Inside Diego is an intimate portrait of the greatest footballer of all time, from the person in football who knew him best. As Diego Maradona's personal trainer, Fernando Signorini spent more than a decade at the superstar's side, witnessing a dizzying array of highs and lows, from helping Diego recuperate from a broken ankle in 1983 to his dramatic exit from the 1994 World Cup after a failed drugs test. Signorini offers a unique perspective on the troubled legend, giving us the lowdown not only on Diego's evolution as an athlete, but on Diego the human being, a far cry from the character we saw on TV screens. He brings us the inside track on Maradona's preparation for three World Cups: Mexico 86, Italia 90 and USA 94. We also get an insider view on his battles with fame, drugs and extramarital paternity, plus his time in charge of the Argentine national team. Brimming with incredible stories and anecdotes, Inside Diego is an intensely personal rollercoaster account of a flawed football genius.

From the 'team of the century' to relegation, from Feyenoord to Field Mill, from trophies under the iconic Bill Nicholson to relegation under former Zambia coach Keith Burkinshaw - all in a little over three years. The 1970s weren't kind to Spurs. Nicholson's exit, the loss of legendary players and the club's eventual relegation all took place during a defining decade for British sport, painted against a backdrop of dramatic change for society at large. Social and economic malaise both informed and fed off a blooming culture of football hooliganism. The defining images of the decade were violent ones, both on and off the terraces. This book explores Tottenham's place in that unfolding drama, the club's own Goetterdammerung. But, as in Wagner's Ring, there was also a renaissance. The sun rose again as that same maligned Burkinshaw built an exciting team around the young Glenn Hoddle and World Cup-winning duo Ossie Ardiles and Ricky Villa. By the end of the decade, Tottenham had been reborn and were ready for more glory, glory days.

Soccer is undeniably the most popular sport in the world. While we know much about its high-profile players and their increasing wealth and global influence, we know little about referees and the ways in which refereeing has changed throughout the history of the sport. This book provides an in-depth exploration of the evolution of the match official. It presents a comparative analysis of elite Association football referees in England, Spain and Italy, as well as offering insights into the involvement of UEFA and FIFA in referee training. Drawing on archive material, the book documents the historical development of refereeing and sheds new light on the practice of elite refereeing in the present day. Including exclusive interviews with elite and ex-elite referees, as well as with professional soccer managers and members of the broadcast media, it considers the current role of match officials and the challenges and controversies they encounter. Elite Soccer Referees: Officiating in the Premier League, La Liga and Serie A is fascinating reading for all students and scholars with an interest in soccer, sport history, sport policy, sport management and the sociology of sport.

The English Premier League (EPL) is one of the world's most valuable and high-profile sports leagues, with millions of fans around the globe. The 2016/17 season marked the 25th anniversary of the EPL, providing a unique opportunity to reflect on how it has contributed, both positively and negatively, to key developments in football - and in sport and culture more broadly - at local, national and global levels. Drawing on central themes in the social scientific study of sport, such as globalisation, celebrity, fandom, commercialisation, gender, sexuality and race, this book is the first to assess the historical development and current significance of the EPL. With original contributions from several of the world's leading football scholars, it provides in-depth case studies of the multifaceted role of the EPL in the contemporary world of sport, as well as offering thought-provoking predications for the future challenges that it will face. The English Premier League: A Socio-Cultural Analysis is a fascinating read for any sport studies student or scholar with a particular interest in football and the sociology of sport.

Football is undoubtedly the sport with the largest following in the world, attracting billions of fans across the globe. These fans play an integral part in determining the identity of the football club they support. Many studies have focused on the intense rivalry between clubs, their fans and the opposing identities they represent. However, little attention has been paid to examples of cooperation between rival fans. This book is the first to explore antagonistic cooperation in football; the idea that rival fans can work together despite their animosity. With examples from Argentina, Brazil, Germany, Mexico, Croatia, Poland, Turkey, Ukraine, the UK, the US and Zimbabwe, this book brings together case studies on rival fans working together and explores how and why such cooperation takes place. Showcasing original research from a team of international football scholars, it sheds new light on the social and political complexities of contemporary football fan culture. Football Fans, Rivalry and Cooperation is fascinating reading for anybody with an interest in football studies, the sociology of sport, sport and politics, or sport and social theory.

This book explores the key issues of racism, anti-racism and identity in British football. It relates the history of black players in the game, analyzes the racism they have experienced, and evaluates the efficacy of anti-racist campaigns. The efficacy of the policing of racism is also assessed. The nationalism and xenophobia evident in much of the media's coverage of major tournaments is highlighted in the context of the way that English, Scottish, and Welsh identities are constructed within British football.

Programmes! Programmes! Football and Life from Wartime to Lockdown is a fascinating archaeological dig through a collection of 2,000 programmes. From the bleak wartime era when players had to shelter from air raids and depend on army leave, to tragedies and the 'Slum Game', through to the glitz of today's global stars, noodle partners and fan-owned, community-based clubs - every aspect of football's evolution, its highs and lows can be found in match-day programmes, along with a dose of bad poetry, adverts for sex magazines, boy bands who never made it and explanations of a 'magic sponge' for American fans. There are unforgettable games, World Cup winners, schoolboy internationals destined for stardom and others whose glimpse of glory proved fleeting. The stories play out against a backdrop of technological, economic and social change in Britain and beyond, rekindling the memories of generations of fans. Programmes! Programmes! is a 'must' for lovers of football nostalgia, with fascinating, funny and quirky tales galore.

With this book, coaches are given the necessary knowledge to plan and deliver player-centred practices that are both relevant and realistic to the game. These practices will challenge players as well as encourage them to be creative, independent decisionmakers. A range of different practices are provided, which can be used as given or easily adapted to meet players' needs. These practices can be used to develop a range of playing skills and can even be combined to create sessions for a complete training curriculum for the season. Finally, with this book, coaches will gain a better understanding of the crucial role that they play in the players' long-term development, helping them to appreciate the skills they already have while identifying other areas in which to improve. The Intelligent Soccer Coach is a book that coaches will return to time and again for inspiration and ideas that will ensure both the coach and the players continue to develop.

Got That Lovin’ Feelin’ is the enthralling story of Nottingham Forest’s emotional return to the Premier League under Steve Cooper in 2022. It charts the promotions, relegations, financial problems and missed opportunities that made Forest’s journey back to the big time such a compelling one. Cooper’s side’s thrilling and unexpected promotion campaign put an end to 23 years outside the top flight. In those lean times, Forest frequently became a byword for decline on the pitch and madness in the boardroom. The book features opinions and insights from those who worked on the pitch, in the dugout and in the corridors of power. It also tells the story of Forest’s first season back in the big time, through the eyes of fans, players and pundits – all the while exploring what it means to be connected to this grand, historic and pioneering club. From Frank Clark’s European dreamers to Cooper’s play-off winners, this is Forest’s roller-coaster ride of a story.  

The King of Dens Park is the authorised life story of Alan Gilzean, the legendary, world-class Dundee, Spurs and Scotland footballer. Exclusive insights provided by his family, closest friends and colleagues add to the author's own experience to reveal Gilzean, the man and the player. A reserved, charming and intelligent individual who shunned the limelight off the field, Gilzean played with a swagger as a maker and taker of goals. We discover how the native of the Perthshire town of Coupar Angus became one of the greatest performers in the history of both his clubs. Gilzean emerged a Scottish folk hero having scored the winning goal against England in front of 133,000 at Hampden Park - and was later welcomed back with open arms by the game after ending a self-imposed exile during which the uninformed conjured often defamatory myths. The elegant striker dubbed 'Nureyev in Boots' left us on Sunday, 8 July 2018. There will never be another like him.

There was a season when the world's greatest footballers were all on show at British grounds. Best, Keegan, Charlton and Moore were joined by Pele, Cruyff, Beckenbauer and Eusebio, while in the dugouts Clough, Shankly, Revie and Allison duked it out in the closest ever Championship title race. That season was 1971/72. Britain's footballing culture was simpler - purer - than the one we know today, with the game played for the public, not for TV companies. It was a time when players shared pints with fans, A&BC football cards were schoolyard currency, Roy Race ruled the comic world and teleprinters saw footy devotees hold their collective breath every weekend. As well as covering the superstars, '71/'72 is a treasure trove of tales of lesser-known names who added to that extraordinary season. Read about the Aldo Poy goal that is still fanatically celebrated today, Toni Fritsch revolutionising the NFL, cricketing footballers and the OAP ball boy who rowed the River Severn. '71/'72 is a compelling and fast-paced account of a season like no other, and as John Motson labelled it: 'glorious'.

There is developing interest in the use of sporting settings as a channel to connect people to health improvement services and an emerging body of research highlights football as being associated with positive motivational and social elements that support the maintenance of a physically active lifestyle. This text provides insights into a range of issues surrounding the role of football as a vehicle for health improvement for different groups. The contributors to this volume share some of the challenges and the benefits of using professional football settings as a channel for connecting people to health improvement opportunities. These chapters will be of interest to a range of stakeholders involved in research, policy and practice who stand to benefit from building partnerships with colleagues with expertise in (I) conducting evaluation and (II) reporting evaluation and research outcomes in peer-reviewed mediums, reflecting the value of partnerships between football-led health improvement and evaluators. This book was previously published as a special issue of Soccer & Society.

This book focuses on the advent of professional football in Liverpool and, in particular, the formation of Everton and Liverpool football clubs and their development prior to World War I. This book details the factors that led to the early dominance within Liverpool of Everton FC, and addresses the complexity of the dispute within that club leading to the later formation of Liverpool FC by expelled club members. This book also highlights, via a comparative study, the different patterns of ownership and control that emerged within the two clubs between their incorporation as limited liability companies in 1892. This book was originally published as a special issue of Soccer & Society.

A lack of 'sustainability thinking' is evident at the heart of many of the problems that football faces today; from the huge amounts of money that clubs seem compelled to spend on what are often short-term gains - and the speculation, debt and market-centred ideology that goes with it - to the not unrelated deep disenchantment experienced by many football fans for a game that they still, despite it all, remain determined to love. Sustainability here is more broadly conceptualised than focusing on environmental issues. It encompasses social and economic sustainability, albeit with a critical eye on the interdependent, often contradictory, relationship between what the United Nations regards as the three 'pillars' of sustainability (environmental, social and economic). Fittingly, this book is the result of an international collaboration between an interdisciplinary network of academics and football industry practitioners, brought together by the Centre for the Study of Football and its Communities (CSFC), based at Manchester Metropolitan University, UK. The critical insights collected here focus not just on football's problems, but also how clubs, authorities, players and fans in a range of local contexts are positively tackling the challenges of surviving and thriving in the contemporary global game. This book was originally published as a special issue of Sport & Society.

Football is ubiquitously acknowledged as 'The Global Game' and/or 'The People's Game' - everyday all-encompassing terms familiar to anyone with an interest in football which illustrate, albeit nebulously, the game's international reach and popularity. Yet much academic and popular attention has been, and continues to be, narrowly centred on topics pertaining to the elite and professional aspects of the game. At a time when there appears to be an ever-widening gap between the grassroots and elite levels of the sport, this book brings together, for the first time, a collection of research articles dedicated solely to youth and junior grassroots football. The intention is to generate future inquiry, encourage theoretical debate and stimulate empirical research on topics and issues within the relatively marginalised area of the game that is youth and junior grassroots football. The collection represents a preliminary consideration of what is already currently known about grassroots football and, no less importantly, point towards what remains unknown and under-researched but which deserves much more attention than has been given hitherto. As such, the collection includes contributions from practitioners and researchers alike. Topics included range from the provision, organisation and development of grassroots football in one national association, to broader issues such as the sources of enjoyment in participation, the lived experiences of junior players and coaches, to the causes of youth dropout from football. In addition, the significance of social stratification and various forms of social division which structure children's participation in grassroots football are discussed. These include female participation and the role of elite female role models, and issues relating to the participation of immigrant youth. The book is intended to appeal to practitioners, academics and football enthusiasts alike. This book was originally published as a special issue of Soccer & Society.

Football fans are passionate and devoted followers. They are also creators and dissenters, performers and producers. This volume analyses football fandom through the media that fans use to construct fandom itself. Media is the lifeblood of modern life; it is the canvas on which ideas are spread, communities are formed and identities are expressed. Today's fan has an unprecedented variety of tools in which to express their passion, commune with others, and become a fan in front of local, regional and global audiences. The football stadium has always been rife with symbolism. Colourful scarves and communal songs and chants evoke and display local pride and distinguish us from them. The Italian football stadium has a particularly rich history as a place of collective celebration, mourning, support and political dissent. Over time, Italian fans have integrated print, radio and television into their rituals of fandom while modern digital media allows fans to publicise their identities to global audiences. This volume addresses the beauty and humour as well as the fear and anger that are conveyed in the spectrum of media as fans attempt to assert themselves as material and spiritual 'owners' of the club of their affection. This book was originally published as a special issue of the journal Soccer & Society.

Manchester City stormed to the clubs fourth Premier League title in 2019, the fourth championship in seven seasons, which is a far cry from the 44-year wait which ended in 2012! It is hard to believe that less than 20 years ago, City were in what is now League One. Their loyal fans spent so many years riding on the wildest roller-coaster in English football, with so many ups and downs that they hardly knew in which division they were competing, but things have changed and now City are among not only England's elite, but also Europe's. This incredible journey is recorded in this updated edition of The Little Book of Man City, a selection of the wit and wisdom of the great characters who have been associated with the club. From managers, such as Malcolm Allison, Kevin Keegan, Roberto Mancini and Pep Guardiola, via garrulous fans such as Radio 1's Mark and Lard and the Gallagher brothers to voluble players such as Francis Lee, Dennis Tueart, Rodney Marsh, Kun Aguero and Vincent Kompany, here are more than 170 funny and biting quotes for the avid fan of 'the only club in Manchester'. As their chaplain once said, 'Imagine where City would be if I hadn't been praying for them all these years.'

In this cross-cutting cultural history, Gregg Bocketti traces the origins of soccer in Brazil from its elitist, Eurocentric identity as "football" at the end of the nineteenth century to its subsequent mythologization as the specifically Brazilian "futebol," o jogo bonito (the beautiful game). Bocketti examines the sport and its narratives, which usually depict soccer as having evolved from a white elite pastime to an integral part of Brazil's national identity known for its passion and creativity, and explains the ways that the popular history of the game has obscured many of the complexities and the continuities of the history of soccer and of Brazil. Mining a rich trove of sources, including contemporary sports journalism, archives of Brazilian soccer clubs, and British ministry records, and looking in detail at soccer's effect on all parts of Brazilian society, Bocketti shows how important the sport is to an understanding of Brazilian nationalism and nation building in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

Packed full of trivia, facts and stats, The Top 10 of Everything England covers every aspect of the Three Lions' long and colourful history in dozens of ranked lists. With a star cast of past and present internationals, the lists include the most inspirational skippers, the most prolific goalscorers, the great managers and the biggest stars in the England Women's team. Among the many memorable moments revisited are England's most iconic World Cup matches, the most celebrated wins against arch-rivals Scotland, the finest goals scored by the likes of Bobby Charlton, Gary Lineker and Wayne Rooney and the most appreciated own goals gifted by the opposition. Additionally, a host of miscellaneous categories rank England's best (and worst!) kits, the funniest fan chants, the most striking and controversial player tattoos and the bizarre incidents on and off the pitch that left supporters bewildered. Fun, informative and thought-provoking, The Top 10 of Everything England is guaranteed to spark lively debate among football fans everywhere.

Football and television have been intertwined in culture for more than half a century and Brian Barwick has played a massive role in the continuing liaison between them. Watching The Match tells the story of how football on television became a national obsession. The first live football match in England was the 1938 FA Cup final, and the winning goal was a penalty in the last minute of extra time - proof if ever it was needed that football can deliver the dramatic like no other sport. The BBCs Match of the Day, the first dedicated football highlights show, was first aired in August 1964. The FA Cup Final, for years the only match shown live, suddenly became an all-day event with ITV's FA Cup Wrestling Special FA Cup Final going up against the BBC's It's An FA Cup Knock-out. The 1966 World Cup brought live international matches into the public's home for the first time and the BBC coverage of the final will forever be remembered by Kenneth Wolstenholme's legendary, "Some people are on the pitch ...they think it's all over ...here comes Hurst ...it is now!" Soon commentators, presenters and analysts such as Wolstenholme, Barry Davies, John Motson, Brian Moore, Martin Tyler, Keith Macklin, Gerald Sinstadt, Jimmy Hill, Brian Clough and Terry Venables became national figures and their sucessors, Gary Lineker, Gabby Logan, Jeff Stelling, Adrian Chiles, more so. Satellite television has moved football into a new stratosphere with almost 40 per cent of all Premier League matches shown live every season and the FA's sale of broadcast rights in 2012 for that league alone brought in GBP3 billion. Watching The Match is full of a fascinating story, personal anecdotes and interviews from in front of and behind the cameras, spanning 75 years. Written by a man who has held every important post in football television, this is a must-read book for all football fans.

How did the world's most popular sport begin? How was the ancient family of pastimes called "folk football" transformed into a new codified game - "association football" - which attracted such large numbers of players and paying spectators? Gavin Kitching tackles the question through a strikingly original and deeply researched history of the game in one of its most passionate strongholds: the north-east of England. Making extensive use of previously neglected newspaper reports and other sources, he shows how, in just a few years of the 1870s and 1880s, soccer evolved from its origins as a collective scramble into a dispersed and intricate passing game, exciting and rewarding for players and spectators alike. But the booming popularity of football in the Victorian North-East also had deeply ambiguous consequences - for footballers, for the clubs for which they played, and for the local press which reported the game and further fuelled its popularity. Kitching analyses these ambiguities in chapters on the professionalization and commercialisation of elite soccer in Newcastle and Sunderland and in an account of the "shamateur" Northern League clubs of the Durham coalfield. A Fateful Love concludes by tracing these ambiguities through to the present day. The visual excitement and beauty that created professional football lives on, but the media-driven "commodification" which has marked it from its beginnings has now reached levels which raise profound concerns for the game's future.

Football is unquestionably the world's most popular and influential sport. There is no corner of the globe in which the game is not played or followed. More countries are affiliated to FIFA, football's governing body, than to the United Nations. The sport has therefore become an important component of our social, cultural, political and economic life. The Routledge Handbook of Football Studies is a landmark work of reference, going further than any other book in considering the historical and contemporary significance of football around the world. Written by a team of leading sport scholars, the book covers a broad range of disciplines from history, sociology, politics and business, to philosophy, law and media studies. The central section of the book examines key themes and issues in football studies, such as the World Cup and international competition, governance and ownership, fandom and celebrity. The concluding section offers in-depth surveys of the culture and organisation of football in each of the regional confederations, from UEFA to CONCACAF. This book is fascinating reading for all serious football fans and an essential resource for students and scholars of sport studies, as well as any practitioner or policymaker working in football. .

Whilst corruption and organized crime have been widely researched, they have not yet been specifically linked to sport. Corruption, Mafia Power and Italian Soccer offers an original insight into this new research area. Adopting a psycho-social approach based mainly on Pierre Bourdieu's praxeology, the book demonstrates that corruption and the mafia presence in Italian soccer reflect the Italian socio-political and economic system itself. Supported by interviews with security agency officials, anticorruption organisations and antimafia organisations, and analysing empirical data obtained from a case study of 'Operation Dirty Soccer', this important study explains why mafia groups are involved in soccer, what the links are to political corruption and what might be done to control the problem. It also examines the mechanisms that make it possible for mafia groups and affiliates to enter the football industry and discusses how mafia groups exploit and corrupt Italian football. This is important reading for undergraduate and postgraduate students, researchers and academics working in the areas of sociology, criminology, policing, anthropology, the sociology of sport, sport deviance, sport management and organised crime. It is also a valuable resource for practitioners in the football industry.