About Unmodern Football

Hi, I’m Misha. In this Substack, I share weekly musings, stories & interviews about football, football culture and the state of football, from the perspective of a hopeless romantic.

Unmodern Football is a magazine project where I merge two of my greatest passions: Football and Writing.

Stories, essays, interviews about everything football, with a focus on German leagues. Hopefully as entertaining as it is interesting.

On a weekly basis, I will be sharing my thoughts on: The things I love about football. The things I hate. The things that excite me. The things I experienced. The Sport. The Culture. The People. The Fashion. The Music. Professional and amateur. Men and women. Players and fans.

Don’t expect tactical analysis or game commentary. This is a purely emotional, subjective look into the game. Storytelling over journalism.

My POV? My motivation? That’s where the title comes in: Unmodern Football.

Born in 1981, I’ve been a football fan since the late 80s, and specifically of Arminia Bielefeld since 1994. As long as I can think, I’ve followed and enjoyed football. But something has changed.

There’s this moment – your team just scored and for the upteenth time you hesitate to celebrate because you just know there will be a VAR check, and sure as hell, there it is – when you look around and realise: football isn’t what it used to be.

It’s all still here on paper: the kits, the chants, the stadium floodlights, beer and bratwurst with your mates. But it doesn’t feel like football anymore. Not the kind you fell in love with. Not the kind you built your weekends around.

Of course football wasn’t always a working class Eden, untouched by the horrors of capitalism. Of course not.

But it used to feel rooted. Community-run clubs. Terraces full of neighbours. Shirts you bought once and wore until the sponsor went bankrupt. A bratwurst that didn’t leave a foul taste in your mouth because of its price tag.

Football had grime under its fingernails. Now it’s got brand partnerships.

It didn’t vanish overnight. It was a slow bleed. The sponsors took our stadium names. Tickets got pricier. Investors settled in. Kick-off times got stranger. Now we’re here: Noon on a Sunday. Somewhere between VAR delays and the fourth kit of the season, football became a PowerPoint deck.

To be clear: Modern Football has its merits, too. Without a doubt there have also been good developments.

Less violence, for one. More women and girls on the terraces and the pitch. Less racism, sexism and homophobia. Increased awareness for societal issues at club level. Less stigma and more acceptance for football culture. That’s the bright side of how the game has evolved, and I’m here for it.

(The whole fashion part of modern football is also a huge win in my book, but that just may be me).

But overall? Sterile. Predictable. Players are media-trained to within an inch of their lives. Managers speak like PR interns. Everyone’s so polished, it squeaks. And in the background: the grotesque inflation of transfer fees, the absurd wage structures, the clubs that operate more like hedge funds than sporting institutions. Football used to be about who had the better team. Modern Football’s about who had the better offshore accountant.

I love me my Arsenal, but the Premier League is, for me, the epitome of what’s wrong with football today. Despite being English, and even though there is a lot to criticise about them, too, I will choose the German leagues over the Premier League all day, every day (and the reason you will find a strong focus on German football in this English-language Substack).

I miss Unmodern Football. The grit, the grime. The muddy, imperfect, deeply local, deeply human football. The kind where you know the kit manager’s name and the beers are a tad too warm and the sponsor is a local car dealership and none of it matters because when the ball hits the net, you forget everything else for just one beautiful, battered second – and you don’t have to bloody wait for a bloody VAR check.

Is this about glorifying the olden days? Will this be me endlessly whining and ranting about modern football?

No.

Unmodern Football is simply the lens through which I want to explore a broad range of topics and themes (plus I think it’s a bloody great name for a magazine).

It’s my attempt to reconcile my love for the game with what it is turning into from the POV of someone who loves to write, and who misses, well, unmodern football.

There’s a great German word: Ambiguitätstoleranz, the tolerance of ambiguity. Yeah, I am not a fan of modern football, but there are things I like. And I might possibly even contradict myself over the course of this project, or worse, be hypocritical at some point. I claim no moral high ground or objectivity. This is emotional, not a tactics masterclass.

This is just my little magazine where I write about football and try to uncover interesting stories and angles that makes this the beautiful game, despite all that taints it nowadays. Because, as I said, there are things I love about the modern state of things.

Apart from storytelling and opinionating, I of course am looking to bring some healthy skepticism to recent and future developments (as well as the odd rant). And hopefully one or two interviews with interesting people.

In short:

Nostalgic. Not rose-tinted. Traditional. But not regressive. Reject the downsides of modernity, but stay open-minded.

If you’re looking for an elevator pitch of my vantage point: No Racism. No Sexism. No Homophobia. No Investors.

Welcome to Unmodern Football. Hope you’ll stay.

Why in English? Why not German?

Fair question. After all, I have a strong focus on football in german-language Europe. My favourite team is Arminia Bielefeld (find out more about me here).

Here’s the thing: I am English. I was born in Gibraltar. I grew up in an English community. But I’m also German – and a bit French.

My father was born in London, but grew up in France with his french Father. My mother is German. I grew up in Bielefeld, Germany. Went to School there. Lived there for the majority of my life.

When it comes to football, I was socialised by Germany. As a kid, up until the early 90s, I changed my favourite clubs like underwear – though I am proud to say I never, ever liked Bayern. In the beginning of the 90s I followed Leverkusen (because of Ulf Kirsten). In 92 I followed Dortmund (because of that season’s kit and Stephane Chapuisat). In 93, for about three or four months, I was into Eintracht Frankfurt (because of the Tetra-Pak kit, but mainly because of Yeboah, Okocha, and Gaudino).

Then, in late 1993, I discovered my hometown of Bielefeld had its own club: Arminia. They were only playing Oberliga at the time. But following them in the local newspaper was enough to spark a love that has lasted to this day.

So it would make total sense to write in German. But to be honest, in my career as a professional writer I have always written in German. And I’ve been waiting to do something in English for a long time. Plus, there is increased interest in German football from people around the world, so I figured it can’t hurt to try and reach an international audience, too.

Subscribe to get full access to the newsletter and publication archives.

Stay up-to-date

Never miss an update—every new post is sent directly to your email inbox. Follow Unmodern Football on Blue Sky and Instagram.

Take part

Participate in the comments section, or support this work with a subscription.