David Conn

Who is David Conn?

David Conn is a sports journalist and writer who focuses predominantly on football. He writes for The Guardian.

He attended Bury Grammar School before studying English Literature & Politics at the University of York.

He has written three books, The Football Business: Fair Game in the '90s?,The Beautiful Game?: Searching the Soul of Football and Richer Than God: Manchester City, Modern Football and Growing Up. All three focus on the influence of money on modern day football.

He also ghost-wrote the autobiographies of the 100m hurdles world record holder Colin Jackson and former Manchester United player Lee Sharpe.

Conn has been named sports news reporter of the year twice, in 2004 and 2009 by the Sports Journalists Association, and has been named Football Writer of the Year by the Football Supporters Federation three times, in 2002, 2005 and 2009. In December 2013 he was named Sports Journalist of the Year in the Press Gazette British Journalism Awards. The judges said: "He delves beyond the glitzy veneer of modern football to hold the game’s gilded elite to account.”

His 2009 article for the Guardian detailing the bereaved Hillsborough families' continuing campaign for justice prompted the then Labour ministers Andy Burnham and Maria Eagle to press for all official documents relating to the disaster to be released.Hillsborough: How Stories of Disaster Police Were Altered: The Guardian April 13 2009