What was your football highlight of 2024?
After a run of tournaments that looked good on the pitch but lacked authenticity and spontaneity off it, I was really looking forward to the Euros in Germany and the hosts did not disappoint. Germany, despite the cliche-destroying efforts of its national rail service, is a wonderful place to explore as a football fan. Safe, grown-up, relaxed, friendly and not too expensive, it put on a great World Cup in 2006 and a wonderful Euros this year. My favourite memory of my time there was the round-of-16 match between Spain and Georgia in Cologne. Led by the individual brilliance of Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, Georgia gave Spain a really good game until the tournament's eventual winners got a grip on proceedings and passed them to death. Georgia's fans did not stop roaring their heroes on, though, and the atmosphere in the ground, which was more compact than most of the others used during the tournament, never dipped below cracking. Like most of the grounds in Germany, the stadium was on the outskirts of the city but the good vibes continued on the tram back towards Cologne's historic old town, where Georgians mixed with Spaniards, who joined fans from Germany, England, Scotland, Denmark, Austria and many more besides. Cologne, with its bars, cheap eats, hotels and excellent train links, was a natural base for many fans during the competition and I saw no trouble, only fun, whenever I passed through. It was life-affirming stuff.  

Either on the pitch, or behind the scenes working in football, who is your person of 2024 and why?
Football administrators do not get much love from fans, often for good reason. But running a club, competition or governing body is harder than it looks, so it is only right that a boss who has done a decent job under difficult circumstances should be recognised from time to time. With that in mind, I am going to commend a double act and suggest they share this nominal prize: EFL chair Rick Parry and CEO Trevor Birch. The pair have run the league for nearly four years, steering their 72 clubs through the pandemic, the European Super League crisis and the dispute with the Premier League over how the English game's media-rights riches are shared. It is in that dispute, which is not over, that they have been particularly impressive, as they have run rings around the much better-resourced Premier League during the long consultation period over the Football Governance Bill. They have managed to keep their clubs (and divisions) on the same page, while gently nudging the wider debate in an EFL-friendly direction. At the same time, they have secured a big media-rights deal of their own, increased central sponsorship income, navigated some difficult ownership sagas and avoided club insolvencies. The EFL is in pretty good shape, all things considered, and certainly some of the credit should go to the leadership.

Who in football would you like to give a Christmas present to and what would you gift them?
Following on from above, I think Premier League chief executive Richard Masters deserves some credit, too. He has perhaps not enjoyed as many personal successes as his counterparts at the EFL, and he has certainly found himself under fire from fans more often, but he also has an almost impossible job trying to keep his 20 shareholders happy. So, while the league's continuing opposition to the idea of independent regulation is starting to grate and its refusal to offer the EFL a fair distribution of the game's income is mystifying and utterly counter-productive, the Premier League is still the world's most popular domestic football competition and its lead over the others is probably stretching. He has also shown considerable personal strength by trying to apply the league's rulebook - a rulebook the clubs voted for - and taking on Manchester City's legal superstars. And while it is going to take a long time for Everton fans to give him any credit, the Premier League played a significant role in making sure their club ended up with credible new owners. So, I think I would buy him some noise-cancelling headphones for Christmas and tell him to stop listening to his clubs so much. 

Who in the world of football should be on Santa’s naughty list and why?
This is an easy one: FIFA president Gianni Infantino. The backroom shenanigans he pulled to ensure Saudi Arabia were unopposed for the 2034 World Cup would be enough to win him this dishonour on its own but his list of misdeeds this year is much longer. Part of the plan for taking the World Cup back to the Gulf 12 years after Qatar was his wheeze to share the 2030 World Cup between six countries in three continents, while trying to claim FIFA cares about the environment. Even if there had been a proper process, the choice of Saudi Arabia would have been controversial, given the kingdom's appalling human-rights record and treatment of migrant labour. But FIFA's role here is equally controversial, as it has decided a World Cup in Saudi Arabia is only a "medium risk" in terms of its human-rights impact. This assessment was announced on the same night it tried to bury a critical report by independent experts it commissioned to look into the treatment of migrant workers in Qatar two years ago. That report recommended that Qatar and FIFA compensate the families of workers who died or were injured during the build-up to the tournament - a recommendation FIFA ignored. If all that is not bad enough, world football's governing body is entered into a lucrative sponsorship deal with Aramco, the world's biggest fossil-fuel company, and is currently in dispute with football agents, domestic leagues and players' unions over how it consults them - or does not consult them - or key decisions. This refusal to listen - or even ask - has resulted in a complaint to the European Commission. Infantino, however, thinks he is doing an amazing job and has no need to explain himself. His last press conference was 20 months ago and he does all his talking now via his Instagram channel. 

If you could make one change to football in 2025, to improve the way the game is played or governed, what would that change be and why?
To paraphrase Magaret Thatcher paraphrasing St Francis of Assisi, where there is discord, let there be harmony. By which I mean it is time to end the artificial split in English football's beautiful pyramid by reuniting the Premier League and English Football under one banner. I don't care what you call it or who really gets to run it, but separating our top division from the rest is ridiculous. The Premier League is not the National Football League. It is simply the top tier of a huge pyramid of vibrant and much-loved clubs that cover the entire country. Ring-fencing its money and pretending it is playing some other game, in some other sphere of human endeavour, has done much to damage the competitive integrity of our game and, if left alone for much longer, will eventually create a closed shop for those fortunate enough to be good at the right time. Put all the media and commercial rights in the same pot, let the Premier League's excellent sales team do its thing, cooperate on the calendar, operate one rulebook to prevent any further Leicester City-style jurisdiction howlers and show the government that the game can run its own affairs. I would bring in the top tier of the National League, too, so all professional football clubs are being run by one organisation. 1992 was a long time ago, and while it worked in some regards, it has failed in others. Let's build on the good and fix the bad.

Off the field, what are going to be football’s main talking points in 2025?
At the risk of stating the obvious, the biggest story next year is going to be the result of the main Premier League versus Manchester City case. Whatever the result, the fallout will dominate the news agenda for months, as there will be an appeal and the scars will be deep. It is very difficult to imagine any possible outcome that will not cause months, if not years, of controversy and rancour. Apart from that, 2025 should be the year English football gets an independent regulator. The rows over that one are unlikely to end, either, but the real issue might be unreasonable expectations. Looking beyond these shores, Infantino will be hoping his Club World Cup hits the spot next summer and the focus will start to shift towards the first 48-team World Cup in 2026.

Thomas Tuchel was recently appointed England’s men’s team manager, can he deliver the World Cup success the English fans so desperately crave?
Yes, of course he can! But so can the managers of half a dozen or so other teams. This looks like being another international tournament without a red-hot favourite but with a clear group of potential winners. It is no longer arrogant or blinkered to suggest that England are in that group, or certainly should be. FIFA's rankings are not perfect but they are a decent benchmark and England have been no lower than fifth in the world for the last six years. Their tournament record since 2018, is semi-final, final, quarter-final, final. That is not bad. The U19s and U21s are the reigning European champions. We have good players. That is a start.