Northern Ireland v Switzerland 08SEPT

LIGHTS, CAMERA… FOOTBALL

WORDS: HEIDI McALPIN

Attending matches may have taken a back seat over the past year and a half or so but we’ve had plenty of front row opportunities to catch up with some unforgettable football-related films.

If you can’t watch your teams in the flesh why not sit back with a bag of popcorn and box of Poppets and relive some cracking footy classics. Football doesn’t even have to feature to catch the eye of, erm, diehard fans. Just watch eagle-eyed GAWA members light up social media when Die Hard: With A Vengeance is shown on telly. If you haven’t had the pleasure check out the scene in which a Northern Ireland-flagged football appears in the back of a taxi between Bruce Willis and Samuel L Jackson. Talk about Spot the Ball . And I know true Norn Iron cinephiles among you have spied a framed Northern Ireland retro top in Good Will Hunting, just to the left of Robin Williams in a Boston bar scene from the Oscar- winning drama.

But back to the big match in movies and I’ve plucked a hat-trick of titles that hit the back of the box office net in the ’80s, ’90s and noughties. It’s lights down and mobiles switched to airplane mode as we rewatch Escape To Victory, The Damned United and Fever Pitch… three films that , for me, encapsulate the beautiful game in its many guises. Set in a WW2 Allied POW camp, 1981’s Escape To Victory brought together possibly the finest ensemble of football stars ever to grace the silver screen, with Pelé, Bobby Moore and Ossie Ardiles sharing the pitch with Hollywood big hitters Sly Stallone and Michael Caine. Also making an appearance in the team that brought a whole new meaning to the term ’football tunnel’ was moustachioed Scotland,

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NIR V SUI