Nomination for the SJA Awards : Specialist Sports Publisher
Sports Journalist Asociation - British Sports Journalism Awards 2024
An announce of a different kind.
As the Jury of the prestigious British Sports Journalism Awards, which are the Oscars of Journalism in the UK, shortlisted my publication in the “Specialist Sports Publisher” category for the 2024 edition
Something which inspires a lot of sentiments, primarily gratitude, in my unique and peculiar journey. Nevertheless, this isn’t the first occurence in my life where online content creation translated to a groundbreaking acknowledgement.
Between 2011 and 2013, I blogged online about the Premier League and got talent spotted by the biggest media outlet in France, CANAL+ who offered me a position of permanent analyst on their Premier League shows.
Becoming in the process, the youngest ever TV pundit / expert in the world (that I know of) when I debuted in 2013 ; with maiden sequence to explain on the spot why Oscar was playing over Juan Mata.
Something I did pursue on RMC Sport in the small timeframe where the Premier League TV rights were held by them in 2016-17.
I ended up doing TV punditry between 2013 and 2019
Before taking a full time coaching position at National level, where I decided I wouldn’t be lecturing players on the neccessity to train hard and not showboat, whilst spending 2 days a week on TV sets doing so myself.
This is also a good time to share the website I created, thought as a larger portfolio of my professional achievements to date.
Substack’s simplicity is soothing, but the back end isn’t conductive to a high degree of productivity when it comes to managing lots of footage (to import in one go).
As for the front end, I haven’t decided whether to keep the two publications at the same time (with the same content), or migrate, which will not change much from a publication / emailing standpoint.
The articles are also available in the “Explore” section.
The full nominations for SJA British Sports Journalism Awards 2024
THE JOHN BROMLEY SPORTSWRITER OF THE YEAR
The SJA Sportswriter of the Year Award, which is named after the Association’s former chairman and first President, is chosen by a vote of national and regional sports editors.
This category does not require a submission, however to be eligible, journalists must be shortlisted in one of the other writing categories.
SJA BRITISH SPORTS JOURNALISM AWARDS 2024 – WRITING CATEGORY SHORTLISTS
(Data Journalist, Scoop, Sport for Change Journalism, Sports Summariser, and Women’s Sport Journalist categories also open to broadcast media; Content Agency also open to broadcast media and photography)
COLUMNIST
Barney Ronay – The Guardian
Ian Herbert – Mail Sport
James Wallace – Freelance
Jonathan Liew – The Guardian
Kate Mason – Metro
Oliver Brown – The Telegraph
Oliver Holt – Mail Sport
Riath Al-Samarrai – Mail Sport
CONTENT AGENCY
Getty Images
Opta Content
Sportsbeat
The Content Club
Whisper
CRICKET JOURNALIST
Ali Martin – The Guardian
Chris Stocks – The i Paper
Mike Atherton – The Times & Sunday Times
Nick Hoult – The Telegraph
Simon Wilde – The Times & Sunday Times
Stephan Shemilt – BBC Sport
Tim Wigmore – The Telegraph
Will Macpherson – The Telegraph
DATA JOURNALIST
Ali Tweedale – Opta Analyst
Andy Zaltzman – BBC
Ben Wylie – Plot the Ball
David Segar – Opta Analyst
Hamzah Khalique-Loonat – The Times & Sunday Times
Mark Carey – The Athletic
DIGITAL SPORTS PUBLISHER
MailOnline Sport
Opta Analyst
Sky Sports
The Athletic
The Guardian
The Telegraph
The Times & Sunday Times
FEATURE WRITER
Alyson Rudd – The Times & Sunday Times
Daniel Storey – The i Paper
David Walsh – The Times & Sunday Times
Donald McRae – The Guardian
James Gheerbrant – The Times & Sunday Times
Nik Simon – Mail Sport
Oliver Brown – The Telegraph
Owen Slot – The Times & Sunday Times
FOOTBALL JOURNALIST
Daniel Storey – The i Paper
Ian Ladyman – Mail Sport
Isaan Khan – Mail Sport
James Ducker – The Telegraph
James Gheerbrant – The Times & Sunday Times
Jonathan Liew – The Guardian
Jonathan Northcroft – The Times & Sunday Times
Sam Wallace – The Telegraph
FOOTBALL NEWS REPORTER
Adam Crafton – The Athletic
David Ornstein – The Athletic
Matt Hughes – Hughes Media Group
Matt Law – The Telegraph
Sami Mokbel – Mail Sport
Tom Garry – The Guardian
NEWS REPORTER
Ben Rumsby – The Telegraph
Elizabeth Ammon – The Times & Sunday Times
Heather Dewar – Scottish Daily Mail (freelance)
Liz Perkins – ITV Wales/Daily Telegraph
Martyn Ziegler – The Times & Sunday Times
Matt Hughes – Hughes Media Group
Matt Lawton – The Times & Sunday Times
Mike Keegan – Mail Sport
POPULAR CULTURE COMMENTATOR
Barney Ronay – The Guardian
Caoimhe O’Neill – The Athletic
Jon Holmes – Freelance
Laura Howard – She’s A Baller
Phil Hay – The Athletic
Rob Maul – The Sun
Simi Iluyomade – VERSUS
NEWSPAPER
Mail Sport
The Guardian
The Observer
The Sunday Times
The Telegraph
The Times
ONES TO WATCH – WRITING (THE IAN WOOLDRIDGE TROPHY)
Aadam Patel – Mail Sport
Ben Fisher – The Guardian
Charlotte Daly – Mail Sport
Jessy Parker Humphreys – Freelance
Jordan Campbell – The Athletic
Lewis Steele – Mail Sport
Sonia Twigg – The Telegraph / The Independent
Um-E-Aymen Babar – Sky Sports
The winner of the ‘Ones to Watch – Writing’ category will be announced on the SJA website on March 10. All those shortlisted in this category will be contacted shortly and invited to attend the awards as a guest of the SJA.
REGIONAL JOURNALIST
Ciaran Kelly – The Journal/Chronicle Live
Dafydd Pritchard – BBC Sport Wales
Heather Dewar – Scottish Daily Mail (freelance)
Joe Thomas – Liverpool ECHO
Jon Colman – Newsquest Cumbria
Jordan Cross – Portsmouth News
Neil Allen – Portsmouth News
Simon Collings – The London Standard
RUGBY JOURNALIST
Alex Lowe – The Times & Sunday Times
Daniel Schofield – The Telegraph
Gavin Mairs – The Telegraph
Nik Simon – Mail Sport
Stephen Jones – The Times & Sunday Times
William Kelleher – The Times & Sunday Times
SCOOP
Anderson’s summer swansong – Ali Martin – The Guardian
Bill Sweeney pay – Alex Lowe – The Times & Sunday Times
Dan Ashworth leaves Manchester United after five months as sporting director – David Ornstein, Laurie Whitwell and Adam Crafton – The Athletic
England turn to Thomas Tuchel – Rob Dorsett – Sky Sports News
I got into Wembley without a ticket – Aadam Patel – Mail Sport
Lewis Hamilton to join Ferrari – Craig Slater – Sky Sports News
Man City launch unprecedented legal action against Premier League – Matt Lawton – The Times & Sunday Times
Marcus Rashford to leave Manchester United – Henry Winter – Freelance
Sir Alex Ferguson’s contract ended by INEOS – Adam Crafton – The Athletic
Thomas Tuchel agrees to become England manager – Jonathan Northcroft – The Times & Sunday Times
‘Unacceptable’ handling of sexual assault claims linked to Fulham Football Club raises more questions for police – David Ornstein and Laura Williamson – The Athletic
United set to axe a quarter of their staff – Mike Keegan – Mail Sport
SPECIALIST CORRESPONDENT (THE MIKE DICKSON TROPHY)
Barney Ronay – The Guardian
Dominic King – Mail Sport
Donald McRae – The Guardian
Jeremy Wilson – The Telegraph
Lee Mottershead – Racing Post
Molly Hudson – The Times & Sunday Times
Riath Al-Samarrai – Mail Sport
SPECIALIST SPORTS PUBLISHER
FootBiz
Opta Analyst
Rugby Journal
Sébastien Chapuis (Substack)
Sports Media LGBT+
Telegraph Women’s Sport
The Cricketer
The Cutback
SPORT FOR CHANGE JOURNALISM
Antoine Allen – ITV News
Bespoke Content Team – Sky Sports News
David Lockwood – BBC Sport
Owen Slot – The Times & Sunday Times
Summaya Mughal – BBC
Versus
SPORTS SUMMARISER
Alex Crook – talkSPORT
Geraint Hughes – Sky Sports News
Matt Slater – The Athletic
Rob Smyth – The Guardian
Scott Murray – The Guardian
WOMEN’S SPORT JOURNALIST
Caroline Barker – Sky Sports
Charlotte Harpur – The Athletic
Fiona Tomas – The Telegraph
Jessy Parker Humphreys – The Athletic
Kathryn Batte – Telegraph/Mail
Katie Whyatt – The Athletic
Suzanne Wrack – The Guardian
Tom Garry – The Guardian
The entries I made are the 6 articles that follow:
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