When you love sports but they don’t love you back

A coffin outside Boundary Park as Oldham fans protest against owner Abdallah Lemsagem before their League Two match against Hartlepool in September. Pic: James Gill/Getty

Kavitha Davidson and Jessica Luther weren’t planning on writing a book. As the two journalists say themselves, a “snarky rejoinder” was about all they had in mind, but then a publisher got involved.

The result, Loving Sports When They Don’t Love You Back: Dilemmas of the Modern Sports Fan, is the kind of book everyone who’s interested in sport should have on their shelves: it brings that nagging, vague unease you often feel about your favourite team or sport into sharp focus, articulating that discomfort with pinpointed questions.