James Montague: The Indiana Jones of Football Writing

Our guest today is journalist and author James Montague. Montague has written 3 books and 1 e-book, includingWhen Friday Comes: Football in the War Zone, the revision of that When Friday Comes: Football, War and Revolution in the Middle East, Ultras: How Egypt’s Football Fans Toppled a Dictator, and Thirty One Nil: On the Road with Football’s Outsiders which won him Best Football Book at the 2015 British Sports Book of the Year Awards.

His new book, The Billionaires Club: The Unstoppable Rise of Football’s Super-rich Owners comes out this August. He regularly writes for GQ, bleacher report, CNN, World Soccer the New York times and appears on the BBC World Service’s World Football

Show.

You can follow him on Twitter @JamesPiotr and buy his new book here.

This is part 1 of my 2-part interview with him. In this episode he talks about getting in trouble as a youth, his keys to pitching a story, how he finds original story ideas, playing summer football in the Sahara, spending the day in a Russian jail cell and how he almost got assaulted by riot police in Gaza.

This is part 2 of my interview with him. In this episode, he talks about what didn’t make it into his new book, traveling to the migrant workers camps in Qatar, what surprised him while writing the book, his fears for the future of football and the story he’s most proud of writing.

Timeline

Part 1

How he ended up living in Belgrade 3:18

On getting nicked for the first time 9:43

Why he chose to do freelance journalism 11:55

His method for pitching stories 14:05

How he got the job for Timeout Dubai 21:30

Going to a North Korea World Cup Qualifying game in Dubai 24:38

How finds inspiration for story ideas 33:40

His trip to the Sahara Desert 41:27

Travelling and interviewing with a language barrier 46:35

Recording and transcribing interviewing while staying spontaneous 51:20

The items he always packs when he travels 53:48

Being detained in a Tajikistan (maybe Russia) cell 59:45

His close call in a Gaza riot 1:02:10

Part 2

His writing process for starting a book or feature 2:56

The difference in writing the Billionaire’s Club versus his other books 2:50

The rise of Chinese ownership 10:00

What got cut from the book 13:25

Discusses the human rights abuses and their connection with Man City 18:00

What he learned about Billionaires writing this book 20:24

His trip to Qatar to the migrant worker camps 28:44

Tells the story of the invisible Portsmouth owner 33:06

The story of ADO Den Haag 38:58

Is the Premier League killing local leagues abroad 41:22

Owners getting public funds for stadiums and his trip to St.Louis 50:00

The future of football in Africa and Asia 56:56

Who does he regularly read? 59:36

Something people think is true that he thinks is wrong 1:08:28

The best piece of advice he’s ever received 1:10:20

His future projects 1:15:57

References

Part One

Weezer

GQ

FourFourTwo

Timeout Dubai

North Korea qualifying game in Dubai

Thirty-One Nil: On the road with football’s outsiders

Jaiyah Saelua (American Somoan transgender)

Next goal wins (film)

Thomas Rongen (coach)

Partizan Belgrade

Drone Story in NY Times Serbia Albania

Eric Moussambani Equatorial Guinea swimmer Australia Olympics

Western Sahara

Outcasts! The Lands That FIFA Forgot by Steve Menary

Miodrag Belodedici

Marantz recorder

Zoom recorder

Kendal Mint cake

Gaza Riot

Part Two

The Billionaire’s Club (book)

Thirty One Nil: On the Road with Football’s Outsiders (book)

Jaylee Hodgson

Monteserrat

ADO Den Haag Story

Sheik Mansour

Man City Human Rights

Stan Kroenke

NYU in Abu Dhabi

Thaksin Shinawatra ex-prime minister

Kafala (slave system)

Qatar and Abu Dhabi slave stories

Norweigan story about 2018 Russia

Fit and Proper Owners test

Israeli Owner of Portsmouth Alexandre Gaydamak

Sulaiman Al Fahim

Ali al-Faraj

Portsmouth Fan Ownership

Michael Eisner, Disney Owner

Depeche Mode

Dallas Cowboys

Billion Reasons to Believe

CNN match fixing article

Michael Lewis

John Ronson, Public Shaming

Kaperisinki, The Angola War, The Soccer War

George Orwell, Homage to Catalonia

Drone Story in NY Times Serbia v Albania

Built on Brotherhood, Club Lives Up to Name

Nothing to Envy by Barbara Demick (North Korean Refugee book)

If you haven’t already, please subscribe to the podcast here (for mac) or here (windows). Also, check out my previous episode with football finance expert Kieran Maguire.

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