Dr Mark Middling

Family man, football fan & Assistant Prof a Northumbria Uni, researching the transparency and accountability of English football clubs. Opinions are my own.

[Blyth Spartans @Blyth_Spartans]

🫵 Put your business at Croft Park!

Pitchside advertising boards available now, for more info email Steven Brett below👇

✉️ [email protected]

#HowayBlyth

[Dr Mark Middling @DrMarkMiddling]

@futbolquaters Aston Villa

[Dr Mark Middling @DrMarkMiddling]

@_FootyNostalgia Tuncay

[Blyth Spartans @Blyth_Spartans]

𝗦𝗣𝗔𝗥𝗧𝗔𝗡𝗦 𝗦𝗘𝗘𝗞𝗜𝗡𝗚 𝗦𝗟𝗘𝗘𝗩𝗘 𝗦𝗣𝗢𝗡𝗦𝗢𝗥 🟢⚪️

Northumberland’s premier football club are still on the hunt for a sleeve sponsor to be adorned on our home shirt for the 2026/27 season 👕

With over 13,000 people passing through Croft Park across a season, and our digital media often reaching over a million people every month - this is a great opportunity to partner with one of non-league’s most well-known football clubs and increase your brand’s reputation 🏟️

Email: [email protected] for more information. 📧

#HowayBlyth 🟢⚪️

[Blyth Spartans @Blyth_Spartans]

Congratulations to Andy Evans, Paddy McClafferty, Jesse Gomez and first-team coach Derek Forrest, along with other former Spartans amongst the team and the rest of the Northumbria University first-team squad! 👏

Crowned BUCS Northern Division 1 Champions after a title-deciding win in Manchester! 🏆

A great achievement, well done lads!

#HowayBlyth 🟢⚪️

[Blyth Spartans @Blyth_Spartans]

𝗛𝗼𝘀𝗽𝗶𝘁𝗮𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝗮𝘃𝗮𝗶𝗹𝗮𝗯𝗶𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆 🥂🥧

We now have limited availability in the Tommy Hedley Suite across the final few remaining games of the season!

The Match Sponsorship package for our games against Silsden (4th April) and Bridlington Town (18th April) are now the only remaining packages available across the final few games.

Fancy getting booked up? Here’s what you can expect👇

🟢 Access to the directors' lounge from 90 minutes before kick-off
⚪️ Seats in the directors' box in the Port of Blyth stand
🟢 Hot food prior to kick-off
⚪️ Up to five drinks per person in the director's lounge
🟢 Matchday programme and team sheet
⚪️ PA announcement and advertisement on Social Media
🟢 Signed shirt from first team

To get booked up, please email [email protected]

#HowayBlyth🟢⚪️

[Dr Mark Middling @DrMarkMiddling]

@kevinhunterday Enjoy, Kev, well deserved !

[Blyth Spartans @Blyth_Spartans]

𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐅𝐈𝐍𝐀𝐋 𝐅𝐎𝐔𝐑 ⚔️

Tickets for the final 4 home games of the season at Croft Park are now all on sale👇

Saturday 14th March - North Ferriby
🎟️🔗 - https://t.co/2MvdFnYrQS

Saturday 4th April - Silsden
🎟️🔗 - https://t.co/APLfr4AweE

Saturday 11th April - Garforth Town
🎟️🔗 - https://t.co/zsQPgOnrgf

Saturday 18th April - Bridlington Town
🎟️🔗 - https://t.co/by2fsZlDtk

Let’s pack out Croft Park as the lads battle to secure safety in the final weeks of the season.

🖼️ Graham Dury

#HowayBlyth🟢

[Walthamstow Football Club @walthamstowfc]

We have been made aware of a distressing image doing the rounds today, suggesting Tottenham have beaten us 3-1.

This has clearly been photoshopped, and we will be taking this up with the relevant authorities.

Even we'd beat Spurs...

[James Tate @JamesTate121]

Nailed it.

[esyaa @pliskevt]

physics is greater than magic

[Dr Mark Middling @DrMarkMiddling]

@TheRealThelmaJ1 And was shot on the orders of his leader when his usefulness expired. The future is bright. The future is Trump.

[Ounka @OunkaOnX]

America Values…?

[𝓝𝓲𝓴𝓴𝓲 𝓑𝓪𝓻𝓷𝓮𝓼 @NikkiBarnes]

Best explanation I’ve heard about US interests in Venezuela today.

P.S. She recorded this over 2 weeks ago.

[The FSA @WeAreTheFSA]

We're proud to award the inaugural FSA World Fleece Prize to FIFA's Gianni Infantino.

💸 For his contribution to ripping supporters off.

[Human Rights Watch @hrw]

US President Donald Trump was just awarded the newly created “FIFA Peace Prize.”

But his administration’s appalling human rights record certainly does not display “exceptional actions for peace and unity.”

Learn more: https://t.co/QSpm2Kntb4

[Dr Mark Middling @DrMarkMiddling]

I have to say, the whole thing had the air of a sycophantic joke. Spot on from @henrywinter.

[Henry Winter @henrywinter]

The Adoration of the Maga. A few thoughts. It all felt a step too far by Gianni Infantino. The award of the inaugural Fifa Peace Prize felt more to do with its president’s desire to please powerful politicians as much as Donald Trump’s love of such glitzy, expensive offerings of loyalty last seen in medieval courts.

It felt more about politics than sport, a risky game for Fifa to play whenever it wants to bring a national association into line for perceived interference by government in the future. The Trump trophy weakens Fifa statutes. It also distracted from the real trophy, the World Cup, and the group-stage draw, traditionally a celebration about bringing countries together. Infantino took his eye off the balls.

A football draw designed to work out who plays who and (eventually) where and when is not the time or place for such politics. Infantino wasn’t speaking for the world in bestowing the Peace Prize, as he claimed. So presumptuous. So out of touch. Many probably agree that Trump has been a force for good in geopolitics, some might disagree. Most would probably feel such decisions should be left to experienced experts like the Nobel Committee and, please, can we get on with a football draw.

It’s spectacularly naïve or simply arrogant for Fifa to enter such non-football areas. It feels more and more that this was as much an Infantino initiative as Fifa’s. Infantino was supposed to drain the swamp when he arrived at Fifa in 2016 in the wake of assorted corruption scandals bedevilling the governing body of world football. How fitting that the nadir of Infantino’s propensity for self-aggrandisement as leader of what’s supposed to be a team game came in Washington. It was there that Trump promised to transform politics with his “drain the swamp” rhetoric, also in 2016.

The selfie moment was particularly cringe-worthy. Infantino forgets that football is the star of the show, not a 55-year lawyer. A senior football executive, who’s been at the heart of the English and European game for more than 20 years, messaged me during the drawn-out draw with his verdict on Infantino. “I feel revulsion, anger, shame, disgust – how has our sport been taken over by a Swiss ***** and turned into a total travesty???” He also pointed out that ensuring the leaders of USA, Mexico and Canada each somehow pulled out their own country’s name was not a good look for a draw based on chance.

Great for the cameras, though. Flash, bang, wallop, what a picture of Infantino's priorities. And who gets the next FIFA Peace Prize? And wouldn't Infantino have gained more respect had he used the money for the Trump trophy to subsidise excessive ticket costs? He's lost sight of what should be the real priorities for the leader of football. The game.

It's sad, really. Many sensible people work at Fifa, passionate about the game not their own ego, but it's alarming what happens to the leadership when they take power there. Even the great football manager Arsene Wenger has changed since becoming Chief of Global Football Development at Fifa. He now campaigns for more games, backing the expanded World Cup, which he would have railed against as a widely-admired, free-thinking club manager, fiercely protective of his players' well-being. "I believe that 48 teams is the right number." Arsene, just listen to yourself.

Many fans probably won’t lose much sleep that Wenger dances to Fifa's tune or that Infantino cosies up to Trump, Aramco and co. Some probably think Fifa’s a video game. Most just can’t wait for the football. The game’s about Mbappe and Messi, Haaland and Salah, Kane and Dembele, not Infantino and Trump.

The game’s about the Tartan Army, the brilliant Mexican following, the ever-hopeful English, the mobile carnival of Brazilians and the millions of other fans flocking to venue cities next summer, only a third with tickets. The USA is prepared for the party. I covered USA 94 and you couldn’t really tell there was a tournament on, certainly where I was in Detroit, Chicago and DC. You will this time, also in Canada. Mexico's total immersion was never in doubt given their passion for the game.

Infantino should remember this. He runs a great football organisation, not a political organisation. He needs to re-focus. Fifa is undeniably a force for good in many countries. The Fifa Foundation runs a new community programme that supports 154,924 people in 54 nations. Its new Digital Education Programme works on computer literacy amongst disadvantaged groups, helping them into the workplace. It’s easy to say it’s all about Infantino (Foundation board president), soft power and ensuring he keeps countries onside, voting for him, but the Foundation undeniably changes lives.

Infantino needs to look at his Adoration of the Maga and remember what he should be doing for football: serving it, not himself. #FIFAWorldCup.

[Blyth Spartans @Blyth_Spartans]

We will remember them ❤️

Credit to Groundsman Peter Henderson, Croft Park is in top condition as we return to league action today 👏

📸 @Jarmstrong93

#HowayBlyth

[Blyth Spartans @Blyth_Spartans]

Your monthly football fix at Croft Park 🏟️

https://t.co/LGrOEZD2DA

#HowayBlyth