An Interview With GibFootballShow's Andrew Gibney!

So I managed to bag an interview with Andrew Gibney, who runs the excellent Gibfootballshow football website over in England. Without ruining anything he's a Lille fan, with a throbbing passion for Ligue 1 in France. Oh and he like's Eden Hazard. Right, you better dive in before I spill anymore:

1. When did you first start following football on a passionate level? 

"Oh god eh. The first thing I remember is Celtic winning the Scottish cup in 1988 and then Italia ’90. I’ve always had a bit of an obsession. I remember for USA ’94 I would do drawings of the all teams strips and colour them in, writing down all the squad lists etc. Then I always realised I would watch any match I could.

I never thought when I was at school that I would write about anything never mind football but about two years ago I started writing down my thoughts, there is an old blogger site somewhere it was just myself and friends who read it, the more I wrote the more I watched.

My wife used to love football, she had a season ticket with Sheffield United for seven years, but I think she hates it now cause of all the games I’ve watch in the last seven years."

2. Where'd you get the idea for the Gib football show?

"Well I used to have a general blog called “The Gib Show” just a place I could write things down, not just football. I then thought I should start one that was just football. I spent ages trying to think of a catchy title but couldn’t find one I liked so I just wedged “football” in the middle and “gibfootballshow” was born.

That was back in October 2009 the podcast wasn’t born until June 2010. I was inspired by the daily World Cup shows from the Guardian and The Times and started looking into if this was something I could do.

There are a few shows at the start that just feature me on my own. Then via twitter I discovered the wonders of Skype and it’s just grown from there. I have always found it more fun to have a chat about football rather than just writing about it, it’s a great way to get things off your chest and have some great discussions (on and off air)."

3. Were you ever expecting it to be such a hit?

"No, never, it’s all a bit of a shock. Not sure why 2,500 people follow me on twitter. The site has had nearly 150,000 hits and over 50,000 unique hits. It’s crazy. I’m just a guy who likes football and wants to share his views and now I have people from all over the world writing articles for the site and I’ve met some great people through doing the site and the podcast."

4. As well as running the Gibfootballshow, you also contribute
heavily, as well as being co-editor, to the French Football Weekly
football blog. How's that gone for you so far?

"FFW has gone really well. The site started just as a vehicle to push the podcast that myself and Chris Oakley began recording in February. The show has been a success I think, there are no other English language Ligue 1 podcasts out there so we have filled a little hole in the market.

In the past month I have begun building the website up and it has been a huge success. Unfortunately Chris had to give up the podcast but I have found a replacement, his first show will be in July, and I have also brought in another writer. So now the site is a three person effort and this month has been huge.

We have been publishing profiles of the players linked with moves to English and a variety of other stories, to give you an idea of the success we’ve had. From February to May the total views came out as 4,500 which I was happy with. In June alone we’ve had over 10,000 views which is just out of this world.

With a team of three behind the site now, plus other providing some extra content we are very excited about the upcoming season."

5. You're obviously very interested in Ligue 1, following Lille and
such. When did you first begin supporting Les Dogues?

"Eh the Lille thing started around 2005. I had seen bits and pieces of Ligue 1 but never really paid any interest. It started with a friends mum bring me back a Lille scarf from France and I got intrigued and investigated the team, liked what I saw and carried it on from there. Over time I began to be obsessed by the league and fell in love with Lille."

6. Who's your favourite player in the world right now and why?

"Oh that’s a tough one. I suppose the best player on the planet to watch right now is Lionel Messi, he is just phenomenal and you’d pay anything to watch him live. Outside of Messi and inside France well everyone knows my love of Eden Hazard and part of me can’t wait till next season when he moves and everyone gets to see what I was going on about all this time. Away from Eden I love watching Mamadou Sakho at PSG he’s phenom in the defence, and I really enjoyed watching Dortmund this season they played football the right way."

7. And finally, what are your plans for the future Andrew?

"Well with GFS the plan for this season is to have a big group of writers including myself to keep the articles coming. I will be continuing the Yorkshire Football Weekends and writing about them.

The podcast will hopefully go from strength to strength we have some ideas up our sleeves and are looking forward to the season.

Over at FFW we think World domination is on the cards, no only joking. The aim is to be a well-respected place for information on the French league and it’s players. My ultimate goal is to gain Media access for Euro 2016. The podcast will kick start with myself and new co-host Jonathan Johnson, hopefully continue where we left off, bringing more interviews hopefully with some players and provide an enjoyable show that people will want to listen to."