Football Journeys — Series Two, so far …
In June 2020 Fraser Franks and I set up B5 Consultancy. We were in the middle of a pandemic but we’d been planning the business before the first lockdown, and some existing contracts I had with football clubs needed to be renewed in pre-season. So we took the leap …
The support we’ve had from clients, my legal colleagues (who I still work alongside), Fraser’s former teammates, coaches and staff, and from our friends, family and contacts, has been outstanding. And then we had the incomparable Leigh Nicol join us in May 2021. It’s been a hell of a journey for us.
The idea of B5 is to be a force for positive change and good. We have a big focus on online communication, which is a big part of young athletes’ day-to-day (and a big part of my legal expertise) but the firm is about more than that, it’s about helping players and staff to develop positive cultures off the pitch. As Fraser puts it — we are off the pitch coaches … and we’re proud of the help and support that we provide to clubs and organisations in developing good quality young men and women.
Part of that positivity was the Football Journeys podcast. We wanted to tell a series of uplifting stories that were lesser known. A group of talented young footballers who had achieved much but hadn’t achieved what they had dreamed — becoming a Liverpool FC legend. That is the crux of football. A group of young men (and increasingly women) are setting off on a journey with one aim — which the vast majority of them are bound to fail — yet it is a journey that gives incredible opportunities to achieve wholly different things. We spoke to a group of brilliant young men with remarkable stories and outlooks. I reflect on all those episodes and it’s impossible to pick a favourite. From the lad destined to be a superstar aged 17 but then plagued by injuries, to Dahrius and the difficult upbringing and the tragedy of prison, the lad doing a degree whilst DJing and flying in the National League North, the dual-national bilingual lad who went to his Dad’s homeland of Spain to kickstart his playing career and MJ Williams playing on with a donated knee after his career was seemingly over. The untold stories. We loved telling them.
For Series Two we wanted to diversify as much as possible. So we decided to tell as many diverse stories as possible with one simple theme — identity. We all identify ourselves by our roles: mother, father, son, daughter, brother, sister or, very often, by our profession. Each of our guests in Series Two have been labelled by us in the title based on what they are: the referee, the sporting director, the club doctor but what is then important, in life and in the pod, is to find out who they/we are … and that’s what we do.
We are six episodes in now and I have the same problem as I had in Series One. I can’t pick a favourite. With each one that is airing I want to grab people and shout “Listen to this! This person is amazing!” and I feel the same about the episodes to come. The coming episodes bring a hugely impressive and intelligent coach/director, an incredible Paralympian, two wonderful young men and a hero of mine! We then have episodes which we have in the pipeline and haven’t been recorded yet, some of which are a bit of a coup, plus breakout episodes (to follow our trolling episode) on some of the most important issues impacting football and footballers.
I really hope listeners enjoy the episodes as much as we have enjoyed making them. At the time of writing this blog our latest episode is about to come out featuring Dr Zafar Iqbal, the former club doctor at Tottenham Hotspur and Liverpool who is now in charge at Crystal Palace. It was an honour to interview Zaf and the same applies to all of our guests.
Yours with pride, Matt.
