Richard Foster

Richard Foster is a freelance sportswriter and author, mainly focusing on football. He is a regular features contributor for The Guardian, plus a variety of websites and blogs mainly on the fortunes of Crystal Palace including The Set Pieces, HLTCO and Five Year Plan. He has also written pieces for The Football League, has appeared on talkSPORT, BBC London and various podcasts including Whistleblowers and The Palace Podcast.

Foster has written six books - the first, "The A-Z of Football Hates" is an irreverent look at what is rotten about the beautiful game and was published in August 2014.

"The Agony & The Ecstasy" - The Comprehensive History of the Football League Play-Offs, was originally published as a hardback edition in May 2015. A revised paperback edition to commemorate 30th anniversary of the Play-Offs came out in May 2017.

"Football's Flaws & Foibles" looks at the biggest transgressions of modern football, featuring such horrors as half-and-half scarves, plane protests and the England Band.

"World Cup Nuggets" was published in time for Russia 2018 and uncovers some of the weirder and more wonderful facts about 'The Greatest Show on Earth'.

In November 2018 an anthology of Foster's best Guardian features was published, "From An Acute Angle" covers all aspects of football from non-league to World Cups and everything in between. Interviews with the likes of Jamie Carragher, Martin Tyler, David Pleat and many more offer invaluable insight.

His latest book "Premier League Nuggets" was published in November 2019 and looks at every club that has played in the top division since 1992. Crammed full of stunning stats, funny facts, quirks of fate plus contributions from fans, this is the ultimate deep dive into the Premier League. As Martin Tyler says in the Foreword "Premier League Nuggets is an extremely handy, very entertaining and totally reliable reference point to have by my side."

He has also been contributing editor for two sports quotes books - "Talking Balls!" and "the Biggest Book of Talking Balls!".

He lives in North West London and is married with three children – all of whom are Palace fans.