It’s that time of year again folks – yes, the nations best and favourite awards for all of us involved in football blogging and podcasting are upon us and we’ve made the finals for the 4th time in 5 years! AND WE NEED YOUR VOTES!
Voting is open for The Football Blogging Awards finals and closes on 28th October with the award ceremony to be held at Old Trafford on November 17th.
Established in 2012 the Football Blogging Awards were created to recognise and award the best football blogs around the world. They are the only awards designed for football blogs and websites that are 100% voted for by fans.
There are hundreds of thousands of football websites, of which the majority are managed purely for the love of the game. The Football Blogging Awards are designed to reward these unsung heroes.
The Chelsea FanCast has an unparalleled record at the FBAs having won Best Football Podcast in the inaugural awards in 2012 and then winning the award for the second time in 2015. This year we will be going for our third award. We are after the hat-trick!
At a time when many blogs and podcasts are being run more commercially with profit rather than fun seemingly the main motivation, the Chelsea FanCast prides itself in producing the weekly show purely and simply for the enjoyment we get out of it.
We started podcasting in 2008, just before the ill-fated Champions’ League final in Moscow – 4 mates, one pub and a lot of Guinness!
Like all great Rock and Roll bands the line up may have changed but the ethos (and presenter ‘Stamford’ Chidge) remains the same. Good friends with a love of talking about the game and the club we all love – calling it as we see it; taking the mick out of each other and sharing the experience we are lucky enough to have in going to the games and the pubs before and after with those who were there with us and those who are not as lucky to be at the games themselves.
The show has evolved over the last 9 years moving from a pub in Putney to a TV studio (in doing so becoming the only fan produced football podcast to broadcast a live TV show, live Radio show with a YouTube Channel and Podcast simultaneously!) and then when the studio closed back to the living room 
of Chidge’s London flat. With Chidge having moved out of central London, we now produce the show ‘virtually’ on Skype but it still goes out live via mixlr and most important it has lost none of the dynamic and still sounds the same as it did when we could sit round a table together chatting about Chelsea over a few beers.
As well as the football chat and inherent humour in the show, the Chelsea FanCast has always had a strong campaigning and a serious edge, tackling issues important to both Chelsea supporters and the wider football community such as ticket pricing; safe standing; the Chelsea Pitch Owners, atmosphere and racism head on. We were proud to be included on one of the match day banners and on the front of the Chelsea FC programme in an anti-racist campaign and one of our most regular guests and friend of the show is Paul Canoville, Chelsea’s first black footballer and ardent campaigner against racism.
The Chelsea FanCast has had a representative on the Official Chelsea FC Fans Forum since 2009 and in 2012 three of the regular FanCasters were involved in setting up the Chelsea Supporters Trust going on to serve on the Board. David ‘Stamford Chidge’ Chidgey has served on the board since then and has just been elected to serve as the Chairman in the recent elections.
As well as Paul Canoville we have had many well known guests on the show. Over the years the Chelsea FanCast has featured former Chelsea footballers such as Jason 
Cundy, Alan Hudson and Mickey Thomas, football journalists such as Henry Winter, Jason Burt, Rob Shepherd, Neil Ashton and Martin Lipton (including a special Chelsea FanCast vs The Press show) and many well known Chelsea authors and personalities. We have even produced a show in a Pub in Los Angeles during the Chelsea USA Tour in 2009!
So its been a long old journey and there has never been a dull moment and our enjoyment in producing the show has never dimmed. One of the things that astounds us is not only the number of people who listen but the fact that we have listeners from literally every corner of the globe – England, Europe, America, Australia, the Caribbean, Africa, New Zealand and Asia. The truth is that we would still do the show if no-one listened but the fact that so many do listen and clearly love it makes it all the more worthwhile.
We don’t get the chance to thank our listeners and supporters enough – so a massive thank you goes out to all who have listened and supported us for the last 9 years. As well as continuing to listen there is one small thing you can do for us…
It was a tremendous honour to win the Football Blogging Awards the first time in 2012 and it was genuinely astounding to win it for the second time in 2015. Can
we do the hat-trick? With your help we think we can.
How To Vote:
You can vote on both twitter and the website:
You can vote on twitter by posting the following or clicking here:
Tweet: I’m voting in @TheFBAs for @ChelseaFanCast as the Best Football #Podcast
You can vote on the Football Blogging Awards website by clicking here (make sure you enter Chelsea FanCast in the Best Football Podcast category).
Thanks once again for your support!
