Sid Lowe
Simon Lowe, better known as Sid Lowe, (born 21 June 1976, Archway, London, England) is an English Madrid-based columnist and journalist, who has been covering Spanish football for many publications websites, television channels, radio stations and football related podcast across the world.
Journalism
Sid Lowe has been writing for The Guardian newspaper and guardian.co.uk website since 2001. He also regularly appears (via phone or Skype) on The Guardian's football Podcast Football Weekly where he gives updates on the latest news in La Liga, the top division of Spanish football. He also conducts a series of relatively lighthearted interviews for an interview series known as Small Talk for The Guardian, with Spain based and Spanish players. Some recurrent questions in the Small Talk interview series includes "What was the last CD you bought? What was the last book you read? And who would win a fight between a lion and a tiger?"
Websites, television and radio contributions
Lowe writes regularly for World Soccer magazine and FourFourTwo and gives updates on the Asia-based FourFourTwo (TV series). He is also TalkSPORT's reporter in Spain who brings regular reports to the Hawksbee and Jacobs show as well the Drive Time show with Darren Gough and Adrian Durham. He also works as a football commentator and panelist for Spanish, Asian and US television, and also appears on the TV channel of Real Madrid C.F.. Lowe can also be heard regularly on the US based soccer podcast Beyond the Pitch where Lowe gives regular La Liga updates a few times a month. Sid Lowe is part of a trio of journalists that includes, Fillippo Ricci who is the Spanish football correspondent for Gazzetta dello Sport and Martin Ainstein who is a reporter, commentator and correspondent for ESPN football in Spain, who participate in a YouTube series called Foreign Desk, devoted to the coverage of Football in Spain. The three journalists discuss the weekly events in Spanish football in a casual and informal manner. Each episode lasts about four and a half minutes. The trio also does a version of the show in Spanish in tandem which is called Los Corresponsales.
Other works
In February 2008, Lowe completed a PhD, titled “The Juventud de Acción Popular in Spain, 1932-1937” at the University of Sheffield.[1] In October 1, 2010 the thesis was published as a book by Sussex Academic Press called “Catholicism, War and the Foundation of Francoism: The Juventud de Accion Popular in Spain, 1932-1937”.[2] The book expanded on his thesis and deals with the political history of the Catholic youth movement during the Spanish Second Republic and Spanish Civil War.[3]
He has also written a review of the book Morbo: The story of Spanish Football by Phil Ball. In the review he compared Ball’s book with a book called “Barca: A People’s Passion” by Jimmy Burns. In the review, he says that Burns’s argument that Real’s success was based solely on Franco’s regime’s interference is misguided; and that Ball's thesis that Franco was in fact happy to allow Barcelona some success is much more convincing.[4]
In his time in Spain, he also acted as a translator for players like David Beckham, Michael Owen and Thomas Gravesen.[5] He is also known to be a fan and shareholder of the Spanish Club Real Oviedo.[6][7]
Controversies
In August 2008 Lowe wrote a news piece for The Guardian that caused considerable controversy in Spain, in which he reported on a photo that showed the Spain national basketball team posing in a way that could potentially be seen as offensive to the Chinese and other Asian people.[8] The Chinese embassy in Spain declared that they "didn't consider the gesture as racist".[9] Although the article was relatively short and on page 9 of the Guardian sports section,[10] it touched off a heated back and forth between Spain and the "Anglo-Saxon" world.[11] Lowe had to write an article explaining and defending the publishing of the article in the Media section of The Guardian website. In the article he also recounted the backlash that he experienced in the Spanish media after the publication of the article.
References
- ↑
- ↑ Lowe, Sid. Catholicism, War and the Foundation of Francoism: The Juventud De Acción Popular in Spain, 1931-1939. Sussex Academic Press, 2010.
- ↑
- ↑ Sid Lowe. "Review: The Story of Spanish Football | Football". theguardian.com. Retrieved 2014-05-29.
- ↑ "Sid Lowe". The Guardian. Retrieved 2014-05-29.
- ↑ "European Football Weekends: Sid Lowe". Europeanfootballweekends.blogspot.com. 2010-05-15. Retrieved 2014-05-29.
- ↑ "Twitter / sidlowe: Ya soy accionista del Real". Twitter.com. Retrieved 2014-05-29.
- ↑ Sid Lowe. "Olympics: Spain's eye-catching faux pas | Sport". The Guardian. Retrieved 2014-05-29.
- ↑ "El anuncio de la selección de baloncesto, ni racista ni ofensivo | Deportes | EL PAÍS". Elpais.com. Retrieved 2014-05-29.
- ↑ Sid Lowe (2008-08-15). "Spain's Olympic race row: Don't shoot the messenger | Media". theguardian.com. Retrieved 2014-05-29.
- ↑ "What the World Is Saying: The Guardian’s Man in Spain on Those Photos". The New York Times. Retrieved 2014-05-29.