Oct 19, 2020
Christoph Biermann is an award-winning football writer and one of the most respected voices in the field. His books have twice won Football Book of the Year in his native Germany, where he is a reporter for the magazine 11 Freunde.
Christoph Biermann grew up with his three years younger brother in Herne in the Ruhr area. Together with his father he started visiting football matches in 1971 first at local club Westfalia Herne and from 1974 on at VfL Bochum his favourite club to this day. After graduating from high school in 1979, he completed a degree in German studies and history at the Ruhr University Bochum. During his studies he was music editor of the Bochum magazine Marabo and was running the independent music label Nielsen2 Schallplatten. He became a freelancer for the sports section of the Die Tageszeitung in the mid-1980s and after graduating in 1987, he worked as a freelancer for various print and broadcast media (including Stern, Die Zeit, Playboy). In 1990 he sang a single with the songs German masters will never be the VfL (A-side) and German champion will only VfL (B-side).
In 1992 he moved to Cologne and from 1996 to 1999 he sat in the editorial office of the Freiburg based Hattrick football magazine. From 1999 to 2006 he was a sports correspondent for the Süddeutsche Zeitung. He then moved to the news magazine Der Spiegel / Spiegel Online until 2010. Having been a columnist for the monthly magazine 11 Freunde from 2004 he became a member of the editorial board in 2010. Since 2018 he has been a reporter at the magazine.
From the early 1990s on, he has published 14 books on football. Die Fußball-Matrix (2009) and Wenn wir vom Fußball träumen (2014) were voted Football Books of the year. He is a member of the German Academy of Football Culture and a member of the board of trustees of the the cultural foundation of the German FA. Christoph Biermann lives in Berlin.
Twitter: @chbiermann
Oct 19, 2020
Peter Bills is an award winning sports writer who is known around the world for his contributions to various media outlets as well as his prolific output as an author. Now the author of twenty-one sports books, most of them on rugby union, his most recent media job was chief rugby writer worldwide for the Independent News & Media group. Through his work for this group, he became known and respected for his contributions to papers in London, Auckland, Cape Town, Durban, Johannesburg, Pretoria, Dublin and Belfast. Until 2019, he had covered every Rugby World Cup since the inception of the tournament back in 1987, as well as 5 or 6 Nations rugby tournaments for more than 40 years. He has reported on Olympic Games, US Masters and US Open plus British Open golf championships, as well as Test cricket matches and European football games. Through his articles and books, he has worked with some of the greatest names in sport, the likes of Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player, George Best, Denis Law, Johann Cruyff, Franz Beckenbauer, Allan Border, Gareth Edwards, Willie John McBride, Jean Pierre Rives, Dean Richards, Corne Krige, Ashwin Willemse and Bill McLaren. Other sports figures he has interviewed include Arnold Palmer, Greg Norman, Rory McIlroy, John McEnroe, Sir Anthony O’Reilly, Brian O’Driscoll, Sir Graham Henry, Jonny Wilkinson and Dan Carter. His book, The Jersey, was published by Macmillan in August 2018 and has become a world-wide best-seller and No.1 in the sports book sales charts. His latest book is entitled Le Coq: Journey to the Heart of French Rugby and has already been widely acclaimed.
Oct 19, 2020
Lionel Birnie is a journalist, author and publisher who specialises in cycling and who writes for The Sunday Times, Cycle Sport and Cycling Weekly where he has covered the Tour de France since 2001. Lionel has written three books about Watford FC, Four Seasons, Enjoy the Game and The 100 Greatest Watford Wins. He edited The Cycling Anthology with Ellis Bacon which brought together essays by the world’s leading cycling journalists. Volume Six was published in August 2015. Lionel is also one third of The Cycling Podcast team. Their debut title, A Year In Cycling, was published by Yellow Jersey in Spring 2018.
Apr 8, 2021
Gary Bloom is a leading clinical sports psychotherapist who works with elite athletes. He also hosts the award-winning talkSPORT radio show On the Sporting Couch, where he speaks with athletes about difficulties they have had during their careers, and has commentated for over 20 years – notably on Channel 4’s iconic Football Italia. Registered with both the BACP and the UKCP, psychotherapy’s governing bodies in the UK, he is one of the only sports psychotherapists working within a football league club.
His first book was published in February 2021 by Penguin. Keeping your Head in the Game is the story of ten sportspeople who seek psychotherapy to help them in their personal and professional lives.
Gary is a conference speaker, and works for a leading London psychology clinic.
Website: Garybloom.co.uk
Twitter: @bloomers57
LinkedIn: http://linkedin.com/in/gary-bloom-a858aab
Apr 8, 2021
Claude Boli is a French contemporary world historian, born in Ivory Coast. He has a doctorate in history (De Montfort University, Leicester) and in sociology (Nantes University, France). His research focuses on a range of issues relating to football in Europe and Africa, Sport museums, Black history in Europe. Research professor fellow at the International Center for Sports History and Culture (De Montfort University), member of the Foundation for sports history museum, member of the board of the Association of Sports Writers. He’s the author of a number of books including: Manchester United: L’invention d’un club (La Martinière, postface Eric Cantona, 2004), Football et immigration (Gallimard, 2010); Le sport en France à l’épreuve du racisme (Nouveau Monde, 2015); Mohamed Ali (Gallimard, 2016). Co-realised with Eric Cantona of the acclaimed documentary (Foot et immigration: 100 ans d’histoire commune, 2014).
He’s currently scientific director of the French National Sport Museum, based in Nice.
Oct 19, 2020
Chris Bradshaw is the Online Editor at Europe’s biggest poker magazine, Bluff Europe. He is the author of The Sun Darts Quiz Book, The Sun Soap Quiz Book and The Times Cricket Quiz Book, and is behind The Sun and Sunday Times Quiz Books published by HarperCollins. Chris is also a regular contributor to iGaming Business Magazine and SabotageTimes.com. He lives in Birmingham.
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