Founded in 2007, Pitch Invasion is a blog based in Chicago exploring soccer culture around the world. PI aims to cover perspectives missed by the mainstream media, with a focus on supporter culture, the history of soccer, women’s soccer, photography and the political and economic aspects of the sport.

In December 2012, the best of these essays were published in an anthology, The Very Best of Pitch Invasion.

In 2009, PI was awarded the Gold medal in the Web Awards awarded by When Saturday Comes magazine and was nominated for Best Blog in the US Soccer annual awards. In December 2011, PI won the Bronze medal in the When Saturday Comes Web Awards.

Editor

Pitch Invasion is edited by Tom Dunmore, currently a writer based in Chicago. Born in Brighton, Tom grew up as a supporter of Brighton and Hove Albion, starting going to games just in time to see them plummet to the bottom of the league in the 1990s and end up homeless, when the Goldstone Ground was demolished in 1997, a traumatic event for the club.

Tom’s first match at the Goldstone Ground in 1991 ended in a pitch invasion as Brighton fans joyously celebrated qualification for the Second Division playoffs, and the final matches at the Goldstone Ground before its demolition in 1997 were also marked by pitch invasions out of protest and anger.

The wild variety of causes of pitch invasions across the world in football’s history — for celebration, for safety, out of aggression, for show, for protest — reflect many of the themes of football’s diverse culture, and hence gave the name to this website.

Tom is now an avid supporter of the Chicago Fire and former chairman of the club’s Independent Supporters’ Association, Section 8 Chicago.

Tom’s first book, the Historical Dictionary of Soccer, was published by Scarecrow Press in September 2011. Follow Tom on Twitter @pitchinvasion or contact him via email at tom@pitchinvasion.net

Submissions

Pitch Invasion invites submissions on original topics on all aspects of football. Send inquiries to tom@pitchinvasion.net

Photo Credit

The Pitch Invasion masthead image is adapted with permission from a photograph by Josh Crockett. See the original image here on Flickr, and check out the rest of Josh’s photography.