Panning for Fools’ Gold: Why Chasing America’s Sports Dream Could Cost Us Our Roots UK and European sport often look west for growth, chasing America’s scale and spectacle. But lasting success may lie in the opposite direction: strengthening the cultural roots and local identities th...

In trading our roots for borrowed spectacle, we risk losing what makes our games worth watching - the rivalries, the folklore, the sense of place money can’t mint.

Read ‘Panning for Fools’ Gold’: mattyhenno.shorthandstories.com/panning-for-...

““Far from being impoverished by its difference, sport in the UK and Europe carries a wealth the glossy exports can’t counterfeit. It will thrive when it trusts its own rituals and rivalries, instead of glancing across the Atlantic for a template we never needed.”

La Liga’s Miami dream is back on the agenda, Rugby League’s Vegas gamble still fresh, but I’ve seen what these trips west can sound like.

This latest piece looks at our fixation with exporting UK and European sport to the US, Some empires can’t be copied without losing yourself

Through the Transfer Glass: How IndyKaila Broke Football's Fourth Wall What happens when the parody account becomes the prophet, and the transfer window outgrows the game it serves?

What happens when parody becomes prophecy? When anonymous accounts rival legacy journalists?

The evolution of football's information ecosystem - from ClubCall to James Richardson’s Gazzetta Football Italia to David Ornstein and the curious rise of #IndyKaila

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Where the Shadows Fell Long

As sport races toward commercial polish, what becomes of the towns it once belonged to?

‘Where the Shadows Fell Long’ takes you to the coal towns where rugby of either code was a ritual, and asks what we lose when sport forgets its roots.

mattyhenno.shorthandstories.com/where-the-sh...

The Last Voice in the Living Room Ray French didn’t just commentate on rugby league. He helped carry it. As the game’s warmest custodian and one of the last voices of linear sporting tradition, his passing marks not just the loss of a...

"Ray French didn’t just commentate on rugby league. He dignified it. Not with pomp or pretence, but with a tone that matched the game’s virtues: honest, hard, unvarnished, and deeply human."

The Last Voice in the Living Room: Remembering Ray French

mattyhenno.shorthandstories.com/the-last-voi...

A New Gradgrindism Against the backdrop of a solemn occasion at Deepdale, this piece explores how a club steeped in heritage and humility-unburdened by hype, unspoiled by hubris - can still offer a kind of resonance tha...

Against the backdrop of Sunday's solemn occasion at Deepdale, this piece explores how a club steeped in heritage & humility-unburdened by hype, unspoiled by hubris - can still offer a kind of resonance that matters despite a system that ignores it

mattyhenno.shorthandstories.com/a-new-gradgr...

His Name is Diogo. 'His Name is Diogo' explores the troubling way social media's faceless aggregators and “banter” accounts have responded to this human tragedy. It is a call to resist the algorithmic reflex and remembe...

It’s not really about football. It’s about loss. And the way we respond to it; online, in public, and within ourselves.

This piece doesn’t ask for attention, but I hope it holds yours.

👉 mattyhenno.shorthandstories.com/his-name-is-...

His Name is Diogo. 'His Name is Diogo' explores the troubling way social media's faceless aggregators and “banter” accounts have responded to this human tragedy. It is a call to resist the algorithmic reflex and remembe...

Diogo Jota’s passing shook the world. The grief was real. The tributes were powerful. This isn’t just about a footballer. It’s about love, loss, and the way we mourn in a digital world.

👉 mattyhenno.shorthandstories.com/his-name-is-...