The greatest football tournament on earth will take place in Africa for the first time next year, with the World Cup kicking off in Johannesburg on June 11. A GAME APART tries to explain just how miraculous that simple fact is. Based largely on what I witnessed myself as a student, footballer and sports journalist, this is an honest - but fictional - account of what it was like to play football in South Africa before democracy came rolling in with Nelson Mandela in 1993. There was trouble on the pitch, trouble on the streets, trouble on the beaches. Apartheid and trouble went hand in hand. A lot of the publicity surrounding the upcoming World Cup has been negative, with the focus on crime and corruption. My perception is very different. I believe the country has changed massively for the better in 16 short years. I've waited all that time to let my memories loose, and the World Cup seems an appropriate time to write a novel that, I hope, will help people to remember exactly what the Rainbow Nation has been through. This novel will annoy some, please others. All I ask is that the reader recognizes this is how a young Englishman might have viewed the South Africa I grew up in. A strange but beautiful country riven by cruelty and mistrust and headed for a bloody revolution... until the release of Mandela in 1990. For those who visit the country, for those who view it on a television screen, for those who read about it in the newspapers, I hope to offer some perspective. Apartheid should never be forgotten. Otherwise somebody will repeat the process. And that must never be allowed to happen.

Scratch Off 92 Football Grounds Print is the perfect gift for football lovers. Visit the football grounds, scratch off the map. The Scratch Off 92 Football Grounds Print is part of our Collect and Scratch collection and shows all 92 Football Stadiums required to complete the stadium hopping challenge. Scratch off the stadiums you have visited. Once scratched you can look at the stadiums you are yet to visit, and book your trip! Each Stadium is located by a football icon and you can scratch off the label and football kit, revealing the team colours.

Leeds United's Elland Road home is full of intrigue, character and formidable acoustics, yet it started life as a barren and featureless patch of land surrounded by coalfields. The Only Place For Us is the fascinating history of the stadium and its changing local environment, revealing the background stories behind Elland Road's most famous features and characters, and the astonishing events it has witnessed. Along the way there have been fires and gypsy curses mixed with cherished memories including the diamond floodlights, the West Stand facade and escapee pantomime horses. Using forensic research, insiders' insights, archive photographs and fans' memories, Jon Howe retraces a historical journey full of tragedy, nostalgia and improbable innovation, to show how Elland Road became one of Europe's most feared football grounds. Through triumph and adversity, neglect and redevelopment, Elland Road has emerged as a prominent, modern stadium that's still alive with history. This is its unique story.

Be inspired by Football Legend, Gareth Southgate! Discover more about this incredible player's journey from his early career at Southampton F.C. to his role as manager of England's national football team and his triumphant leadership that got England to the finals at UEFA Euro 2020. Football Legends: Young readers will love finding out all about the lives of their favourite players in this incredible biography series. Packed with footie facts and match stats plus Southgate's career highlights. Also in the series: Harry Kane, Raheem Sterling, Tammy Abraham, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Lionel Messi and Kylian Mbappe. Amazing cover artwork illustrated by Stanley Chow, whose iconic work has found worldwide acclaim.

Which Scunthorpe defender was tapped up in the dressing rooms by Brian Clough? Who helped get him changed on top of Princess Diana's car? What did the club's record goalscorer really think about the manager sacked in a promotion season? How does it feel to miss a penalty at Wembley? Win the European Cup? And how on earth did a future England captain manage to break the club's tractor? Throughout their 120 year-plus history, Scunthorpe United have been many things... But boring? Never! Following extensive archive research and exclusive interviews with ex-managers and players spanning seven decades, 20 Legends: Scunthorpe United is packed with stories aplenty. From breath-taking cup upsets, to the raw ecstasy of promotion, the agonies of failure, lifelong friendships, boardroom coups, and good old-fashioned fallings-out; the people in the heat of the action spill the beans like never before. Each chapter tells a different story; focusing on a legend apiece from the club's history and sharing their adventures throughout the beautiful game. Brian Laws also provides the foreword. If you really want to get under the skin of a brilliant, bonkers football club at the very heart of its community; then look no further than 20 Legends: Scunthorpe United.

France's performance in the 2002 World Cup brought back painful memories of a time when France was a weak contender in world and European football -- a time when national or club teams rarely won, and the French were renowned for having little interest in the game. Today, football plays a unique role in French society. French players and coaches are highly sought after abroad and the national team has chalked up significant recent victories, including a World Cup and European Championship. This book is the first in English to examine the extraordinary cultural, economic, and political history behind French football's development throughout the twentieth century and up to the present day. It focuses on the past twenty years and concludes with a discussion of the fallout from the World Cup 2002.Imported from Britain by the middle classes in the late nineteenth century, football entered French national consciousness between the wars. As with everywhere else in Europe, the game helped to unite communities and forge new social identities. Although the State has generously supported youth coaching, the evolution of the professional sport has been slow due to tight community control, high taxes and lack of income from paying spectators. In a bid to compete successfully in Europe, the owners of France's big city clubs are seeking to commercialize the game, despite the resistance of central and local authorities.Hare traces the gradual evolution of traditional French football values and explores the impact of new and controversial business practices. Have French football's influential club chairmen sold out to business values and television? Why has the national team been so successful when clubteams have not? How are top clubs being re-branded to catch a national and international audience of consumers? What role does the modern supporter play, and what are the links between businessmen, politics and the commercialization of the sport? What is peculiarly French about French football, and what does football tell us about France? Hare also pays specific attention to issues relating to race and racism. He looks at racist attitudes among fans, and considers how the multi-cultural and multi-racial population of France is reflected in the national football team. This book not only provides a fascinating cultural history of French football, but also an engrossing account of how national identity and community values are being transformed and reshaped in the global marketplace.

In recent decades, the sporting landscape has seen many changes, notably the inclusion and professionalization of sport science and coaching. With this change has come significant demand for applied research surrounding football science and performance coaching, leading to new theory and methodology across all aspects of the game. This book brings together the most fundamental components of football science and performance coaching through modern, integrated coaching science methods implemented by leading practitioners and researchers. The expertise included in this book provides a unique blend of modern, football-specific research trends with innovative coaching theory, implemented at an elite level, and will ultimately enhance the knowledge of coaches and medical and performance specialists, all while advocating an applied alternative to the development of players. The book is divided into three main sections: prepare, perform, recover. With each section, leaders in the fields of applied sport science, sport and exercise science, sport psychology, sport nutrition, and strength and conditioning outline the best coaching and training methods, making this book a must-have for coaches and trainers seeking to augment their own understanding of what is required to enhance player development.

The quickest entry-point into most local cultures anywhere on earth is to be found in talking football. Historically, football is one of the great cultural institutions, and, like education and the mass media, has played a key role in shaping and cementing senses of national identity throughout the world. However, the nature of intra-nation hostility, which may be based in football or which may use the game as an arena for antagonisms, has yet to be analyzed. Football today is more global than ever before. Teams, clubs and regions increasingly establish cultural identities through rivalries and opposition. Such rivalries invariably have deep historical antecedents enforced by prejudice, myth or religious conflicts, economic inequalities, or, perhaps most profound, class and ethnic divisions.
Issues of disorder and violence are routine by-products of the game the world over, and aggression, or the threat of it, characterizes many matches both minor and major. In short, football at all levels can become a site for symbolizing and expressing a variety of tensions. This timely volume fills a gap in the current literature on sport as the most extensive and incisive collection yet published on issues relating to football around the world. It uncovers and investigates the conflicts apparent in football rivalry by gathering together a series of in-depth case studies that span the football world.

July 1966: The dreams of an Iranian political correspondent are shattered to pieces when he is informed that instead of flying to Saigon, he will have to travel to London to report on the World Cup. To him, this is an insignificant matter at a time when the world is silently burning in the flames of wars and in the coldness of the Cold War. However, to his surprise, he finds football to be a new global language. World Cup 1966, in particular, appears to be reuniting people all over the globe. In the middle of the world's unrest, World Cup 1966 is a moment of fresh air. From the early elimination of the two time champions, Brazil and Italy, to the phenomenal appearance of North Korea; from the brave Portuguese men who gave their all to stay longer in the competition to the proud Germans who made every effort to repair the broken image of their nation; from the tears of Black Pearl to the nine goals of Black Panther; and from England's disappointing draw in the opening match to their glorious victory in the Final; the story brings back all the ups and downs of World Cup 1966, set against a stark backdrop of world events that defined that tumultuous time period.

" Coach Dorrance] knows what it takes to win, and that is very rare. He makes another kind of investment in his players beyond just training: he cares about them as people. He knows what motivates certain types of players and ties it all in to team chemistry and camaraderie."

"-Mia Hamm, retired American professional soccer player and first woman inducted into the World Football Hall of Fame (2013). She trained under Anson Dorrance (1989-1993), helping the Tar Heels win four NCAA championships."

"Anson has an excellent understanding of athletes, and his theories on player development are very astute. He has had a truly remarkable career. He would be a great coach in any sport."

"-Dean Smith, retired University of North Carolina men's basketball coach (1961-1997)."Coaching legend" Smith trained several NBA players including Michael Jordan and is a Basketball Hall of Fame Enshrinee (1983)."

Do you have what it takes to train champions?

"In Training Soccer Champions," leading NCAA coach Anson Dorrance shares the secrets to creating and maintaining a winning team. Dorrance explains his philosophies, provides practical lessons, and reflects on his experience, offering the invaluable perspective of one of the world's outstanding coaches.

"Training Soccer Champions" digs deep into the psychology of the female athlete and conveys the principles of coaching to benefit average and high-performing teams alike. Field strategy, motivational techniques, team dynamics, and much more are discussed in this must-have guide to coaching. With countless championship titles and numerous awards, Anson Dorrance knows what it takes to win, and now you can too.

As the final whistle went in Sheffield Wednesday's play-off first leg against Peterborough United, it felt like their promotion hopes had been blown, too. The Owls were four goals down, their fan base was in pieces and from a position of seemingly-unsurpassable strength just a few weeks earlier, their world had caved in on them.

What followed, over the course of 17 days in May, was unlike anything ever seen before; one of the most remarkable comeback stories in sport, punctuated by breathless late goals, never-say-die spirit and jubilation untold.

Told by those with unrivalled access to the campaign's highs and lows, and recording the journeys of those who made it happen, this is the remarkable inside story of the Owls' 2022/23 season - from their pre-season trip to Portugal to club-record runs, from 96 points to 90+8 and from their gut-punch fall, to the greatest play-off campaign in football history.

Managing the Football World Cup explores areas often overlooked by project management and business studies researchers. Therefore considering the global impact of the Football World Cup it is time for a detailed examination of the planning, organization, management, implementation and related commercial features of this mega-sport event.

He is the larger-than-life figure who bounced back from rejection at 16 and graduated from parks pitches to become a Premier League goalkeeper, and later represent his country. Paddy Kenny's career was certainly not straightforward... just like his life. In his autobiography, Kenny lifts the lid on his time on and off the football field - including dressing-room rucks, being beaten for the Premier League's most famous goal and having his eyebrow bitten off in a curry house, just days before he faced Cristiano Ronaldo, Wayne Rooney and Manchester United. This is Kenny's story... and the gloves are well and truly off.

'This terrific biography...well-researched, well written' David Winner 'Deeply researched...nicely written, and manages to get inside Cruyff's very bizarre head' Simon Kuper Argumentative, brilliant, arrogant, visionary. Johan Cruyff was one of the greatest footballers of all time, a worldwide phenomenon and arguably the most famous Dutchman of the twentieth century. Both on the pitch and from the sidelines as a coach, with his brand of Total Football he changed how the game was played and left a lasting legacy. Although Cruyff led a large part of his illustrious career and life in the spotlight, in many ways Cruyff the man and sportsman is still a complete mystery. Based on years of extensive research, this biography the first to cover all aspects of Cruyff's life and work, from his key influence in the great Ajax and Netherlands sides of the 1970s to his role in creating the modern footballing phenomenon that is Barcelona. Drawing on hundreds of interviews with friends from his childhood and school, coaches, teammates, on-pitch opponents, business associates and family members, Auke Kok has written the definitive biography of the skinny impish street footballer that became the genius player, inspirational manager, football philosopher and commercial pioneer that was Johan Cruyff.

The ideal gift for football fans to read between matches during the 2022 Qatar World Cup Pairing epic sports photography with articles from The Times and The Sunday Times archive, this volume brings together 100 of the most iconic moments from World Cup history. With striking, full-colour photography, rarely seen archival images and sensational reporting on the action, The Times World Cup Moments tells the unofficial story of the world's largest single sporting event as it unfolded on - and off - the pitch. Featuring the greatest goals, most historic line-ups, heroic players and unforgettable controversies, these split-second moments have changed the course of World Cup history and generated a global sensation along the way. The perfect Christmas gift for any football fan, some of the best moments from this book include: * The first World Cup, Uruguay 1930 * North Korea's fairy tale, England 1966 * David Beckham's perfect free-kick, France 1998 * Brazil's golden line-up, Mexico 1970 * The infamous Hand of God, Mexico 1986 * Roger Milla's celebration, Italy 1990 * Zinedine Zidane's chipped Panenka penalty, Germany 2006 * Germany's humiliation of the hosts, Brazil 2014 * Cristiano Ronaldo's spectacular hat-trick, South Korea 2018

This book draws upon a relational sociological paradigm to explore the processes of collective action in football fandom across Europe and the UK. Through a range of case studies, the authors address pertinent themes in football fandom, including anti-discrimination, 'home,' ticketing, name changes, 'ownership,' and broader leftist politics. Each of these case studies engages with the theoretical framework of cultural relational sociology, highlighting the different social and cultural changes English and European football has undergone, often over a very short period of time.

This is a collection of short biographies on the great Sunderland players named as Player of the Year who helped to define the club's image and set the standard for its future stars. It is a must-have for any true fan interested in the history of their beloved club. Each chapter is illustrated and gives season by season stats and total appearances. The list of names featured in the book will bring back many great memories. As well as focusing on the individual, the chapters seek to tell the story of the season - be it one of delight or disaster - in an attempt to put the Player of the Year's contribution into context. Most of the Players of the Year have been tracked down and interviewed specifically for this book. Where individuals were impossible to locate then their contemporaries have remembered them or I have researched their thoughts of the time from programme interviews that they did with me. What was consistent in the recollections of all the players spoken to was how much being Player of the Year meant to them. Once the boots are hung up for the final time, regardless of whether the player has a cupboard full of medals and caps or none, if they have been Player of the Year it shows how much the fans have appreciated their efforts. Enjoy the memories.

From is genesis as Newton Heath LYR Football Club founded in 1878 all the way to the global sporting and commercial superpower that it is today, this is the history of Manchester United Football Club as you have never seen it before. Lifelong Red Devils' fan Neville Moir has distilled this extraordinary history into an amusing, fascinating and easy to read anthology. This entertaining volume is an instructive, if sometimes irreverent - but always affectionate - guide to some of the groundbreaking firsts, controversies, innovations, characters, achievements and disasters that have shaped one the greatest sporting institutions on the planet. Whether an expert or a novice, this compendium is perfect for all Man United fans, young and old, around the world.

This is the story of Manchester City's return to the top of English football as well as their journey to their first ever Champions League final as Pep Guardiola's team battle to secure their place in history. Throughout this historic season of breath-taking football, they were followed by their equivalent from the world of sports writing: a team of elite talents, assembled by The Athletic to leave all competition trailing in their wake. The result is an alchemical blend of inside access and expert analysis; great ideas and beautiful writing. City's triumph is relived in real time, in 360 degrees. Articles include profiles of each of City's title winners by their former youth team coaches; on-the-road features from the hometowns of some of their international superstars, brilliant tactics board breakdowns of key moments in the season; and exclusive interviews with players, coaches and backroom staff.

Those Forest Men is a different kind of football book. It is a personal account of someone growing up in a house populated by football players, a sport which the author never really enjoyed. It is the story of a man who ignored his local team's rise from Division 2 obscurity to twice champions of Europe. It uses a variety of texts, authors and genres to produce some of the stories of the outstanding contributions that Those Forest Men have made to the history of Nottingham Forest Football Club. It is a book with Forest fans at its heart and a heart for Forest fans. They are the only fans in the world who once had every dream come true and then went back to living one long slow nightmare. Some of the Forest men written about here once became the greatest team in the world. Above all else, it is a celebration of all those men and women that made 'Nottingham Forest, Nottingham Forest FC, by far the greatest team that you'll ever see.'

"Star-Spangled Soccer "charts America's 25 year journey to becoming a soccer nation, the key business, decisions, personalities, and events that shaped its growth and the developing perfect soccer storm that will propel its unstoppable march forward. The book take its lead from a single premise that the granting of the 1994 World Cup to the United States set in motion a chain of events that has redefined soccer in America forever and ultimately positioned it to become a major force in the rapidly changing American Sports landscape. Drawn from a 20 year career as a senior executive in the American soccer market and supported by first person interviews and insights with all the key personalities and decision makers "Star-Spangled Soccer" is a must read for anyone wanting to understand the American Soccer Market, where it has come from and why it is positioned for tremendous growth over the next 10 years. Check out the site www.starspangledsoccer.com