A Halftime Report

Last night, Thursday the 19th of November, the 2015 Football Blogging Awards winners were announced at an awards ceremony held at Hotel Football in Manchester. The awards, created to reward the best football blogs and aspiring online journalists around the world, recognise bloggers in eleven categories including Best Established Blog, Best Podcast, Best Young Blogger and Best Club Blog. Over 150,000 fan votes were cast in the 2015 awards, with over 1,000 blogs nominated from five continents stretching from Europe to Africa. A judges’ choice was also awarded in each category, voted for by a panel including BBC’s Dan Walker, John Cross of the Daily Mirror, Neil Ashton from the Daily Mail, The Guardian’s Owen Gibson and more.

We are delighted to say that ‘A Halftime Report’ won the much-coveted Judges Choice as Best Young Football Blog. Having only created the website in May of this year it was a shock to even be nominated and to be a finalist at this years event, never mind to win it. I would like to thank each and every one of those who voted, those who read the site and those who have congratulated me since winning the award. I would also like to thank the judges, who ultimately were the one’s who chose me for this accolade, many of whom are highly respected individuals within the field, so for them to pick AHTR is a real honour.

The night itself was a fantastic event. Winning the first award turned the rest of the night into a blur, and I’m still not sure whether I really saw John Barnes singing Rappers Delight by the Sugarhill Gang, although I have since been assured that I didn’t imagine that. Anthony Cooper, the founder of the event, deserves immense credit. The awards do a great job of celebrating the work of bloggers, writers, illustrators, etc, that they possibly would not receive were it not for the FBA’s. Speaking of yesterday’s awards, Anthony Cooper said “This years’ awards have smashed our records once again, with more than twice as many votes cast as there were in 2014 and five time as many as 2013. The winners thoroughly deserve this recognition for the total dedication to their craft and their love of the game.”

A full list of the winners can be found below:

Best Established Football Blog partnered with ClubApp:

Fans choice – Goalden Times

Judges choice – The Football Pink

Best New Football Blog partnered with Football Fancast:

Fans choice – The United Stand

Judges choice – The Set Pieces

Best Video Football Blog partnered with Ball Street:

Fans choice – 442oons

Judges choice – Copa90

Best Football Club Blog partnered with Kitbag:

Fans choice – Anfield HQ

Judges choice – Barca Blaugranes

Best Football Podcast partnered with the Carlsberg Fan Squad:

Fans choice – Chelsea Football Fancast

Judges choice – The Offside Rule (We Get It!)

Best Football Influencer partnered with Social Squad:

Fans choice – Stan Collymore

Judges choice – Arseblog

Best Social Football Account partnered with OneFootball:

Fans choice – Deluded Brendan

Judges choice – TheSPORTbible

Best Young Football Blogger partnered with Conducttr:

Fans choice – The United Girl

Judges choice – A Halftime Report

Best Gambling Football Blog partnered with Ladbrokes:

Fans choice – TheODDSbible

Judges choice – Footy Accumulators

Best Visual Football Blog partnered with Clifford French:

Fans choice – 8bit Football

Judges choice – Brickstand

Best Football Forum partnered with Sporting Memories Network:

Fans choice – Knees up Mother Brown

Judges choice – Not606