Samuel Gardiner - Sports Journalism

Opinion: Why are Hashtag United taking voluntary relegation? The story of the Step 3 superpower deciding that enough is enough   Hashtag United celebrated their 10-year anniversary last week   “I have never been more certain and more positive about the direction of this club than I am right now”, reads a statement from Hashtag United founder and CEO, YouTuber Spencer Owen. “We have requested that our men’s team step down from the Isthmian Premier Division at the end of the 2025/26 season”, it continues. Wait, what? The Tags currently sit 18 th in the Isthmian League Premier Division with six matches to play   A bit of background on Hashtag United, if you’ve been living under a rock. Founded as a YouTube football team by Owen in 2016, with players initially consisting of friends and relatives of the founder. Eventually the club branched out and entered Step 6 of non-league in 2018, becoming the team that everyone loved to hate. They won the leagu...

Opinion: What does KSI’s minority stake in Dagenham and Redbridge mean for non-league football?   Dagenham and Redbridge’s Victoria Road stadium has a capacity of 6,078 – less than 0.02% of KSI’s total YouTube subscriber count   Such is the confidence of KSI, his first official interview as a minority shareholder at Dagenham and Redbridge included him proclaiming that he wanted to take the club, currently languishing in the sixth tier of English football, to the Premier League. “I'm so excited to start this journey”, he told the club’s website. “It's gonna be a rollercoaster for sure but I hope to bring Dagenham & Redbridge back to the glory days. "And once we reach that point, I want to go even further. Reaching the Premier League would be a dream. And I believe it is 100% doable.” The YouTube megastar is no stranger to the limelight, being one-seventh of the most successful group of YouTube personalities in the country, The Sidemen, as well as being a...