📫 An open letter from Graham (the guy who writes this newsletter)

The Soccer Dispatch really needs your support to continue!

I’m running a $5 season ticket offer because I need your help to keep The Soccer Dispatch going!

The reality is that I still need to grow TSD further to make it viable. Every newsletter takes time to write and put together. Illustrations require commissioning an artist and Substack takes a cut of everything.

At the time of writing, TSD has just over 700 paid subscribers. Can you help me reach my target of 800 by the end of August? It would mean a lot to me!

This newsletter continues to be something I cherish. I never started it to make money.

It gives me an outlet to write about stories and subjects that otherwise wouldn’t have a place in the mainstream media. Hopefully you believe that’s worth something.

It will never be cheaper than this to subscribe to TSD. If you have ever been temped to become a paid subscriber, now is the perfect time to do it.

Scroll down to read more about what you will receive as a paid subscriber and why now is the perfect time to sign up… 👇

---

Why you should subscribe

For $5 (less than $0.10 per week) you will receive TWO newsletters every week.

These newsletters will always seek to explore something off the beaten track. Something you wouldn’t be able to find anywhere else.

Each story takes hours of research and production. Monday’s VAR (Valuable Alternative Reading) newsletter takes pretty much the entire weekend to compile!

In the last few weeks alone, I have written about…

The growth of Vietnamese football and the national team’s defence of its ASEAN Championship crown, FC København’s resurgence after a relegation scare last season and Malawi’s shock WAFCON win over Nigeria and what it says about African women’s football.

Over 2026 as a whole, this newsletter has published stories about the game in Indonesia, Morocco, Switzerland, Poland, China, Iran, Egypt, Greece, Iraq, Canada, Sweden, Jordan, Japan, New Zealand, Afghanistan, Paraguay, Ireland, Haiti, Bosnia and many more nations.

Why I believe TSD is necessary

Despite the promise of the 2026 World Cup as a catalyst, the football media continues to narrow. The opportunities available to writers like myself are thin on the ground.

Just last week, I lost another freelance contract. It never used to be this way.

I’m proud of what I have created with TSD which has now been running for over three years. I have no plans to stop producing weekly newsletters any time soon, but the nature of this venture means I have to get the begging bowl out every so often. This is one of those times.

Hopefully you don’t see it as begging. I’d rather frame this as offering something that will be of value to you for a low price of just $5 for a full year.

$5 for 52 (FIFTY TWO!) VAR (Valuable Alternative Reading) round-up newsletters of all the football headlines and viral moments you might have missed sent every Monday plus 52 (FIFTY TWO!) in-depth newsletters sent every Thursday.

TSD is currently the fourth rising bestselling newsletter on Substack. You’d be joining a community of subscribers who already shape the content I produce on a weekl basis.

(See the screenshot below)

Even if you don’t fancy taking the plunge right now, I’d love to hear what might convince you to become a paid subscriber in the future. What sort of content would interest? What could I do be doing a better job of?

Thank you for taking the time to read this and I hope you see your name pop up as a new paid subscriber soon! 🙏

Graham (The Soccer Dispatch keyboard warrior)

---

The kind of TSD content you can expect… 🗞️