Shortlisted for the 2022 Sports Book Awards 'brave ... visceral ... a brilliant, brilliant read ... I would recommend this book to everyone.' Nihal Arthanayake, BBC Radio 5 Live 'so honest ... everybody should read Hooked to understand what anybody in this situation has been through.' Susanna Reid, Good Morning Britain 'a fantastic book ... a remarkable read.' Richard Madeley, Good Morning Britain 'Brave, poignant and very moving. This book will change lives.' Jamie Redknapp 'A courageous, emotional and vitally important book.' Jeff Stelling Paul Merson's wonderfully moving and brutally honest memoir of battling addiction for three decades. For twenty-one years Paul Merson played professional football. He won two First Division titles with Arsenal and was one of the finest players of his generation. But for thirty years Paul Merson has also been an addict. Alcohol, drugs, gambling: a desperately unenviable cocktail of addictions and depression which has plagued his entire adult life and driven him to the verge of suicide. 'I've come to realise that I'm powerless over alcohol ... I'm an alcoholic. My drinking and gambling have left a lot of wreckage.' Until recently the drinking and gambling were still raging. 'I wanted to kill myself. I couldn't go on anymore. I just couldn't see a way out.' Then something clicked. 'One day, I was walking home from the pub late on a Sunday evening, and I thought to myself: I've had enough of feeling like this, every day of my life. I rang up Alcoholics Anonymous the next day, and since then I haven't had a drink.' Hooked is Merson's wonderfully moving and brutally honest memoir of battling addiction, searingly charting his journey over three decades. It is absolutely unflinching in detailing his emotional and psychological troughs and in raking over the painful embers of an adult life blighted by such debilitating issues. Hooked will kick-start a crucial national conversation about addiction, depression and the damage they wreak. 'Addiction is the loneliest of places. You're a slave to insecurity and ego. But it has to be you that wants things to change. Never be afraid to talk: the more you talk about the addictions the more it takes the power out of them. You're never alone.'

Training players in circular playing fields develops and improves their game competence. Circle Soccer Training contains an integrated game concept and provides varied training exercises for fast implementation in training practice that will benefit all players at any level. The book first delves into the theory of circle training, explaining the main technical and tactical principles of the circle training concept. It contains further helpful information regarding the rules of the game, coaching points, how to organize each game or drill, and detailed illustrations. Following the introduction on circle training is the practical application. Beginning with an explanation on how to use this effective training for improving players' technical abilities, this section contains 100 circular games and drills that will allow players to progress and develop their skills. Also presented in this book are trendy, innovative, and cognitively demanding forms of play, which are an integrated and complex part of modern soccer. The concepts of circle soccer and their application in training are important for all players--at any level--to develop their technical playing abilities. With Circle Soccer Training, players can create a competitive advantage over their opponents.

Football is big business. The top teams and leagues in world football generate billions of dollars in revenue and serve an audience of billions of fans. This book focuses on the marketing of football as the apex of the contemporary football industry. Drawing upon key theories and concepts in sport marketing, it highlights the critical strategic and operational elements that underpin effective marketing in football clubs around the world. From the English Premier League to Major League Soccer, this handbook addresses the most important developments in sponsorship, marketing communications, digital marketing strategies, customer relationship management and social media. Written by a team of leading football marketing experts, it presents the latest cutting-edge research in case studies from countries including the UK, USA, France, Spain, Germany, Italy, China and Japan. The only up-to-date book on football marketing written from a truly international perspective, the Routledge Handbook of Football Marketing is an invaluable resource for any researcher or advanced student with an interest in football marketing, as well as all marketers working in the professional football business.

Modern football is an industry and capitalism is its engine. However, this book argues for a more nuanced understanding of contemporary football culture and the (self-)identity of football fans. Drawing on original ethnographic research conducted with fans at all levels, from international to lower league, the book explores the tensions between fans as consumers and 'traditional' football cultures, arguing that modern football fans are able to negotiate the discourses of capitalism and tradition operating upon them to enact their own power and identity within football culture. Featuring case studies of Norwich City, MK Dons and Chelsea fans, this is fascinating reading for anybody with an interest in sport and society or cultural studies.

The history of Cairo's football fans is one of the most poignant narratives of the 25 January 2011 Egyptian uprising. The Ultras Al-Ahly and the Ultras White Knights fans, belonging to the two main teams, Al-Ahly F.C. and Zamalek F.C respectively, became embroiled in the street protests that brought down the Mubarak regime. In the violent turmoil since, the Ultras have been locked in a bitter conflict with the Egyptian security state. Tracing these social movements to explore their role in the uprising and the political dimension of soccer in Egypt, Ronnie Close provides a vivid, intimate sense of the Ultras' unique subculture. Cairo's Ultras: Resistance and Revolution in Egypt's Football Culture explores how football communities offer ways of belonging and instill meaning in everyday life. Close asks us to rethink the labels 'fans' or 'hooligans' and what such terms might really mean. He argues that the role of the body is essential to understanding the cultural practices of the Cairo Ultras, and that the physicality of the stadium rituals and acerbic chants were key expressions that resonated with many Egyptians. Along the way, the book skewers media cliches and retraces revolutionary politics and social networks to consider the capacity of sport to emancipate through performances on the football terraces.

Meyer & Meyer Premium--At Meyer & Meyer we make no compromises to present the best in sports content. Go for Gold! Creative Soccer Training includes 350 modern practical games and drills that build on basic playing skills. Foregoing theoretical introductions, the authors focus on presenting comprehensive exercises and particular skills that go beyond standard training. This book includes a great variety of creative training exercises that will form intelligent soccer players. Numerous graphics help soccer coaches implement training content with their own team in a simple and fast way. The practice-oriented design additionally makes this compilation an optimal resource for training players at advanced levels.

Compelling, entertaining and refreshingly honest, One in a Million is the autobiography of Trevor Francis, the subject of the first GBP1 million transfer fee in football history - a record for all time. As a 16-year-old, Francis set a record as the youngest player to score four goals in a match, an early indication of an exceptional talent. And so his unique career journey would continue to unfold, encountering a seemingly endless succession of superlatives, larger-than-life characters and astonishing events. Trevor played professionally not only in England but also in the USA and Scotland, in Italy and Australia. He gained 52 England caps, and won the European Cup on his debut in the competition. He played his part in the English revolution at Glasgow Rangers and managed QPR, Crystal Palace, Sheffield Wednesday and Birmingham City. Thrillingly, Trevor takes the reader with him into dressing rooms, into boardrooms and on to the field of play. He has a true gift for memorable detail, providing a wealth of revelations and remarkable stories.

It's an embarrassing truth for many football fans that it was only when professional football was eventually forced to close down that we recognised Covid-19 as a genuine threat to our way of life. Maybe just as shameful was the fact that once lockdown became normalised, it didn't take long for chatter to start about when the game might begin again. This book begins by charting what happened in the weeks leading up to that point, placing football in the context of furloughs, some new-found community awareness and dithering politicians. At the heart of the book are seven case studies of teams. From Burnley in the Premier League, down through the divisions to grassroots football, Project Restart looks at the hopes and fears of supporters and the actions of those charged with keeping their beloved clubs afloat. It looks at how we almost adjusted to the eerie echo of games on TV with no crowds and finishes by trying to address the biggest question in town: what will football look like in a post-Covid future?

Roma have risen from their ruins! Manolas, the Greek God in Rome! The unthinkable unfolds before our eyes. This was not meant to happen, this could not happen . . . this is happening! Peter Drury If football is the beautiful game, then commentators are its poets. Whether it's the brevity of Barry Davies, the boundless enthusiasm of Clive Tyldesley or the sheer eloquence of Peter Drury's monologues, the canon of football commentary is replete with memorable lines that would have some of the great classical orators nodding in appreciation. Curated by football journalist Charlie Eccleshare, The Beautiful Poetry of Football Commentary is a glorious anthology of iconic lines, set out as poems, celebrating the best commentators that have ever graced a microphone. Each poem is accompanied by 'scholarly' analysis capturing the enduring power of language on the beautiful game. So, drink it in, and immerse yourself in classic verse from Ali Brownlee, Andy Gray, Brian Moore, David Coleman, John Motson, Jon Champion, Jonathan Pearce, Kenneth Wolstenholme, Martin Tyler, and many more. ----- "It is a privilege to be part of this excellent work" - Martin Tyler "There have been some brilliant lines of commentary down the years and Charlie's academic deconstruction of them is terrific." - Peter Drury

What does it mean when a hit that knocks an American football player unconscious is cheered by spectators? What are the consequences of such violence for the participants of this sport and for the entertainment culture in which it exists? This book brings together scholars and sport commentators to examine the relationship between American football, violence and the larger relations of power within contemporary society. From high school and college to the NFL, Football, Culture, and Power analyses the social, political and cultural imprint of America's national pastime. The NFL's participation in and production of hegemonic masculinity, alongside its practices of racism, sexism, heterosexism and ableism, provokes us to think deeply about the historical and contemporary systems of violence we are invested in and entertained by. This social scientific analysis of American football considers both the positive and negative power of the game, generating discussion and calling for accountability. It is fascinating reading for all students and scholars of sports studies with an interest in American football and the wider social impact of sport.

Victorian England in the 1870s and the early years of the FA Cup. Pitches are little better than mud baths. Crossbars and referees' whistles don't exist, while the players all charge around in a rough-and-tumble manner more suited to rugby. But one side dares to be different. Combining silky skills with military muscle, they pass the ball in a spectacular new style of play. And they have a team spirit like no other. They are a 'band of brothers' who fight for Queen and Country - and for each other. They are the Royal Engineers from Chatham in Kent and Foot Soldiers is their extraordinary story. Among their ranks are 'Renny', one of the game's first superstars, and 'The Major', the mastermind behind their astonishing rise. In a four-year quest to land football's greatest prize both men must confront a disastrous fire, monstrous bad luck, the elements at their fiercest and the shocking death of one of the team's favourite players on FA Cup Final day itself.

66 on 66 provides a unique perspective on what, 50 years on, remains the greatest occasion in English sporting history. Countless words have been written and spoken about this extraordinary match which made national heroes of the team and its manager. Yet this book eschews those men who sported the Three Lions that day and, instead, talks to dozens of other people who were present. For the first time, one book collects together the fans, the journalists, the celebrities, the musicians, the police officers, the ball boys and the officials who all witnessed that famous, wonderful match. Their stories are accompanied by newly-taken, world-class photographs making 66 on 66 the definitive record of England's World Cup glory.

In the twenty-first century, soccer commands the allegiance, interest, and engagement of more people in more places than any other phenomenon in the world. David Goldblatt-author of the acclaimed, best-selling The Ball Is Round-charts the sport's global cultural ascent, economic transformation, and deep politicization. Based on a decade of research and reporting, The Age of Football sheds light on the greatest issues of our time-including globalization, immigration, nationalism-and the role that soccer plays. From soccer's connections to social discord in the Middle East as a site for protest and a tool for dictatorships to the reasons behind its surprising surge in popularity in China, India, and the United States, Goldblatt reveals that this massively popular sport is vital to understanding our social, political, and economic lives. Tracking the rise of interest in women's teams throughout the world and the controversy imbedded in the domestic football associations emerging across nations in Africa, he explores the use (and misuse) of soccer in the global advancement of equality and human rights. With breathtaking scope and unparalleled knowledge of the game, The Age of Football proves that whether you call it football or soccer, you can't make sense of the modern world without understanding its most popular sport

Chelsea FC, as someone once observed, has always done what other clubs have done, but not necessary in the same order. A stone's throw from the King's Road, draped with showbiz connections, and not even based in the borough from which it takes its name, Chelsea is an enigma. Run by the entrepreneurial Mears dynasty, Ken 'electric fence' Bates and now the Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich, the club has enough entertaining quirks and anecdotes to keep you entertained for ages. It is also a club whose history is filled with glorious games, unique facts, bizarre statistics, larger-than-life players and a special brand of supporter. And, as this book proves, far from being the imposters Kipling suggested, triumph and disaster make for a fantastically entertaining read.

This book applies research findings from soccer match analysis, coaching analysis, decision making in sport and motor skill acquisition to inform the coach on best practices, with a view to improving performance of the individual player and the team. Soccer match analysis has become more and more important in recent years. No professional soccer club plays a single match without having analyzed their own and their opponents matches to find the best possible plan for success. In Soccer Analytics Ian M. Franks and Mike Hughes explore soccer match analyses and use the results to develop realistic, progressive practices to improve the performance of the individual players and the team. Research is directly applied to the coaching process and technical and tactical practices are designed to accommodate these findings. Not only is the players behavior during practice and matches analyzed but the coaches as well. This helps evaluate different coaching practices to find your ideal coaching style. Coaches of soccer from elite levels to recreational players, directors of coaching clubs and teams, undergraduate university students, college professors involved in coaching and teaching soccer, physical education teachers, parents of soccer players will develop insight from the ample material presented.

Once upon a time football was run by modest local businessmen. Today it is the plaything of billionaire oligarchs, staggeringly wealthy from oil and gas, from royalty, or from murkier sources. But who are these new masters of the universe? Where did all their money come from? And what do they want with our beautiful game? While almost cloaked in secrecy, the billionaire owner has to raise his head above the bunker when it comes to football ownership - a rare Achilles heel that allows access to worlds normally off limits journalists and outsiders. In the Billionaires Club James Montague delves deeper than anyone ever dared, to tell this story for the first time. He criss-crosses the world - from Dhaka to Doha, from China to Crewe, from St Louis to London, from Bangkok to Belgium - to profile this new elite, their network of money and their influence that defies geographic boundaries. The Billionaires Club is part history of club ownership, part in-depth investigation into the money and influence that connects the super-rich around the globe, and part travel book as he follows the ever-shifting trail around the globe in an attempt to reveal the real force behind modern-day football. At its heart The Billionaires Club is a football book, about some of the biggest clubs in the world. But it is also about something bigger: the world around us, the global economy, where the world is headed and how football has become an essential cog in this machine.

Sir Alex Ferguson said that his brief as Manchester United manager was to "knock Liverpool off their f*****g perch". After over 2,000 games and 25 seasons, this year he finally succeeded. Following an endless supply of trophies, none meant more to United's global legion of fans than their 19th league title - simply because it finally put Liverpool in their place. It has taken Sir Alex 25 years to establish United as the leader of the championship pack. When Alan Hansen captained Liverpool to their most recent championship in 1990, the tally read 18-7 in Liverpool's favour and few would have given the Scot a prayer of capturing one championship, never mind 12. In "19", award-winning journalist Harry Harris looks back at all the title winning seasons and analyses each one from the viewpoint of a player who distinguished himself in that title year, building up to the record title and an in-depth analysis of the 2010-11 season and how United finally surpassed Liverpool. The book looks at the record through the eyes of those who took part in each of them, or who observed them from close quarters. "19" features exclusive interviews with Arthur Albiston, Alan Brazil, Steve Bruce, Garth Crooks, Gary Pallister, Paul Parker, Lee Sharpe, Gordon Taylor, Dave Whelan, Ray Wilkins.

Soccer, or football, attracts vast numbers of passionate fans from all over the world; yet clinical psychology is yet to study it in depth. In this book, David Huw Burston, a consultant football psychology and performance coach, uses a phenomenological research method inspired by Amedeo Giorgi to consider what we can learn from the spirit of the game, and how this can be used positively in the consulting room and on the field of play. By examining detailed qualitative research with professional soccer players of both sexes, Burston identifies and considers nine particular themes, including the family, god, heroes and dreams, and discusses how what we can learn from the game of football and team culture can be applied to Jungian analysis today. This book bridges the gap between clinical psychology and sport, outlining potential shortfalls in current youth development in sport, as well as discussing how traditional Jungian archetypes can be identified in everyday settings. It will be of key interest to researchers from both the fields of analytical psychology and sports studies.

Football has traditionally been an institution hostile toward sexual minorities. Boys and men in the sport have deployed high levels of homophobia for multiple reasons. However, the ground-breaking research within this book shows that intolerant attitudes toward gay men are increasingly being challenged. Based on unprecedented access to Premier League academies, Inclusive Masculinities in Contemporary Football: Men in the Beautiful Game explores these changing attitudes toward homophobia in football today. Revealing a range of masculine identities never before empirically measured at this level of football, this book discusses the implications for the complex and enclosed structures of professional sport, and extends our understanding of contemporary masculinity. It also offers fresh insights to the importance of "banter" in the development of relationships and identities. This culture of banter often plays a paradoxical role, both facilitating and disrupting friendships formed between male footballers. As the first title in the Routledge Critical Studies of Men and Masculinities Series, this book is fascinating reading for all students and scholars interested in football and the study of gender, sexuality and the sociology of sport.

This book presents an ethnographic study of contemporary ticket touts in the UK. Despite the recent interest in the topic of black-market ticket sales, media coverage and parliamentary interventions over the last ten years have revealed a widespread lack of knowledge with regards to the phenomenon of touting and the players involved in the practice. The Rise and Rise of Illegal Ticket Touting sheds light on the world of touting and delivers an authentic picture of the individuals involved, of their methods, values, and motivations for performing ticket touting as an organised, entrepreneurial deviant activity. The touts' attitudes, perceptions, adaptations to - or outright dismissal of - the changing legal landscape are focal points of the study. Of equal importance are the touts' varied methods of buying and selling tickets, the hierarchical structures and strict ethos of their criminal organisations, and their specific modi operandi for evading detection and arrest both on the streets and online. This book illuminates why historic and renewed attempts to challenge ticket touting have been unsuccessful, focusing on inadequate legislation, a lack of enforcement, and the widespread corruption and exploitable loopholes that exist within the official, primary ticket market. An accessible and compelling read, The Rise and Rise of Illegal Ticket Touting will appeal to students and scholars of criminology, sociology, social policy, policing and all those with an interest in live music and sport and the hidden practices that lurk beneath the surface.

An anecdote-driven narrative of the classic footballer's DOs and DO NOTs from the ever-popular Arsenal legend and football pundit Paul Merson, aka The Merse .

When it comes to advice on the pitfalls of life as a professional footballer, Paul Merson can pretty much write the manual. In fact, that's exactly what he's done in this hilarious new book which manages to be simultaneously poignant and gloriously funny.

Merson was a prodigiously talented footballer in the 80s and 90s, gracing the upper echelons of the game - and the tabloid front pages - with his breathtakingly skills and larger-than-life off-field persona.

His much-publicised battles with gambling, drug and alcohol addiction are behind him now, and football fans continue to be drawn to his sharp footballing brain and playful antics on SkySports cult results show Soccer Saturday.

The book delights and entertains with a treasure chest of terrific anecdotes from a man who has never lost his love of football and his inimitable joie de vivre through a 25-year association with the Beautiful Game.

The DO NOTs include: DO NOT adopt 'Champagne' Charlie Nicholas as your mentorDO NOT share a house with GazzaDO NOT regularly place 30,000 bets at the bookie'sDO NOT get so drunk that you can't remember the 90 minutes of football you just played inDO NOT manage Walsall (at any cost)

How Not to be a Professional Footballer is a hugely entertaining, moving and laugh-out-loud funny story."

Mohamed Salah: The Ultimate Fan Book takes you into the Egyptian football superstar's world like no other book. Learn about his amazing journey from growing up in a suburb of Cairo, to Basel, Chelsea, Fiorentina, AS Roma and Liverpool, where he has become a superstar of the Premier League. Written in a lively style and filled with fun features, thrilling action photographs and enlightening quotes, Mohamed Salah: The Ultimate Fan Book celebrates his greatest moments and most famous goals, including the goals which have made him one of the world's most watchable superstars.

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.

In the early 1970s in Scotland, women's football existed in the margins. Unrecognised by the Scottish Football Association, banned from playing in stadiums and with no recognised national team. Arrival tells the fascinating, inspiring and uplifting story of how Scotland's women footballers fought for their right to play, battling hostility, prejudice and intolerance in order to create a national side that the country could be proud of. Drawing on illuminating interviews with Scotland players and managers past and present, including Anna Signeul and Shelley Kerr, it tells the inside story of the remarkable journey that the Scotland women's national team made from formation to eventual qualification for the European Championship and World Cup. It reveals the passion, commitment and determination that enabled Scotland to build a squad capable of competing with the best in the world and inspiring a generation. Arrival is the true story of a team battling against the odds to take their place on the world stage.