Television series
All or Nothing: Arsenal
A season inside Mikel Arteta's dressing room as Arsenal try to claw their way back into the Premier League's top four and Europe's top table. Cameras get further into team talks, transfer meetings and post-match fallout than any club this famous usually allows. It's polished, emotionally frictionless in the Amazon house style, but genuinely absorbing if you want the texture of modern football management up close.
If you liked this
Sunderland 'Til I Die2018
The gold standard of football fly-on-the-wall docs. Rawer and sadder than any Amazon production because there's no glossy trophy chase to sell — just a club in genuine freefall, and it's devastatingly good.
But Bleak. If you want triumph and highlight reels, this offers relegation, boardroom chaos and real financial dread instead.
All or Nothing: Manchester City2018no page yet
The series that started the football strand of this franchise, following Pep Guardiola's side through a record-breaking title win. More access, more swagger, and arguably the best of the football entries.
But Watching a dominant super-club win everything lacks the tension of Arsenal's scrappier, more uncertain season.
Welcome to Wrexham2022
Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney buy a fifth-tier Welsh club and the result is warmer, funnier and more community-minded than any top-flight version of this format. Genuinely moving underdog stuff.
But Celebrity-owner framing and constant American-audience explainer voiceover can grate if you already know the sport.
The wildcard
Something you would not have found on your own.
The Damned United2009no page yet
Same subject — the pressure of managing a big, demanding club under scrutiny — but told as drama instead of access television, showing what the genre gains and loses by fictionalising.
Michael Sheen plays Brian Clough during his infamous 44 days managing Leeds — all the boardroom politics, ego and tactical brinkmania of Arsenal's series, but scripted, compressed, and devastatingly well-acted.
But It's a dramatisation, not documentary — some purists resist films that fictionalise real football history and real living reputations.
More like this (6)
Formula 1: Drive to Survive2019
Same producers, same playbook, applied to Formula 1 — team radio, garage rows, title-race tension edited like a thriller. If Arsenal's boardroom scenes hooked you, this scales the drama up considerably.
But Notoriously loose with race chronology and rivalries for narrative effect, which irritates viewers who follow the sport closely.
All or Nothing: Tottenham Hotspur2020no page yet
José Mourinho, mid-implosion, saying things no manager should say on camera. A genuinely startling document of a big club and a big personality falling apart in real time.
But The season ends in disappointment and the tone is more chaotic than inspiring — less of a feel-good arc.
All or Nothing: Toronto Maple Leafs2021no page yet
The format transplanted to ice hockey works surprisingly well — brutal physicality, a city desperate for a trophy, and a locker room culture that feels distinct from anything in football.
But Requires some patience with hockey's rules and rhythms if you're coming to it purely as a football fan.
Being: Liverpool2012no page yet
An earlier, scrappier ancestor of this genre, following Brendan Rodgers' first season in charge. Less slick than modern Amazon docs, but there's a rawness to it that's since been smoothed away.
But Production values feel dated and access is noticeably more restricted than what you've just watched.
Last Chance U2016
Junior college American football, but the emotional engine is identical — young men fighting for a future under a demanding coach. Grittier, more desperate stakes than anything in the Premier League.
But American football's rules and culture are a real barrier if you have zero familiarity with the sport.
The War Room1993
Same structural DNA — a team under existential pressure, tracked in real time by cameras that catch the strategy and the panic — just transplanted from a dressing room to a campaign headquarters.
A fly-on-the-wall documentary inside Bill Clinton's 1992 campaign, following strategists James Carville and George Stephanopoulos through crisis after crisis. Same embedded-camera intimacy, entirely different arena, and far higher stakes.
But No football, no trophies — it's American electoral politics from over thirty years ago, which some will find dry or dated.
Recommended by
Sunderland 'Til I Die, Formula 1: Drive to Survive, Welcome to Wrexham