2024 sports documentaries: Man Utd's epic Treble triumph, Messi's Barca magic...

It's been another outstanding year for the sports documentary.

This increasingly-popular genre, which seeks to get under the skin of the athletes and sports teams we all revere, continues to make for superb entertainment.

In 2023, we had Netflix's series about the many ups and downs of David Beckham's football career - and private life - which won rave reviews.

Indeed, a survey of sports fans commissioned by Betfair recently put 'Beckham' straight in at No 1 on the list of the best sporting documentaries of all-time.

Amazon released an excellent film about snooker star Ronnie O'Sullivan, 'The Edge of Everything', that delved into the mental torment and extraordinary back story of this genius on the baize.

We've enjoyed the latest instalments of the fly-on-the-wall Break Point and Full Swing Netflix series showcasing top level tennis and golf respectively.

Cycling aficionados have been spoiled with the Mark Cavendish 'Never Enough' documentary, which was searingly honest, and the 'Tour de France: Unchained' series.

The survey mentioned well-known and critically acclaimed shows such as 'Senna', 'Welcome to Wrexham', 'Drive to Survive', 'The Last Dance' and 'Sunderland 'Til I Die' as fan favourites.

But given the enormous scope of sport, there's so much left to cover.

Betfair also asked British fans which sporting team they most wanted to see a documentary made about - and here's what they came back with.

Let's hope some of these get made in 2024.

Manchester United's 1999 Treble winners

The Beckham documentary only whetted the appetite here. A series re-telling the full story of Manchester United's unforgettable 1998-99 Treble season would surely be a smash hit.

Script-writers would genuinely struggle to come up with the comeback drama of the team that simply refused to lose as they scooped the Premier League, FA Cup and Champions League.

From Sir Alex Ferguson to Roy Keane, Becks to Dwight Yorke, it's also a great collection of characters.

Little wonder this came out top of the surveyed fans' wish list.

England's 2003 Rugby World Cup winners

The 20th anniversary may have passed but England fans would still love to bathe in the warm nostalgia of this historic triumph.

Jonny Wilkinson's immortal drop goal to beat Australia in their own backyard and secure Clive Woodward's team this country's first - and only - Rugby World Cup victory really is the perfect climax.

You'd hope enough behind-the-scenes footage exists from throughout the tournament to create something equivalent to the great Living With Lions film from the 1990s.

West Indies 1980s cricket team

This attractive piece of subject matter came third in the survey but perhaps those asked had never seen the super 2010 film Fire In Babylon about the fearsome West Indies team of the 1970s and 1980s.

You can never have enough of Joel Garner, Michael Holding, Viv Richards et al smashing everyone out of sight during their halcyon years, however, and more cricket documentaries would be welcome.

We've had 'The Test', which focused on the Australian team, but a full-on documentary series about these 'Calypso Cricketers' and especially their famous 'Blackwash' Test wins over England - with the appropriate social and cultural context - would be a great watch.

Barcelona 2012-2018

Ideal subject matter, too narrow a focus. The span from the late noughties when Lionel Messi was first emerging from La Masia, through Pep Guardiola's exceptional tiki-taka triumphs, the battle with Jose Mourinho at Real Madrid and then Europe re-conquered in 2015 would be better.

A thorough inside story on Messi, Xavi, Andres Iniesta and the other stars who elevated football to heights seldom seen before.

Maybe a final postscript episode could take us through to 2018 when things had declined a little, especially in Europe.

Obviously you'd have to ensure it wasn't all about Leo…

New Zealand rugby 2011-2016

A team so incredible their whole ethic and culture has been replicated throughout the sporting and even the business world.

Any documentary on the All Blacks would have to delve into all that but a focus on the team that won back-to-back World Cups in 2011 and 2015 makes sense because they inspired such awe.

Steve Hansen's side went 22 Tests unbeaten in 2013 and 2014, having also gone 20 Tests undefeated a couple of years earlier. In 2015 and 2016, they won 18 in a row, taking into account that second World Cup triumph.

Their brilliance remains fairly fresh in the memory for most sports fans, and they're well-known beyond the sporting arena, making them a great topic.

Hungary football team of the 1950s

This might seem a strange pick from 21st-century fans but there's still a kind of mystic allure about 'The Golden Team' or the 'Mighty Magyars' even today.

Ferenc Puskas, Sandor Kocsis and Co smashing the illusion of English supremacy in football by beating them 6-3 at Wembley and 7-1 in Budapest.

Reaching the 1954 World Cup final after a 32-match unbeaten run, only to lose to an astonishing West German comeback from two goals down.

The problem is a shortage of archive footage and survivors to talk to. Football historians and talking heads would be doing a lot of the work.

New England Patriots 21st century

We're already seen some top class documentaries about American sport and whether you're into the NFL or not, you have to appreciate a true dynasty.

The Tom Brady-Bill Belichick era of dominance at the New England Patriots spanned almost two decades and, rather like the All Blacks, gave rise to a whole philosophy.

They reached nine Super Bowls and won six of them, rewriting the record books as they went along. It would be a study of how to gain repeat success by never standing still or being satisfied.

The Washington Generals

Rounding off the list… the tale of the Harlem Globetrotters' eternal opponents, who must have the worst losing record in the history of sport.

Obviously the Generals aren't even meant to win, and they certainly can't interfere with their opponent's trickery, and it's believed they have racked up about 17,000 losses by now.

Perhaps a documentary could get to the bottom of how many times they have won under their various guises down the years. Some claim it's six matches, while their official website says three.

Certainly the most famous came in 1971 in Tennessee when the Globetrotters were so determined to entertain the crowd they lost track of the score and were 12 points down with two minutes left to the New Jersey Reds (as the Generals were known at that time).

Forced to play 'normal' basketball, the Globetrotters couldn't rally and the Reds won 100-99. 'The crowd looked at us like we killed Santa Claus,' recalled winning point scorer Louis Herman Klotz.

Sounds like a great story to be told.