Here is registration information on my free talk at the Green & Gold: Liverpool Sporting Lives Exhibition. Saturday 20 Feb 2027, 11am-12:30pm AEDT, Liverpool Regional Museum, NSW, Australia events.humanitix.com/sport-i…

The Manchester City scandal has been called the biggest in football history. How do their fans and supporters of other clubs handle it? It's all about "collective shame" and "moral uncoupling". @westsyduics @AustSoc @TASA_Sport @AcadSocSci @HumanitiesAU theconversation.com/anger-re…

Sport, place & social class in play in Australia via underdog NRL team the Newcastle Knights. TV full of excited de-industrialised provincial city fans heading for a big city final. Last week it was AFL's Fremantle Dockers in Melbourne. Takes me back to: journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.…

Remember Australian B-girl Raygun going global at the Paris Olympics? Netflix certainly does. A chance to revisit a breaking scandal stemming from a macropod pose. Raygun turned her Olympic flop into a media career. Now Netflix is helping with the rewrite theconversation.com/raygun-t…

To mark the passing of Dolly Parton, I note that her song 'Jolene' is in the music field survey of our Australian Cultural Fields Project. See the social space of musical tastes, Figure 1: not so far from Dark Side of the Moon and The Mikado! Vale Dolly. lnkd.in/gVmcdj7Q

Inducements are at the centre of the government’s long-awaited gambling reform. What actually are they? theconversation.com/induceme… via @ConversationEDU An inducement to read about inducements. @westsyduics @AustSoc @TASA_Sport @AcadSocSci @HumanitiesAU

This is what I found when I tried to re-open the FIFA Forward Enterprise (FFE) page (lnkd.in/gJ7uqvxZ) today. A sorry exercise indeed. And why does a woman have to apologise for Infantino?!

The end of world association football-soccer, or the beginning of the end, or the end of the beginning? Any ideas? theconversation.com/world-ga…

Three lessons from the 2026 World Cup This tumultuous North American Men’s World Cup has ended. What might it all have meant? Talking sociology, politics, history, culture and legacy with reference to Trump, Infantino and Durkheim. And analyst-fan hope. openforum.com.au/forums/thre…

Why is politics routinely submerged after the tournament kicks off? And not for the first time. theconversation.com/with-the… @westsyduics @HumanitiesAU @AcadSocSci @AustSoc @TASA_Sport

On the day Iran played Aotearoa New Zealand at the 2026 FIFA men's World Cup in Los Angeles, this book (NB: co-author alert) gains a certain swaggering currency! Important regional study challenges the view of sport from the Euro-(North) American nexus | idrottsforum.org

And a radio interview on the 2026 FIFA men's World Cup, including a reflection on the ethics of sport fandom. thewire.org.au/story/geopoli… @westsyduics @AustSoc @TASA_Sport @AcadSocSci @HumanitiesAU

A podcast news interview on some unseemly aspects of the 2026 FIFA men's World Cup @westsyduics @AustSoc @TASA_Sport @AcadSocSci @HumanitiesAU play.listnr.com/podcast/the-…

Regional legacy news media in Australia and around the world is in rapid retreat. Not good news - or often any kind of news - for local culture and politics. Fears of job losses as NBN confirms overhaul of television bulletins abc.net.au/news/2026-06-03/c… via @ABCaustralia

Is a modest footballer more important in world sport history than the likes of Ronaldo & Messi? Game changers: how soccer’s mega-money era was sparked by a little-known Belgian athlete theconversation.com/game-cha… via @ConversationEDU @westsyduics @AustSoc @AcadSocSci @HumanitiesAU

Why Trump and FIFA are perfect bedfellows as the World Cup heads to the US theconversation.com/why-trum… via @ConversationEDU

Anticipating the Australian winter by doing a little Seasonal Sociology on radio. Where changing temperature meets cultural ritual, not forgetting winter is fun only for the already materially comfortable. abc.net.au/listen/programs/l… @westsyduics @AustSoc @HumanitiesAU @AcadSocSci

World Aquatics the latest Olympic sport allowing Russian & Belarusian flags & anthems. A few multiplatform words by me on this reintegration as Ukraine slips from view and LA 2028 closes in, its White House Taskforce chaired by Putin-friendly Donald Trump. youtube.com/shorts/rQadKhJ-e…

Waltzing Matildas - On Line Opinion - 27/2/2026 onlineopinion.com.au/view.as… Here is my article on the 2026 AFC Women's Asian Cup and the Matildas via Online Opinion.

Three years after co-hosting an epic FIFA Women’s World Cup, Australia is sole host of the AFC Women’s Asian Cup. So what might this moment mean for women in football and women generally? Waltzing Matildas openforum.com.au/forums/walt… @westsyduics @AustSoc @HumanitiesAU @AcadSocSci