Post 1b: SL

The Sporting League

I’m starting a write up about all my research that relates to the Sporting and Colbreck leagues. I’d also like to include anything that may loosely relate to the leagues and will use this paper as a place where I can collate other research that may also be relevant. I could have a reference page that I use for links or possibly a blog page for this purpose….


The Sporting League has been in operation in my mind since the age of 6. It’s a fragment of youth that I’ve held onto and acts as a form of exhibitionism. I’ve always wanted to get others close to the teams and get others to support them.

The league also acts as a parallel world – invisible but made visible through my actions as an artist. I find myself using the ‘real world’ as the starting point for the imaginary…perhaps there is a feeling of ‘the uncanny’.

The team names such as Athletico, Bayerns and Jivintis have geen influenced by my knowledge of European football teams. This began for me in the year 1984 when Liverpool won the European cup. It was the first year when I became aware of a world outside the first division.

I woild pitch myself as Reds’ no 1 player. I’ve been there in the Colbreck league as a player having won that league between the years of 1982-1985. I would look forward to play times and the next great battle would begin. There was a heightened sense of magic. The mind re interpreting the media which resulted in my creation of theoretical football leagues..

I’ve been uploading my written commentaries and scores to a blog over the last year. This is something that I’d like to build upon over the coming months as I begin to play ‘catch up’ with the scores and tables lists.

There is text and biro on paper. I think it’s important for me to use the democratic tool of a biro as it’s what I originally used when I was younger. I I could potentially build the league into a completely virtual/digital experience but feel that it’s important to keep the raw edged essence of the ‘look’ of the project in the hand made biro style. This could also be my way of saying no to the corporate and sticking with the DIY ethic.. This gives some ideas about the sense of the word ‘truth’. Being true to oneself and using ‘honest’ materials. Am I a victim of the brand The biro? Branding is an important part of my philosophy in my Sporting project and through my observations on life in general.

I take on the Warhol idea of trying to act like a computer. I turn myself into a computer like entity when working out the scores and transcribing them into my series of sketchbooks.

The artworks are frequently broken down into their basic element. I’m writing lists and statistics on paper and am living out what could be seen as an obsession to the outsider. What is an obsession? Why do obsessions frequently appear to have a negative connotation attached?

The text is dominated by dividing lines that make up crudely drawn grid formats. The ready reckoner is a simple grid that is the core of my theoretical world. There is a centre, without which I have to guess the scoresw and don’t have a place for a written record. This begs the question…’Do they need to be brought to the attention of the public? What wider function do the leagues serve?


I look back to the early days, the things that evoked the senses from various stages of my youth. When I was at primary school there were the cones, the bibs, the park in willaston and a sense of community – bringing together – looking back and renewal. I would imagine the crowd cheeringthrough the breeze of the trees in the park. The leaves representing people in the crowd in the summer months. A tree stump would become an advertising hording. The bits of grass ion the school field would be akin to individual football stadia. Each area would have it’s own personality. From the Colbreck pitch to the Parkish pitch. These places formed the beginnings of narratives and later to my interest in European football teams an the sense of the exotic.


Why do I sometimes feel it’s all a waste of time and they’re childish?Why do we do what we do? There are a range of things that I could give my attention to in life, but why an imaginary football league? I’m already at a disadvantage in that time keepson moving and there is often a sense of failure and the struggle to keep up or play catch up with the statistics.
I think that football has always been a constant source of intrigue to me. I’ve always enjoyed listening to the latest scores as they’ve filtered through on the radio.

Is there something amiss to a 36 year old man admitting that he still continues the games of youth? What am I trying to say and what will the continuation enable me to voice in the future.

I was listening to a caller on ‘Talk Sport’ of which I’m a regular listener to a Man Utd supporter getting angry about a star player (wayne Rooney) leaving the club and bad business dealings. My thoughts moved onto ‘Why isn’t this man talking about his home, wife, kids and things that are worth getting angry about?'

Is the projected anger from men towards their club something other than their unease at the teams bad fortune? Could it be something to do with being uneasy that time on this planet is short lived?


Is it a way to express oneself - giving a sense of meaning to life through a fiction? I went to see a Germaine Greer talk in Oct and she was talking about how men have managed to hold onto this playfulness from youth and is something women don't really have. I must see if I can find some of her writing about this issue.

I'm forever questioning is the SL something childish? a waste of time? Why football? Am I keeping my options too narrow by following this particular line of enquiry? Lists, table and statistics are something that have always engaged me. The osesssive look.

This questioning of 'a waste of time' could be a research question all it's own. What defines 'a waste of time.' There are many recreational activities that could be said to be just that but people are engaged in a whole host of activities.











What is the relationship between drawing and the football leagues?

The medium of drawing is pivotal to the development of the football league project. There are many ways in which one can define the term of drawing from the stud marks in the turf of the football pitch to the worn out mud patches on the wreck or in the school playground. Drawing is a way of evidencing an event. It could be the footprints on the concrete of a football stand to the litter left by the supporters at the end of the game. These hints and suggestions could provide me with further ideas/sources for future projects.

So we have ‘found’ or conceptual drawings, coincidental drawing as mentioned above to intentional drawing. This could include my sketchbook depictions of Sporting League’ players.

Is writing drawing? How does the word ‘Athletico ‘ differ from a gesture or mark? Then there are the figures and statistics. Are they still drawings?