Football documentaries

[Bosco]

Recently bought a hard drive so on a bit of a downloading spree at the moment.

Anyone reccommend any good football documentaries?

[Cuyahoga]

The Four Year Plan abour QPR is very good ,was on BBC i think in 2011.

[Stuttgart88]

I don't know if this is downloadable anywhere but I thought this one was fascinating when I saw it:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/4892120.stm

Communism and Football

Communism and Football, a new documentary on BBC Four, tells the fascinating story of how the Soviet authorities sought to exercise control over the national sport and use it for their own ends. Throughout the 20th Century, the football grounds of Eastern Europe became battlegrounds as ruthless politicians tried to use football to lend legitimacy to communist rule. In this film, footballers from Russia, Hungary and East Germany recall how the beautiful game was manipulated by ruthless communist leaders.

They reveal how the careers of several great footballers from behind the Iron Curtain were destroyed simply because they refused to co-operate with the Eastern Bloc's most brutal totalitarian regimes.

[Bosco]

Saw the Four year plan alright,thought it was very good!

That communism in football looks interesting, o'll have a look for a link to download it..

[DannyInvincible]

Zidane: A 21st Century Portrait

[DannyInvincible]

Once in a Lifetime: The Extraordinary Story of the New York Cosmos

[NeverFeltBetter]

30 For 30's "The Two Escobars"

[Bosco]

Have seen the 2 Escobars a few times,its excellent!I've been meaning to watch Once in a lifetime for a while now.

Watcehd Communism in football last night, thought it was brilliant, very interesting to learn about the origins of the different clubs in Moscow.

[bennocelt]

That cosmos one is brilliant - tx for putting it up

[bluemovie]

'The Last Yugoslav Football Team' or something to that effect was a great one on ESPN. Deals with the civil war and football.

[DannyInvincible]

Came across a 1983 BBC documentary called Old Scores on YouTube earlier and decided to give it a watch. Features some interesting interviews with former members of a football team from Belfast known as Star of the Sea.

When Olenka Frenkiel came to Northern Ireland as a reporter in the late 1970s, she heard about a photo of a youth football team taken in 1969. The team was based at the Star of the Sea youth club near Rathcoole; it didn’t matter what religion you were, you just needed to be a good player.

In 1983 this unremarkable photograph was the starting point for Olenka’s ground-breaking documentary, Old Scores. By then everything had changed for Northern Ireland and the members of the football team. Three of the players were involved with paramilitary groups. One of them, a young Bobby Sands had become a Republican hunger striker and MP. Two others had served time for loyalist paramilitary offences.

In Old Scores players spoke for the first time about how their utopian dream team had been scattered and shattered by the arrival of the Troubles.

[NeverFeltBetter]

Big news out the other day: ESPN will be producing eight football specific documentaries connected to their acclaimed "30 For 30" series, two feature length, six half hour. One of the half hour ones will be of particular interest to Irish football fans:

Ceasefire Massacre, Directed by Alex Gibney and Trevor Birney
New Jersey, June 18, 1994. Giants Stadium is awash with green as Irish soccer fans arrive to watch Ireland’s opening World Cup match against the mighty Italy. The sense of optimism is infectious. The Celtic Tiger is in its infancy, Bill Clinton’s decision to grant a visa to Irish Republican leader Gerry Adams has propelled the peace process forward and Jack Charlton’s team are walking onto the pitch before 75,000 fervent spectators made up of Irish, Italians and Americans of Irish and Italian decent. Amongst the fans is Irish Prime Minister Albert Reynolds who is sitting with members of an American group who’ve been working behind-the-scenes to end the conflict in Northern Ireland. The electrifying mood is shared by the supporters watching the match in the Heights Bar, a tiny pub in the Northern Irish village of Loughin Island, 24 miles south of Belfast. At the half, the Irish are remarkably ahead 1-0. Shortly after the second half begins, two masked gunmen belonging to a Protestant terror group burst into the Heights Bar. Thirty rounds are fired and six innocent men watching a soccer match were killed. Ceasefire Massacre will reveal how the juxtaposition of the jubilation felt inside Giants Stadium against the horrors of what happened in the Heights Bar, encapsulated the mood of the time. After 25-years of conflict, Ireland and her people longed for peace and prosperity but the brutalities of the violence in the North were never far from the surface. The gunning down of innocent men as they watched a soccer match marked both a low-point and a turning-point in the Northern Ireland conflict; one that would ultimately contribute to the paramilitaries on both sides calling ceasefires just weeks later.

[DannyInvincible]

Just watched ESPN's 30 for 30 documentary on the Hillsborough disaster, the subsequent whitewash and the families' long campaign for justice since. It's a really powerful, thorough and well-made piece of work. I even found myself holding back tears with a lump in my throat during parts of it.

You can watch it here: http://cloudyvideos.com/s14lwjrgyv45 (part 1) and http://cloudyvideos.com/x95aki2eyxos (part 2)

[BonnieShels]

Looking up the latest 30for30s I came across this...

The Opposition
In the wake of the 1973 military coup in Chile, American-backed dictator Augusto Pinochet transformed Santiago's National Stadium into a concentration camp where political opponents were tortured and assassinated. Only months later, that same stadium was scheduled to host a decisive World Cup qualifier between Chile and the Soviet Union. Despite protests, FIFA's own investigation, and the Soviet's eventual boycott, the Chilean team still played the game as planned, qualifying for the 1974 World Cup on a goal scored against no one.

http://espn.go.com/30for30/film?page=theopposition
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BdyyfWs-PuY

I don't know if I could watch the one from June 1994. I remember the massacre and I still can't watch archival footage from that night. Even writing this makes a lump come to my throat.

[DannyInvincible]

This trailer is out for the Loughinisland massacre 30 for 30:



It's to be broadcast on Tuesday.

[Hitman]

A bit late to the party here, but the beeb are showing the official World Cup films, up to 1970 this Saturday.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01q...casts/upcoming

Also a bit tardy, and I'd hesitate to refer to it as a documentary given some of the factual liberties taken, but RTÉ have been showing Return of the Rod Squad.
http://www.rte.ie/player/ie/show/10284745/