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Jim White

@JimWhite

Jim White has been writing about sport for rather longer than he would care to admit in public. He has reported on everything from World Cups, Champions Leagues and Olympic Games to Harrogate Town against Port Vale for The Independent, The Guardian and The Telegraph. Jim has been responsible for a number of books, including the critically acclaimed Manchester United: The Biography, and his memoir of his time failing to coach his son's football team, You'll Win Nothing With Kids.

<p>Gary Lineker will still front the BBC’s coverage of the World Cup in 2026 </p>
Voices

Dumping Gary Lineker is a self-destructive move the BBC will regret

<p>Leap of faith: the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham cost the city £778m, a level of cost that probably factored into the city’s council declaring of bankruptcy in 2023 </p>
Sport

Is the crisis-hit Commonwealth Games about to run its last race?

<p>‘I love you, Daddy’: Adam Peaty hugs his son George after winning silver in the men’s 100 metres breaststroke</p>
Voices

Why Paris 2024 is turning into the ‘Dadlympics’

<p>Thomas Tuchel as he is announced as the new England manager at Wembley Stadium</p>
Football

Appointing Thomas Tuchel is a damning indictment of English football

<p>The England coach during a nets session at Headingley, Leeds, in May </p>
Cricket

The real Freddie Flintoff and why we should revel in his TV comeback

<p>Alvaro Morata hoists the European Championship trophy aloft</p>
Football

The one thing that made the Spanish the best footballers in the world

<p>‘He’s lost absolutely everything’: The sportsman’s many achiements have been overshadowed in recent years </p>
Cycling

Bradley Wiggins’ sad fall from Tour de France cycling hero is complete

<p>The British legend has finally bowed out of the men’s singles at SW19 this year - so no what? </p>
Sport

Andy Murray’s body is broken – it’s time for him to retire

<p>Blues vs Reds: both major party candidates have been trying to make good use of the normalising effect of the beautiful game </p>
Football

How the Euros could change the result of the election

<p>Kevin Sinfield carries Rob Burrow across the finish line of the Leeds marathon in 2023 </p>
Voices

What Rob Burrow and Kevin Sinfield taught men like me about ‘bromance’

<p>Gascoigne holds off Scotland’s John Collins during the Euro 96 clash at Wembley</p>
Football

Gazza says he’s a sad drunk – I prefer to remember the football genius

<p>The number of parents opting their children out of rugby is growing</p>
Rugby

Is playing rugby really a form of child abuse?

<p>Six appeal: (from left) Italy’s Tommaso Menoncello, Dafydd Jenkins of Wales, Scotland’s Finn Russell, Ireland captain Peter O’Mahony, England’s George Ford, and Jonathan Danty of France </p>
Sport

Welcome to the pressure dome: Kick-off for sport’s most brutal test

Sport

Welcome to the pressure dome: Kick-off for sport’s most brutal test

<p>Six appeal: (from left) Italy’s Tommaso Menoncello, Dafydd Jenkins of Wales, Scotland’s Finn Russell, Ireland captain Peter O’Mahony, England’s George Ford, and Jonathan Danty of France </p>
<p>JPR Williams after playing his last international game, salutes fans from the stands of Cardiff Arms Park, 1979. The final score was Wales 27 England 3</p>
Rugby Union

Why rugby wizard JPR Williams was the last of the great amateurs

<p>Aged 70, which makes him a mere stripling in US political circles, Austin had been admitted into hospital before Christmas </p>
Voices

What Lloyd Austin’s secret surgery tells us about men of a certain age

<p>Pistorius seemed like an athlete for the ages – not just a winner, but a role model of international significance </p>
Voices

Oscar Pistorius duped the world with a charm that masked his darkness

<p>Luke Littler, 16, is the youngest to reach the PDC World Championship final</p>
Darts

Luke Littler is prodigious talent – don’t burden him with expectation

<p>Luke Littler, 16, is the youngest to reach the PDC World Championship final</p>
Darts

Luke Littler is prodigious talent – don’t burden him with expectation

<p>Wayne Rooney has been sacked as Birmingham City manager after just 15 games </p>
Football

Wayne Rooney may never recover from his latest very public humiliation

<p>From Belmarsh to Mont Blanc: John McAvoy used his time inside to get in the shape of his life</p>
Sport

This ex-con uses ultra running to stop kids following in his footsteps

<p>Referee Halil Umut Meler, left, falls to the ground after an attack at the end of the MKE Ankaragucu v Caykur Rizespor match in the Turkish Super Lig on Monday (Abdurrahman Antakyali/AP)</p>
Voices

The on-pitch punch that proves the ‘beautiful game’ is anything but...

<p>Jon Rahm, left, has announced he is joining the LIV Tour on a contract reckoned to be worth $450m (£358m), while Rory McIlroy, right, remains with the PGA Tour</p>
Golf

Show me the money: Jon Rahm and the battle for the future of golf

<p>In the current era, when almost everything in cinema is too long and too flabby, This Is Spinal Tap is a lesson in rigour</p>
Voices

A Spinal Tap sequel with Elton and Macca? Please, no!

<p>The documentary focuses on Ronnie O’Sullivan’s triumphant 2022 World Championship</p>
Snooker

Ronnie O’Sullivan is our greatest sportsman – and also the most honest

<p>Manchester United’s Bobby Charlton, being slide-tackled by Bolton Wanderers’ Tommy Banks during the 1958 FA Cup final (Keystone/Getty Images)</p>
Voices

Farewell Bobby Charlton, footballer and the ultimate English gentleman

<p>Watford manager Graham Taylor, left, and Elton John take in a match together</p>
Sport

Elton John, Graham Taylor and football’s most unlikely bromance

<p>The documentary focuses on Ronnie O’Sullivan’s triumphant 2022 World Championship</p>
Snooker

Ronnie O’Sullivan is our greatest sportsman – and also the most honest

<p>Manchester United’s Bobby Charlton, being slide-tackled by Bolton Wanderers’ Tommy Banks during the 1958 FA Cup final (Keystone/Getty Images)</p>
Voices

Farewell Bobby Charlton, footballer and the ultimate English gentleman

<p>Watford manager Graham Taylor, left, and Elton John take in a match together</p>
Sport

Elton John, Graham Taylor and football’s most unlikely bromance

<p>His goal celebrations, his presence, his rare gnomic utterances: to Cantona, everything is an opportunity for theatre</p>
Long Reads

Ooh, ah, Cantona! The reinvention of a football genius

Long Reads

Ooh, ah, Cantona! The reinvention of a football genius

<p>His goal celebrations, his presence, his rare gnomic utterances: to Cantona, everything is an opportunity for theatre</p>
<p>A wretched parody. While KSI (right) is an adept salesman, he’s no professional boxer </p>
Voices

The KSI-Tommy Fury fight was a wrestling-style choreographed fraud

<p>Lady Cathy Ferguson was married to Sir Alex for almost 60 years </p>
Football

‘There is only one person in the world I do not answer back to’

<p>With David Beckham’s stewardship, Inter Miami fixtures have become must-see events for the A-list </p>
Voices

No one exploits their fame quite like David Beckham

<p>USA fans at the Ryder Cup in 2021 </p>
Sport

Are American Ryder Cup golf fans the most cretinous in world sport?

<p>USA fans at the Ryder Cup in 2021 </p>
Sport

Are American Ryder Cup golf fans the most cretinous in world sport?

<p>Nerves? What nerves?: President Emmanuel Macron with French coach Fabien Galthie (second left) and captain Antoine Dupont (right) during training earlier this week</p>
Rugby

Why Macron doesn’t want to drop the (oval-shaped) ball

<p>A magnificent storyteller, with a comedian’s timing and a raconteur’s ease, I’ve witnessed Roy Keane lose his rag at the very thought of a soft drink</p>
Voices

The Roy Keane I know is no headbutter

<p>For Spain, indeed the world of football, the most pressing question is this: what comes next? </p>
Voices

Is the World Cup kiss Spain’s Me Too moment?

<p>Greenwood was suspended last January when a video and voice recording was published on social media apparently showing him brutally bullying a woman for sexual gratification</p>
Voices

Mason Greenwood’s ugly misogyny has no place at Manchester United

<p>Above all what makes this team so admirable is that they seem like genuinely decent people</p>
Voices

Bring it home, Lionesses – you have earned it

<p>Michael Parkinson’s classic BBC interview with David and Victoria Beckham</p>
Voices

Parky had a God-given ability to make people talk – me included

<p>England’s victory in the Euros last summer signified a key change for women’s football </p>
Voices

The Lionesses are ready to roar (they’re even good when they’re bad)

<p>Red mist leads to a red card. Lauren James is very lucky England went on to win the match </p>
Voices

England’s heroic penalty takers saved Lauren James from ignominy

Football

Soccer for sale: What are Americans buying British teams playing at?

<p>Stuart Broad ended his Test career in style </p>
Voices

Hollywood could never match sport’s real-life fairytale endings

<p>The really extraordinary thing about Saudi club Al-Hilal reportedly offering a record €300m fee is how unsurprising it is </p>
Voices

The Kylian Mbappe saga shows that in sport, everyone can be bought

Voices

The Kylian Mbappe saga shows that in sport, everyone can be bought

<p>The really extraordinary thing about Saudi club Al-Hilal reportedly offering a record €300m fee is how unsurprising it is </p>
<p>There was no self-pity, no complaints about the umpire, no hint of paranoia about how the world had conspired against him</p>
Voices

Was this the Wimbledon where Novak Djokovic became almost likeable?

<p>The man is a genuine weirdo </p>
Voices

Djokovic spying claims are on brand for tennis’s weirdest superstar

<p>At Sunday’s British Grand Prix at Silverstone somebody thought it a good idea to ask Damian Lewis to deliver the national anthem</p>
Voices

God save us from Damian Lewis and the new sporting razzmatazz!

<p>How we need Murray back in our lives, roaring</p>
Voices

Why Andy Murray gets us Brits excited like nobody else

<p>How we need Murray back in our lives, roaring</p>
Voices

Why Andy Murray gets us Brits excited like nobody else

<p>Federer long ago turned the business of hitting a tennis ball into an art form – but he won’t be playing this year </p>
Voices

Without Federer and Nadal, Wimbledon has Pimm’s but lacks punch

<p>It is the great unspoken of our festival of whacking balls, racing horses and paddling boats: alcohol underpins it all</p>
Voices

Excess all areas: Save us from the boozed up British sporting summer

<p>Bozball, Boris Johnson’s tradition-busting, foot-on-the-throttle, all-out attacking politics, is a goner</p>
Voices

Boris tried to turn cricket’s ‘Bazball’ into ‘Bozball’ and got stumped

<p>Bossing it: Bruce Springsteen performing at Villa Park on 16 June</p>
Voices

Born to Brum: Why Bruce Springsteen is adored by blue-collar Britain

<p>When it comes to his opinions, no one can accuse the 22-time grand slam tennis champion of ever keeping quiet</p>
Voices

Novak Djokovic is the rebel who uses antipathy as his greatest weapon

<p>Rory McIlroy has been a cheerleader for the DP World Tour – but is faced with no option but to fall into line with the controversial LIV merger </p>
Voices

After its shock golf buyout, Saudi is eyeing every sporting prize

<p>Intolerance of bigotry needs to become the presiding sense at the game, it needs to reach into its ugliest fissures</p>
Voices

Abuse on football terraces is rampant. Why hasn’t it been stamped out?

<p>Sport provides an unparalleled platform for publicity </p>
Voices

Keep politics out of sport? Sport has never been more political

Culture

The Independent Archive 27 September 1989: `A simple idea, but very

Sport

Plasterer's mate on the way to greatness

Sport

Football: At Wembley the most ardent show of devotion seemed to be to

Sport

Football: At Wembley the most ardent show of devotion seemed to be to

Sport

Dragons, dirges and the cheeseheads going bonkers

Lifestyle

Are you sick of footie? Read on

Sport

Ferguson and Keegan form unlikely alliance

Lifestyle

Tap into the future

Lifestyle

Tap into the future

Voices

Are Gazza's in-flight antics his last hurrah?

Media

Bacon, banter and the Virgin boys

Sport

Keegan sold Barry Venison, the only man capable of wearing three

Lifestyle

Remains of the day

Voices

It's Friday, so where's the leaving do?

News

Will '96 turn into the summer of thugs?

Books

Book review / Saturday night's all right for fighting

Sport

Sport has such a position of broadcasting pre-eminence that all other

Voices

Farewell, my fragrant hostess

Culture

I am not worthy

Sport

Around the tables there was much speculation about his acceptance

Lifestyle

Secrets of success in a woman's world

Sport

Liverpool the losers in Docherty's finest hour

Sport

The FA are really terrified that the idea might get about that women

Culture

Action replay

Voices

Say a little prayer

Sport

The FA are really terrified that the idea might get about that women

Culture

Action replay

Voices

Say a little prayer

Culture

live kd lang Apollo, Manchester

News

Suited to a new politics

Sport

No good can come of footballers' efforts to turn into pop stars

News

And Coleman is 70 ... quite remarkable

Lifestyle

Jobs for the boys

Sport

United's training ground was the venue for the great title fight which

News

The agony and ecstasy of a city on edge

Voices

It's a game of two minds

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