its fans.   That’s true of any club.  As Kevin Drinkell said recently: “Rangers fans who were supporters yesterday will still be supporters today. That's the bottom line.”

Sure it will be hard to see the likes of Naismith and McCabe grace other arenas - they've lost their chance to be legends - but Ibrox will always have its heroes.  There may well be a succession of journeymen on the horizon who might never have climbed the marble staircase, but among them will be legends that we’ll still talk about in years to come.

Like many others, I’ve long said we should start over in Division Three.  We should take our medicine and let others have theirs.  I’ll look forward to Glasgow derbies with Queen’s Park and trips to Montrose where we holidayed as kids.  And then I’ll be able to tell you more about why every league is a premier league.