Portsmouth's 6.57 crew were the most talked about casual football firm of the 1980s and 1990s. This notorious gang took their name from the time of the train they caught to games, following their team around the country with the kind of dedication - and violence - that only a true hoolifan knows. Now, for the first time ever, the amazing story of the firm is revealed.

In the winter of 2016 Simon Hughes began a journey through English football's most successful region, meeting the players, the managers, the chairmen and owners that shape the mood of a changing time. From the Premier League to grassroots, in On the Brink, Hughes examines how the landscape of the game across the north west is shifting: how geography explains the way things are; how industry defines identity; how money threatens existence - and what Brexit might mean for the future. CLUBS FEATURED IN ON THE BRINK: 1. Carlisle 2. Barrow 3. Morecambe 4. Blackpool 5. AFC Fylde 6. Fleetwood Town 7. Preston North End 8. Burnley 9. Blackburn Rovers 10. Accrington Stanley 11. Southport 12. Liverpool 13. Everton 14. Tranmere Rovers 15. Home Bargain FC 16. 1874 Northwich 17. Stockport County 18. Oldham Athletic 19. Bolton Wanderers 20. Salford City 21. Droylsden 23. Fletcher Moss Rangers 24. Manchester City

WINNER OF THE FOOTBALL BOOK OF THE YEAR 'This is a masterfully written history of the world's greatest football club. Mes que un book!' - GARY LINEKER From the bestselling co-author of Soccernomics comes the story of how FC Barcelona became the most successful football club in the world - and how that envied position now hangs in the balance. Barca is not just the world's most popular sports club, it is simply one of the most influential organisations on the planet. With almost 250 million followers on social media and 4 million visitors to its Camp Nou stadium each year, there's little wonder its motto is 'More than a club'. But it was not always so. In the past three decades, Barcelona has transformed from regional team to global powerhouse, becoming a model of sporting excellence and a consistent winner of silverware. Simon Kuper unravels exactly how these transformations took place. He outlines the organisational structure behind the club's business decisions, and details the work of its coaches, medics, data analysts and nutritionists who have revolutionised the sporting world. And, of course, he studies the towering influence of the club's two greatest legends, Johan Cruyff and Lionel Messi. Like many leading global businesses, FC Barcelona closely guards its secrets, granting few outsiders a view behind the scenes. But, after decades of writing about the sport and the club, Kuper was given unprecedented access to the inner sanctum and to the people who strive daily to keep Barcelona at the top. Erudite, personal, and capturing all the latest successes and upheavals, his portrait of this incredible institution goes beyond football to understand Barca as a unique social, cultural, and political phenomenon. "I began my research thinking I was going to be explaining Barca's rise to greatness, and I have, but I've also ended up charting the decline and fall."

This study of the business of football considers its income and cost drivers, its capital structure and its accounting policies through UK examples and international comparison. Also addressed are the conflicts arising out of the incorporation of football and the dichotomy between sport and business, leading to a suggested contemporary framework for accountability and business behaviour.

This book recaptures the excitement of the memorable games and key personalities of each of Fulham Football Club's eight promotional seasons from 1907. It includes comprehensive statistical appendix attached to each chapter, highlighting how the seasons unwound with the turning points identified. Since joining the Football League in 1907, Fulham Football Club has enjoyed eight promotion seasons, three from the second tier to the top flight, four from the third to the second and one from the fourth to the third. Each of these seasons had its own special features, memorable games and key personalities. This book tries to recapture some of that excitement as the individual seasons are put in the context of the club's history, the season discussed as it unwound, the key personalities and turning points identified plus a comprehensive statistical appendix attached to each chapter. Written by club historian and director Dennis Turner (who personally can recall all but two of the eight promotions) and, with the exceptions of the two earliest campaigns, the chapters are illustrated from the remarkable archive of club photographer Ken Coton. It is a timely reminder to many supporters who now take Premier League football for granted, that getting to where they are today has been a long, tortuous and occasional painful path.

Long before perma-tanned football agents and TV mega-rights ushered in the age of the multimillionaire player, footballers' wages were capped - even the game's biggest names earned barely more than a plumber or electrician. Footballing legends such as Tom Finney and Stanley Matthews shared a bond of borderline penury with the huge crowds they entertained on Saturday afternoons, on pitches that were a world away from the pristine lawns of the game's modern era. Instead of the gleaming sports cars driven by today's top players, the stars of yesteryear travelled to matches on public transport and returned to homes every bit as modest as those of their supporters. Players and fans would even sometimes be next-door neighbours in a street of working-class terraced houses. Based on the first-hand accounts of players from a fastdisappearing generation, When Footballers Were Skint delves into the game's rich heritage and relates the fascinating story of a truly great sporting era.

Now in a fully revised and updated fourth edition, Science and Soccer is still the most comprehensive and accessible introduction to the physiology, biomechanics and psychology behind the world's most popular sport. Offering important guidance on how science translates into practice, the book examines every key facet of the sport, with a particular focus on the development of expert performers. The topics covered include: • anatomy, physiology, psychology; sociology and biomechanics; • principles of training; • nutrition; • physical and mental preparation; • playing surfaces and equipment; injury • decision-making and skill acquisition; • coaching and coach education; • performance analysis; • talent identification and youth development. Science and Soccer: Developing Elite Performers is a unique resource for students and academics working in sports science. It is essential reading for all professional support staff working in the game, including coaches at all levels, physiotherapists, conditioning specialists, performance analysts, club doctors and sport psychologists.

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.

'One day you'll write a book about this club. Or, more to the point, about me. So you may as well know what I'm thinking and save it up for later when it won't do any harm to anyone.' Brian Clough's twenty years as Nottingham Forest manager were an unpredictable mixture of success, failure, fall-outs and alcoholism. Duncan Hamilton, initiated as a young journalist into the Brian Clough empire, was there to see it all. In this strikingly intimate biography - William Hill Sports Book of the Year 2007 - Hamilton paints a vivid portrait of one of football's greatest managers: from Nottingham Forest's double European Cup triumph to the torturous breakdown of relations at the club and Clough's descent into alcoholism. Sad, joyous and personal, Hamilton's account of life with Brian Clough is a touching tribute to a brilliant man.

This book analyses women as spectators at men's association football (soccer) in Britain from 1863 to 1939. The author shows that women have always been present at men's football in Britain, a fact not always acknowledged in modern popular accounts of the game, albeit as a small minority in overall attendances. Some women have always been 'authentic' fans of football, both knowledgeable and enthusiastic in their support, and this book will demonstrate that.

This book explores football culture, organisation and development in the five Nordic countries - Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Sweden and Norway. These countries represent an important case study in sport culture, policy and management, being shaped by unique traditions in their civil society and in social welfare and public policy. The first part of the book explores the development path of football in each country, looking at how football arrived in Scandinavia and how it has been transformed from a voluntary civic activity into a professional sport while becoming closely attached to the global football system. The second part highlights key issues - including historical, contemporary and critical aspects - across three themes: professionalisation and changing practices; equality and gender; and supporters, audiences and culture. Written by a team of authors with a blend of experience as academics and practitioners in football, the book traces the contours of the distinctive Nordic model that occupies a prominent position in the global football system. Shining fascinating new light on the relationship between football and wider society, this is invaluable reading for students and researchers interested in football, sport management, sport policy, or the history, culture or sociology of sport and for anyone involved in the game.

Imagine Pep Guardiola quitting Manchester City to take over at Rochdale. Or Jose Mourinho walking out on United to join Southend. That sort of thing just wouldn't happen, would it? Except that in 1973, it did. At that time Brian Clough was managerial gold dust, having taken Derby County to the Football League title and to the semi-finals of the European Cup. After those feats, he and his sidekick Peter Taylor could have managed anywhere. And yet the most famous men in British football decided to take the reins at Brighton & Hove Albion, sixth bottom of the old Third Division, for what would prove a controversial and ultimately unsuccessful spell that would test their friendship to breaking point. The move to a sleepy backwater football club made little sense then and, forty years on, it remains a mystery. It seems especially odd considering Clough's aversion to the south and refusal to relocate his home from Derby. Featuring candid interviews with the men who played under Clough and Taylor at Brighton, Bloody Southerners attempts to make sense of the strangest managerial appointment in English post-war football. What shines through in page after page of never-before-heard stories is the profound complexity of both characters.

This book provides a comprehensive, up-to-date overview of the different environmental strategies adopted in the football world to foster sustainability. The authors lay out useful insights, both for scholars and practitioners, to improve good governance in football organisations by empowering environmental organisational and operational actions. As well as examining practical methods of implementing green initiatives, the book discusses their added value from different perspectives including football fans, football managers and policymakers. By identifying the most important green actions for the dissemination of environmentally friendly behaviours at both individual and organisational levels, the book demonstrates how football organisations can use operational and organisational methods to develop an environmental sustainability strategy. The book contributes to developing the role of the football world by covering different facets of sustainability such as the circular economy, climate change, green marketing, fans engagement and more. It will be a valuable resource for scholars and students of environmental management, sustainable business and corporate social responsibility, as well as professionals working in the football industry.

This is the first book to examine the growing movement of organised networks of LGBT+ football supporters, exploring activists' biographies and the meanings they ascribe to participation in identity politics-centred social movements. The book draws upon in-depth original research into the Pride in Football LGBT+ football supporters' network in the UK, alongside comparative material from other countries. It is also the first book to apply a cultural relational sociological framework to the study of football fans and supporters' groups, marking an important theoretical step forward that opens up new perspectives in the sociology of sport, the sociology of collective action and social movements, and the sociologies of genders and sexualities in the twenty-first century world. As the struggle for cultural rights and recognition of LGBT+ communities continues, with football fandom providing an important site for understanding of these issues given its historically-embedded hegemonic masculine culture, and in the aftermath of gay male football player Jake Daniels' 'coming out' in May 2022, the book offers timely insights into new social movements, the consumption of sport and the experiences of people from a diversity of sexualities. This is fascinating reading for anybody with an interest in the sociology of sport, football, fandom, gender, sexualities, social theory or social movements.

Racism and English Football: For Club and Country analyses the contemporary manifestations, outcomes and implications of the fractious relationship between English professional football and race. Racism, we were told, had disappeared from English football. It was relegated to a distant past, and displaced onto other European countries. When its appearance could not be denied, it was said to have reappeared. This book reveals that this was not true. Racism did not go away and did not return. It was here all along. The book argues that racism is firmly embedded and historically rooted in the game's structures, cultures and institutions, and operates as a form of systemic discrimination. It addresses the ways that racism has tainted English football, and the manner in which football has, in turn, influenced racial meanings and formations in wider society. Equally, it explores how football has facilitated forms of occupational multiculture, black player activism and progressive fan politics that resist divisive social phenomena and offer a degree of hope for an alternative future. Focusing on a diverse range of topics, in men's and women's football, at club and international level, Racism and English Football extends and expands our knowledge of how racism occurs and, critically, how it can be challenged. This is an essential read for scholars and students working on race, ethnicity, sport and popular culture, together with those interested in the social and organisational dynamics of English professional football more generally.

By turns tragic and hopeful, the history of Israel and Palestine through the lens of the world's most popular sport. Football has never been shy of politics. This is especially true for Israel and Palestine. A sport introduced by Victorian churchmen swiftly became a vehicle for nationalism and pride. Under British military rule, Jewish and Palestinian teams competed in the same leagues, not only on the pitch, but in smoky committee rooms and street corners, as the two communities fought for control of the sport. After the creation of Israel in 1948, Palestinian football survived among refugees, with Jordan's greatest side hailing from the poorest of the camps on the fringes of the capital. In recent years, Israel's dynamic Premier League has seen some of the country's best teams and players emerge from the Palestinian community - inspiring hope that football might help Arabs and Jews become friends and equals. Meanwhile, in the West Bank and Gaza, a series of shock wins by a new Palestinian national side saw Palestine climb the FIFA rankings, making football the one field where Palestinians could compete with pride on a world stage, as one nation among the others. This is a vibrant and often shocking story filled with driven, even ferocious people who are inspired by nationalism as much as a love of the game. There are many sacrifices, as brilliant teams are scattered by wars, side-lined through boycotts, and stories of players arrested, expelled, driven to hunger strikes, and beaten or shot. It is a story not simply of Jewish-Arab rivalry, but also of the deep fracture lines within each community. In this unusual history of the world's most intractable conflict, Nicholas Blincoe sets out to ask: is it hopelessly romantic to think of football as a level playing field, governed by sportsmanship and the love of the game? Or will it always be just another space to be fought over and polluted?

Champions Under Lockdown is the third book in the Red Odyssey series. It tells the story of an extraordinary season from the perspective of the terraces. After their epic 2018/19 season, in 2019/20 Jurgen Klopp would target Liverpool's first league title in 30 years. During this unforgettable season his side would smash all records. They claimed the UEFA Super Cup and then the Club World Cup before sailing to a 25-point lead at the top of the Premier League. Fans who thought they had seen it all witnessed arguably the greatest Reds side in history sweep all before them. They were declared champions-elect, but the fates decreed there would be a final barrier to Liverpool claiming their prize. In the midst of a global virus pandemic and with the country on lockdown, voices called for the season to be declared null and void, threatening to wipe the achievements of this incredible team from history. But Jurgen and his men rose again to claim their holy grail. This is the unique story of the champions under lockdown.

*Shortlisted for the William Hill Sports Book of the Year* 'Harrowing, brave, hugely important book' HENRY WINTER 'Absolutely amazed by the power of Andy Woodward's testimony' JEREMY VINE SHOW 'I'm sure this will be one of the defining football books of the era' SAM WALLACE, CHIEF FOOTBALL WRITER FOR THE TELEGRAPH The brave and moving account by football's first whistle blower, breaking the silence on the scandal of sexual abuse in youth clubs and junior teams. Essential reading for parents, and for anyone afraid to speak up. Andy Woodward was a wide eyed, hopeful footballer playing for Stockport Boys, when Barry Bennell first noticed him. Andy was 11 years old, and Bennell a youth coach with a big reputation for spotting and nurturing young footballing talent. The clubs Bennell worked for and the parents of the boys he coached, trusted and believed in him, inviting him into their lives and their homes. But behind the charismatic mask was a profoundly evil man willing to go to any lengths to satisfy his own dark appetites. Andy has been heralded a hero for speaking up about his horrific experiences at the hands of Bennell, but also at going further to expose the long hidden abuse buried within our nations' best loved sport. His story is only the tip of the iceberg. Andy's childhood was shattered by what happened to him and by the fear and silence that surrounded it. His youthful dreams of playing the game he loved were utterly broken, and years of living with the terrible secret and shame all but destroyed him. He hopes that by coming forward he might encourage others in similar situations to find the courage to speak out. A compelling and relevant story of the dark secret at the heart of football and another chapter in the ongoing expose of institutionalised corruption.

Association Football did no less than reshape British and indeed global society in its fast development as an organised sport over the course of the second half of the nineteenth century and leading up to the First World War. In this newly released edition of Tony Mason's essential account of the game's rise, issues such as the amateur professional divide, social class and mass spectatorship are seen as fundamental to the development of what is now a multi-trillion dollar industry. Dilwyn Porter supplements this classic text with a brand-new introduction.

Association Football did no less than reshape British and indeed global society in its fast development as an organised sport over the course of the second half of the nineteenth century and leading up to the First World War. In this newly released edition of Tony Mason's essential account of the game's rise, issues such as the amateur professional divide, social class and mass spectatorship are seen as fundamental to the development of what is now a multi-trillion dollar industry. Dilwyn Porter supplements this classic text with a brand-new introduction.

Liverpool's magnificent number 7s is 112 pages full of everything a football fan could ever want to know about the most iconic players to have not only worn the Number 7 shirt, but to have played at one of the most iconic clubs in the world. Packed with features, including a detailed account of their time at the club. Also included are in-depth statistics, facts, trivia, most memorable games, and an unmatched historical account of the famous Number 7s to have elevated the club.