Solvitur ambulando, as Saint Augustine is alleged to have remarked, is the idea that things can best be solved by walking – a theme clearly appreciated by John Croot, the man most associated with the invention of walking football in Chesterfield at the end of the 2000s.
Largely ridiculed until Sky Sports televised a match in 2017, the game for the over-50s demographic has proved so popular there are now more than 1,200 clubs in the UK, an international body – the Federation of International Walking Football Associations (FIWFA) – and at least 70 countries now playing the sport. It’s the next big thing, in case you didn’t know, and just to prove the point the first walking football World Nations Cup was held at St George’s Park last week over three days, with 28 countries officially accepted. I was picked to play in the tournament as captain of the Basque Country, affording me the privilege of a 3G-pitch perspective.
