In 2019, an app called OWNAFC hit the market promising football fans the chance to buy and run their own club. Just a few months later it collapsed, leaving customers hundreds of thousands of pounds out of pocket. Fit and Proper People tells the story of the business that was supposed to revolutionise the game, the people who lost out and the violent consequences suffered by those who tried to hold OWNAFC to account. The book uncovers how poor regulation and the financial structure of English football make clubs easy prey for unsuitable owners and how, time and again, the fans are left to pick up the pieces. With the aborted launch of the European Super League, there is finally widespread recognition that billionaires, venture capitalists, broadcasters and tech businesses must no longer be allowed to dictate the future of the game. Fit and Proper People is a powerful expose of the state of football and a call to properly protect clubs and to involve the people who really love them - the fans - in how they are run.

How much do you really know about Spurs? Put your knowledge to the test with this bumper book of brainteaser quizzes and fascinating facts, beautifully illustrated by one of the world's leading sports artists. It's packed with trivia on all the great Lilywhites sides and players - from goal-getter Greaves to goal-king Kane, from the pioneering double winners of the 1960s to the Champions League finalists of 2019 - providing hours of highly dippable fun and entertainment. Who scored five goals in one game for England, three of them in just over three minutes, a record that stood for 62 years as the fastest hat-trick in international history? In which 1981 movie did Ossie Ardiles appear alongside Sylvester Stallone? Whose gold medal at the 2018 Asian Games earned him exemption from military service? What was the title of the 1987 single by Glenn Hoddle and Chris Waddle that reached number 12 in the UK charts? Which striker is nicknamed 'Coco'? Trivquiz Tottenham Hotspur holds the answers to all these questions and hundreds more.

A History of European Football in 100 Objects: The Alternative Football Museum reveals the shocking hidden history of European football. In this fantasy football museum, Bollen delves into the archives to uncover idiocy and chaos from across the continent. The exhibits highlight the very worst of the human condition: greed, cheating, match-fixing, bribery, extortion and murder. Learn about the French captain who joined the Gestapo, the notorious football-mad Stasi boss, Erich Mielke and Gaddafi's son playing in Italy, the 1970s Lazio side that put Wimbledon's Crazy Gang to shame and the Romanian club owner who tried to stop hooliganism with a moat full of crocodiles. Along the way you'll meet Dundalk's one-armed super striker, Austrian legend Matthias Sindelar and the Italian George Best. Bollen again proves the ideal curator: passionate, meticulously informed and funny. His insightful take on the game is compelling and at times poignant. It is an exhibition for every curious football fan.

This book examines the exclusion of British Asians from the football industry, drawing on a wealth of empirical work with players, coaches, scouts, managers, fans, anti-racist organisations, community officers, and key stakeholders. It adopts a critical race theory (CRT) perspective to offer a platform for excluded communities to discuss their experiences and offer their advice, guidance and criticisms. Notions of whiteness, intersectionalities and gender are explored and filter throughout. This book highlights historical and contemporary reasons for the British Asian exclusion from football, critically examines a number of tried and tested inclusion strategies, and offers recommendations for reform to help achieve equality and inclusion. The research aims to: dehomogenise British Asian football experiences offer the counter-narratives of British Asian male and females to challenge master-narratives comprehend the importance of intersectionalities understand identity shifts and cultural changes challenge socio-cultural stereotypes and racial myths highlight contemporary manifestations of racisms in football at all levels examine the role 'parallel football' environments have played in the exclusion cast a critical eye over inclusion initiatives promote recommendations for reform which are born out of empirical research As long as marginalized groups, such as British Asians, are excluded from a field of popular culture, in this case football, it is a topic that demands attention, deserves investigation and requires solutions. It is hoped that this book can be of use to students, researchers and policymakers who share an active interest in football, exclusion and equality.

'A heady mix of football history, nostalgia and modern-day action that collectors of all ages will cherish' - When Saturday Comes 'Excellent... This book is like a journey through time, revealing some of the coolest-ever albums and stickers' - Match 'Countless memories come flooding back...' - The Sun 'Lovely book... One for your dad...' TalkSPORT 'A cool, snappy retrospective if the last 60 years of albums.' - The Athletic WELCOME TO THE GLORIOUS WORLD OF PANINI FOOTBALL STICKERS. Collecting Panini football stickers has always been a joy. Tearing open those packets and excitedly filling an album is a rite of passage for millions of kids - and adults. It's so popular, it even has its own language - 'swapsies', 'got, got, need' and 'shinies'. And now, for the first time, Panini have granted access to their archives for this superbly illustrated celebration of their iconic football sticker collections. Licensed by Panini and written by respected sticker authority Greg Lansdowne, this volume showcases Panini's UK domestic football, FIFA World Cup and UEFA European Championship albums, as well as all the great players, from Pele and Maradona to Marta, Ronaldo and Mbappe (via Frank Worthington, Chris Waddle, Gary Lineker, Eric Cantona, Ally McCoist and a few dodgy haircuts). A heady mix of football history, wonderful nostalgia and modern-day action that collectors of all ages will cherish, this book shows why, for the last 60 years, collecting Panini stickers has been - and remains - a global phenomenon. PANINI FOOTBALL STICKERS: A CELEBRATION includes: - More than 2,000 images of iconic PANINI stickers, album covers and sticker packet designs - Specially curated chapters on every UK-published collection (Football League/FIFA World Cup) - Breakout features on foils, haircuts styles and collecting etiquette

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.

This is the essential reference book to have for preparing and watching the 2006 tournament in Germany this Summer. Everything is here, from the historical perspective to line-up for each match. The book has the statistics, the groupings, team and player profiles, the venues and the trivia. A historical perspective since 1930 is given with extensive game and round commentary. One chapter recalls the most memorable games in each tournament. Another chapter is devoted to the best and brightest players. The qualifying rounds of the international soccer competition are summarised, highlighting the pivotal games for each of the 32 qualifying nations. The twelve German venues for the tournament are described, assessing the pros and cons of each site. The centrepiece of the book is an entry for each qualifying team describing the country, previous appearances and history, qualifying games, key players, player pool, probable line-up and a short discussion of how the team will fare in this competition. Many interesting features, anecdotes, and trivia on the participating teams are sprinkled throughout the text.

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.

This book offers an original Marxist critique of the European football business. It argues that the Marxist account of the difference between profits and surplus value is crucial to an understanding of the fluid and contradictory nature of the commodification of football. Section one analyses the nature of modern professional football and section two highlights attempts, via government agency and football clubs, to corral fans into ever greater identification with business logic aimed at breaking traditional social relations. Section three draws on a number of cases studies across Europe, to analyse how some fans are attempting to mount a counter ideological response to the assault of neo-liberalism on the game.

International Research in Science and Soccer II showcases the very latest research into the world's most widely played sport. With contributions from scientists, researchers and practitioners working at every level of the game, from grassroots to elite level, the book covers every key aspect of preparation and performance, including: * performance and match analysis; * training and testing; * physiotherapy and injury prevention; * biomechanics; * youth development; * women's soccer; * sport science and coaching; * sport psychology. Sports scientists, trainers, coaches, physiotherapists, medical doctors, psychologists, educational officers and professionals working in soccer will find this in-depth, comprehensive volume an essential and up-to-date resource. The chapters contained within this volume were first presented at The Fourth World Conference on Science and Soccer, held in Portland, Oregon, in June 2014 under the auspices of the World Commission of Science and Sports.

In 1990, though no one knew it then, a fearless group of players changed the sport of soccer in the United States forever. Young, bronzed, and mulleted, they were America’s finest athletes in a sport that America loved to hate. Even sportswriters rooted against them. Yet this team defied massive odds and qualified for the World Cup, making possible America’s current obsession with the world’s most popular game. In this era, a U.S. Soccer Federation head coach had a better-paying day job as a black-tie restaurant waiter. Players earned $20 a day. The crowd at home games cheered for their opponent, and the fields were even mismarked. In Latin America the U.S. team bus had a machine gun turret mounted on the back, locals would sabotage their hotel, and in the stadiums spectators would rain coins, batteries, and plastic bags of urine down on the American players. The world considered the U.S. team to be total imposters—the Milli Vanilli of soccer. Yet on the biggest stage of all, in the 1990 World Cup, this undaunted American squad and their wise coach earned the adoration of Italy’s star players and their fans in a gladiator-like match in Rome’s deafening Stadio Olimpico. From windswept soccer fields in the U.S. heartland to the CIA-infested cauldron of Central America and the Caribbean, behind the recently toppled Iron Curtain and into the great European soccer cathedrals, New Kids in the World Cup is the origin story of modern American soccer in a time when power ballads were inescapable and mainstream America was discovering hip-hop. It’s the true adventure of America’s most important soccer team, which made possible everything that’s come since—including America finally falling in love with soccer. For more information about the book visit newkidsintheworldcup.com

The Complete Book of Football captures all of the exciting action, colour and passion of the world's most popular sport, comprehensively telling the story of the game and its greatest exponents. It is packed with information about clubs and players around the world, statistics galore, and hundreds of fascinating archival images, and exciting colour action photographs.The book includes: * The top leagues, including Premier League, La Liga, Major League Soccer, Serie A, Brasileirao, Argentine Primera and Liga MX, as well as up-and-coming leagues; * The most important world and regional competitions, including World Cup, Olympics, Champions League, UEFA European Championship, Copa del Rey, Confederations Cup, Africa Cup of Nations, Copa Libertadores, Copa America, Asian Cup, Women's World Cup; * Profiles of every FIFA club from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe, complete with club logos and colours; * Profiles of national teams, including the star-making clubs like Germany, Argentina, Italy, Spain, Brazil, and Chile; * The Premier League clubs, such as Manchester United, Manchester City, Arsenal, Chelsea, and more; * Profiles of soccer's greatest players, past, present and future, as well as winning, losing and controversial managers; * All of the most important historic and recent results and statistics. The book tells the fascinating story of the game's origins and its circuitous evolution around the world into the game we know and love today. FIFA and simplified rules are included.The Complete Book of Football has 320 pages packed with hundreds of photographs; league and club profiles; player biographies; facts and statistics; coverage of all of the world's major championships; and much more. It is essential for all football fans and no library should be without a copy. Exceptional value, too good to pass up.

Get in the game and start building your dream team Millions of people worldwide play fantasy football, and you can join the fun with Fantasy Football For Dummies. We'll teach you the basics and give you the skills you need to create and manage your ultimate fantasy team. Learn how to scout and draft players, use the best strategies to compete against other fantasy owners, and win your fantasy league championship. You can easily manage your team and stay up to date on player stats with the how-tos and insider tips in this book. Check out this fun and entertaining guide to fantasy football and you'll be on your way to becoming a successful fantasy team owner, manager, and coach. Understand how fantasy football works Learn about the various fantasy league options Draft and manage your fantasy team, and change your roster effectively week to week Maximize your chances of winning with effective tips and strategies This Dummies guide--updated with the latest apps and rule changes--is for the millions of people who are already playing fantasy football today and want to improve their fantasy league performance, and it's perfect for beginners interested in joining a league and learning the basics. Yes--that means you!

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.

Iceland is a tiny Nordic nation with a population of just 330,000 and no professional sports leagues, and yet its soccer, basketball and handball teams have all qualified for major international tournaments in recent years. This fascinating study argues that team sport success is culturally produced and that in order to understand collective achievement we have to consider the socio-cultural context. Based on unparalleled access to key personnel, including top coaches, athletes and administrators, the book explores Icelandic cultural capital as a factor in sporting success, from traditions of workmanship, competitive play and teamwork to international labour migration and knowledge transfer. The first book to focus specifically on the socio-cultural aspects of a small nation's international sporting success, this is an original and illuminating contribution to the study of the sociology of sport. Sport in Iceland: How small nations achieve international success is fascinating reading for team sport enthusiasts, coaches, managers and organisers, as well as for any student or scholar with an interest in the sociology of sport, strategic sports development, sports policy or sports administration.

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.

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.

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.

In Stillness and Speed, one of football's most enigmatic stars finally opens up about his life and career, revealing the things that motivate and inspire him. Viewed by many as one of the most influential figures in Premier League history, and scorer of the goal that Arsenal fans voted the best in the club's history, Dennis Bergkamp is a true giant of the game. As a youngster, Bergkamp learned from the Dutch master Johan Cruyff. By the time the pupil was ready to graduate from Ajax and move abroad, he was ready to spread the word, but in Italy he found few willing listeners. It was only when he moved to Arsenal and linked up with Arsene Wenger that he met someone else who shared his vision for football's possibilities. Bergkamp became central to everything the club did: now he had become the teacher, their creative genius, and the one who inspired some of the wayward old guard to new heights, helping them to seven major trophies. Few footballers' books make you think anew, but in Stillness and Speed Bergkamp presents a new vision for the game and how it might be played. He was a player like no other; his story is told like no other. It is a book that will inspire football fans everywhere, whatever their allegiance.

"Gary Lineker's - Football: It's Unbelievable!" is a unique, light-hearted look at the global game. Fronted by "Match of the Day" presenter and England football legend Gary Lineker, this stunning book, packed with amazing images and a lively text, covers such diverse football topics as amazing goals, tantalising tricks, brilliant saves, embarrassing mistakes, ludicrous haircuts and ghastly shirts. Arranged thematically and featuring everything from the sublime to the ridiculous, "Gary Lineker's - Football: It's Unbelievable!" explores the most incredible and fascinating football stories and incidents from across the world. The result is an ingenious book that mixes football's brilliant moments with the utterly bonkers to create a unique and thrilling book that will have you astounded and laughing out loud in equal measure.

In Football and Accelerated Culture, Steve Redhead offers a new and challenging theorisation of global football culture, exploring the relationship between sport and culture in a rapidly shifting world. Incorporating cutting-edge concepts, from accelerated culture and claustropolitanism to non-postmodernity, he reflects on the demise of working class football cultures and the rapid media globalisation of 'the people's game'. Drawing on international empirical research and a unique and ground-breaking study of football hooligan memoirs, the book delves into a wide array of disciplines, examining fascinating topics such as the relationship between music and football; hooligans and ultras; the rise of social media and anti-modern football movements; and ultra-realist criminology. Football and Accelerated Culture offers a new way of thinking about sporting cultures that expands the boundaries of physical cultural studies. As such, it is important reading for anybody with an interest in the culture of sport and leisure, social theory, communication studies, criminology or socio-legal studies.

Football is the most popular sport in the world. Globalisation and commercialisation of the game, however, have created new conflicts and challenges. This book explores the role of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) within the rising significance of football in Asia, drawing on three key theoretical perspectives: globalisation, neo-institutionalism and governance, as well as comprehensive data from interviews and archive material. It explores the organisational structure of AFC, its decision-making processes, relations with other actors, and policies put forward. To understand the specificities AFC has faced in its 60-year history, the broader historical, political, economic, socio-cultural and geographic contexts of football in Asia are taken into account.

On 15 April 1989, ninety-six spectators lost their lives at Sheffield's Hillsborough Stadium as they gathered for an FA Cup semi-final match between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest. The events of that spring afternoon sparked a controversy that continues to reverberate through British football and policing to this day.Norman Bettison, a Chief Inspector in the South Yorkshire Police at the time of the Hillsborough disaster, witnessed the tragedy as a spectator at the match. Since then, he has found himself one of the focal points of outrage over the actions of the police. Comments he made in the wake of the Hillsborough Independent Panel in 2012 stoked further criticism in the press and in Parliament and, in October 2012, he resigned from his job as Chief Constable of West Yorkshire Police.This personal account describes how the Hillsborough disaster unfolded, provides an insight into what was happening at South Yorkshire Police headquarters in the aftermath, and gives an objective and compassionate account of the bereaved families' long struggle for justice, all the while charting the author's journey from innocent bystander to a symbol of a perceived criminal conspiracy.

Tailoring strength and conditioning programs for soccer requires a deep understanding of the demands of the game. Preparing players to accelerate, decelerate, change direction, and turn and jump can be a challenge. Developed with the expertise of the National Strength and Conditioning Association (NSCA), Strength Training for Soccer explains the value of resistance training for soccer players. The book-backed by practical experience, evidence-based training methodologies, and research-provides a general overarching biomechanical analysis of soccer and specific analysis of the physical demands of each position: goalkeepers, defenders, midfielders, and forwards. Using these analyses, you can design an effective training program that translates to performance on the field. The book also offers the following: 10 detailed protocols to test soccer players' strength, power, speed, agility, and high-intensity aerobic endurance capacity 6 total body resistance exercises with 4 variations 11 lower body exercises with 23 variations 18 upper body exercises with 44 variations 22 anatomical core exercises with 32 variations 27 sample programs for off-season, preseason, in-season, and postseason resistance training Each resistance training exercise consists of a series of photos and a detailed list of primary muscles trained, beginning position and movement phases, breathing guidelines, modifications and variations, and coaching tips. You'll also learn proper exercise technique and gain a deeper understanding of what muscles are involved in each exercise so you can develop a complete and targeted resistance training program. Backed by the NSCA and the knowledge and experience of individuals who have years of experience as strength and conditioning professionals for soccer, Strength Training for Soccer is the authoritative resource for creating soccer-specific resistance training programs to help your athletes optimize their strength and successfully transfer that strength and power to the soccer field.