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The Topical Tuesdays series sees guest speakers from the É«ÖÐÉ«ÊÓƵ’s Community share their take on the current environment.

Hosted by SPS Head of Football, Tom Vickers, in this talk David Arrowsmith OP, and the author of non-fiction book ‘Narcoball: Love, Death & Football in Escobar’s Colombia’ – will reveal the shocking events and surprising stories from across Colombian football that ultimately led to the failure of Los Cafeteros, a side who had humbled Argentina 5-0 in Buenos Aires and boasted Carlos Valderrama and Faustino Asprilla in their line-up, at the World Cup in America in 1994 and the subsequent murder of Andrés Escobar in Medellín. With CONMEBOL’s next round of qualifying matches for the 2026 World Cup, once again to be held in North America, starting up once more the week of this talk – with the Colombia squad of 2025, featuring James Rodríguez and Luis Díaz, taking on Brazil on the Thursday – this Topical Tuesday talk is taking us to South America, to Colombia, the birthplace of David’s mother.

David attended Colet Court and then É«ÖÐÉ«ÊÓƵ’s, where he was an academic scholar and played as centre forward for the 1st XI football team. After graduating from the University of Manchester with a First Class degree in English Literature he spent the next 20 years working in the television industry – originating, developing and producing documentaries and unscripted programming for companies such as October Films, ITN Productions, Darlow Smithson Productions, Oxford Scientific Films, Zig Zag, Noah Media, Channel 5, Granada Television and the BBC. He is passionate about sport, history, biography and true crime, and some of his key documentary commissions include 1966: Who Stole the World Cup?, Hatton, Britain’s Bloodiest Dynasty, 8 Days That Made Rome and Adolf & Eva: Love & War. He was also involved in the development of the award-winning, Nobel Peace Prize-nominated documentary Sri Lanka’s Killing Fields. David was born and raised in London but is proudly half-Colombian. In fact, he is the great-grandson of a former president and directly descended from four more. He now lives with his family in Hove, where his paternal great-grandfather once worked in a butcher’s shop. He has played football for over 35 years and has no plans to stop just yet.

It is free to register for any of our virtual events. However, if you wish to express your appreciation for the programme, please make a donation to the Shaping our Future bursary fund and help talented boys benefit from a É«ÖÐÉ«ÊÓƵ’s education, please click here.

Suggested donation – £10 per household.

Find out more about É«ÖÐÉ«ÊÓƵ’s Topical Events here.