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The Dugout
You will find insightful articles written by our football experts here in the Dugout
Hitler at the Poststadion and Berlin's Olympic dilemma
By Kit Holden - Added 18th February 2026
At the end of January, Berlin mayor Kai Wegner fired the starting gun on his city’s bid to host the Olympic Games. In 2026, Berlin will go up against Hamburg, Munich and the Rhine-Ruhr region in a race to be chosen as Germany’s official candidate to host the 2036, 2040 or 2044 Games. Yet for Wegner, the real struggle may be to convince his own electorate.
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The winter that changed East German football forever
By Kit Holden - Added 4th February 2026
Reform, realpolitik and Cold War rivalry: Why almost every major club from the former GDR celebrated its 60th anniversary in the last few weeks.
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Temperatures were below freezing in south-east Berlin last Tuesday, and the floodlights were very much off in the Alte Försterei. The next matchday was four days away, and the ground staff were still laying new turf after weeks of ice and snow. Yet the place was buzzing.
WC Play-offs are Azzurri's last chance to avoid oblivion
By Daniele Fisichella- Added 9th January 2025
July 9, 2006. The captain of the Italian national team, Fabio Cannavaro, is on the verge of receiving and lifting the World Cup into the Berlin sky. The Azzurri are world champions for the forth time. No one could have imagined that this night would mark the beginning of Italy's decline in the World Cup. The last hope lies in the play-offs of March 2026. But how did they reach such a low point?
San Siro: Temple of Calcio or crumbling ruin?
By Professor John Foot - Added 12th December 2025
When I lived in Italy in the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s, I often went to football games at San Siro. It was in the process of being re-built and modernised for the 1990 World Cup when I arrived in the city in 1988.....
Rosario Central: one club, two moments… and two different kinds of pride
By Esteban Bekerman - Added 29th November 2025
Argentina’s three FIFA World Cup victories are each defined by an unmistakable face: in 1978, it was Mario Kempes; in 1986, Diego Maradona; and in 2022, Lionel Messi. There’s no debate: unlike other national teams....
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