The Guardian have been doing some great things with football lately. They’ve given us all the kind of Pro-Zone stats that previously only top managers had access too.  See:

And through their charity work in Uganda, in the village of Katine, they’ve realised that football is a key social activity that unites not only the local people but also makes their work in Uganda have more resonance with us lot through the human stories:

The reason for the tournament is two-fold. Firstly, football is a passion in rural Uganda – it’s one of the most popular and social pastimes. As such the tournament has been received enthusiastically in the district.

Secondly, football has been identified as an important tool in development, particularly in areas touched by war and insurgency, like Katine. (link)

It’s a damn good cause made all the more interesting with this focus on a football competition which starts on 6th June with 48 teams competing for,

Prizes will be a cow for the two winning teams from the older age groups and a goat for the younger winners.

Yeah, you got that right, a cow and a goat.  No bling bling here, brother.  This focus on football in the ‘developing world’ is wonderful but perhaps sits slightly at odds with their focus this week on the seven deadly sins of football:

It’s a brilliant sideways view of football.  We’ve already had Pride, Greed, Gluttony, Envy, and Wrath this week with presumably Acedia (depression and melancholoy apparently) and Extravagance to go.  Yesterday’s piece by Danielle Lloyd on WAGS was interesting for the insight that she originally wanted to be a forensic scientist, don’t you know.  Today’s focus on Gluttony didn’t struggle for stories, as you can imagine, though the fact that Paul Merson and the Arsenal team of the early 90s used to have pie eating competitions on the way to away games is testament to the extraordinary constitution of the English player don’t you think?  I can’t see the Spanish doing that with Paella or the Italians with Pasta, oh no. The story of Neil Ruddock perhaps bears witness to our ability to play good football in spite of not because of our respect for our bodies:

Canny managers would always ensure that there was a weight clause in any contract offered to Neil Ruddock. Simon Jordan remembers: “For instance, Fatty Arbuckle, Neil Ruddock, wanted to sign. And Harry Redknapp told me to make sure I had a weight clause in his contract – 98 kilos, or whatever. And if he’s over that then fine him 10% of his wages. That is the only way to ensure you get a fit-and-focused Ruddock.” Ruddock admitted recently to eating 212 steak and kidney pies per annum. A figure he was able to calculate thanks to his habit, picked up during his time at Liverpool, of recording in an A4 page-a-day diary everything he had eaten on that day. It then becomes an easy task for his partner Leah Newman (ex Page 3 and Playboy model) to come up with various graphs and charts detailing the different constituent parts of the Razor Diet. Possibly not destined to become a bestseller (link).

212 pies per annum isn’t actually that many is it? It’s only a pie every .58 days.  Be fascinating to do an annual report of the diets of each football team to see what they do consume, a sort of Daytum for every football club in the land.

Anyway super stuff Guardian people, we bow to your footballing largesse.