The Football Documentary Channel

The Football Documentary Channel is a free YouTube channel that produces original, in-depth football documentaries on the game's greatest rivalries, its most unforgettable mavericks, its biggest disasters and more. This website also adds a new piece of football history every day through the On This Day section.

Yes. Every documentary from The Football Documentary Channel is completely free to watch on YouTube, with no paywall, subscription or paid tier. New films are released fortnightly.

All films are on YouTube at youtube.com/@footballdocumentaries. You will also find written deep dives and a daily On This Day section here at footballdocumentaries.com, and the channel is on Instagram, TikTok, Bluesky and Spotify.

The Football Documentary Channel's series include Football Rivalries (the derbies and feuds that divide cities and nations), Football Mavericks (the game's great flair players and managers) and Football Disasters (its worst teams, tragedies and financial collapses), with more in production. The site also runs a daily On This Day football-history section.

The Football Documentary Channel releases a new documentary fortnightly on YouTube, and publishes a new On This Day football-history story on this website every day.

On This Day marks the football anniversaries that fall on today's date: the matches, debuts, iconic goals and records that happened on this day in history, with the full story behind each one rather than just the scoreline. We publish a new entry every day.

Football's most famous goal is usually named as one of two, both scored by Diego Maradona against England on 22 June 1986: the "Goal of the Century" and the "Hand of God". Geoff Hurst's hat-trick goal in the 1966 World Cup final and Marco van Basten's volley in the 1988 European Championship final are the other perennial names.

In the 1986 World Cup quarter-final (Argentina 2-1 England, 22 June, at the Azteca Stadium), Diego Maradona punched the ball past goalkeeper Peter Shilton and the referee allowed the goal. Maradona later described it as scored "a little with the head of Maradona, and a little with the hand of God".

A football derby is a fixture between two clubs bound by local rivalry, usually neighbours in the same city or region, where local pride is at stake as much as the points themselves. Derbies are rooted in geography, history, religion, politics or class, which is why fixtures like the Old Firm and the Manchester derby mean so much to their communities.

Among the fiercest anywhere are the Old Firm (Celtic v Rangers), divided along religious and political lines; the North West Derby (Manchester United v Liverpool), a meeting of England's two most decorated clubs; the Milan derby (Inter v AC Milan), shared by two clubs in a single stadium; and Le Classique (Paris Saint-Germain v Marseille), often billed as France's biggest fixture. What the greatest rivalries share is that the divide began long before the football did.

Manchester United v Liverpool, the North West Derby, is widely considered England's biggest rivalry, contested by its two most successful clubs. The Manchester derby (United v City) and the North London derby (Arsenal v Tottenham) are the other leading contenders.

The Old Firm is the Glasgow rivalry between Celtic and Rangers, one of the fiercest in world football. It runs along historic religious and political lines, with Celtic tied to Catholic and Irish-republican identity and Rangers to Protestant and unionist tradition.

El Clásico ("The Classic") is the name for the match between Real Madrid and Barcelona, Spain's two biggest clubs. The rivalry carries political weight, often read as Catalan identity against Spanish centralism, which is part of why it is widely regarded as the most watched club fixture in the world.

A maverick is a supremely gifted, unpredictable player who plays with individual flair and often courts controversy off the pitch. Think Eric Cantona, Diego Maradona or Ronaldinho: match-winners who followed instinct over instruction.

Eric Cantona is one of the definitive football mavericks: the brilliant, combustible Manchester United forward who fused genius and controversy like no one else of his era. Other names in the conversation include Diego Maradona, Ronaldinho, René Higuita and Jay-Jay Okocha.

Sir Alex Ferguson is the most commonly named, and the most decorated manager in English football history, with 38 major trophies in 26 years at Manchester United, including 13 league titles. Rinus Michels, Brian Clough and Pep Guardiola are among the others in the conversation.

Derby County in 2007-08 are the worst team in Premier League history, taking a record-low 11 points from 38 games, with one win all season and a goal difference of minus 69. Southampton's 12 points in 2024-25 are the second-lowest total.

Eleven points, set by Derby County in 2007-08 over a 38-game season. They won once, drew eight, lost 29 and were relegated by March.

Brescia in 1994-95 hold the lowest total of the three-points-for-a-win era, just 12 points from 34 games. Ancona finished 2003-04 on 13 points, after a record-equalling 28-game winless start, before the club later went bankrupt.

Rangers were liquidated in 2012 after running up unpaid tax bills and unsustainable debts. The club's assets were sold to a new company and Rangers had to restart in Scottish football's fourth tier, one of the most dramatic financial collapses in British football history.

Full-length football documentaries are free on YouTube channels such as The Football Documentary Channel, which produces original, in-depth films across its documentary series. Classic one-offs like *An Impossible Job*, the 1994 film on Graham Taylor's England, are also free to watch.

YouTube is the main home of free football documentaries, alongside BBC iPlayer and some club channels, while Netflix and Amazon Prime carry paid ones. For free, original films, The Football Documentary Channel publishes fortnightly at youtube.com/@footballdocumentaries.