This book assesses the transformation of football fan culture from a gender perspective. Referring to the notions of homosociality, hegemonic masculinity and performative perspectives on gender and fandom, it investigates the processes of women entering the world of football fandom. Drawing on multidimensional qualitative and quantitative research, the book analyses different aspects of female fandom, such as women's socialisation to be a fan, building their sense of fan identity, ways of performing fandom, and gender. Also, it explores the response of male fans by shedding light on the sense-making process of a growing number of female fans in the stands and its consequences for prevailingly male football culture. This study stands out for its richness and diversity of empirical material used in order to make a significant contribution to our understanding of social dynamics related to the changing nature of female football fandom. The book is fascinating reading for researchers and students in a broad range of areas, including gender studies, sociology of sport, football, women's studies and Central Eastern European studies. It is also a valuable resource for scholars, and football and club authorities who have an interest in understanding the development of female football fandom and its impact on the male fandom community.

2021 saw the centenary of the formation of the League of Ireland, the Republic of Ireland's primary professional association football league. This new collection draws on the work of a number of leading historians of Irish soccer and seeks to examine a number of previously under-researched aspects relating to the league. The book examines the initial growth of clubs in Dublin and the Free State League's early turbulent history, while the impact of Irish players and administrators on the development of soccer clubs at home and abroad is also assessed. Following the partition of Ireland in 1921, players continued to move from Dublin clubs to those in Northern Ireland and this is also discussed, particularly in light of the Troubles of 1968-1998. Despite the migration of many Irish-born players to Britain, the League of Ireland has also attracted internationally based players and the impact of this is also examined. The role of the league in the provision of players for the Irish Olympic team is also explored, as is the work of SARI in its attempts to eradicate racism from Irish sport. This publication aims to commemorate some of those who have strived to maintain the League of Ireland's presence against the backdrop of what has become the world's most attractive football league, located in Ireland's neighbour, England. It will be of interest to researchers and advanced students of Sports, History, Sociology and Politics. This book was originally published as a special issue of the journal, Soccer & Society.

As the digital revolution continues apace, emergent technologies and means of communication present new challenges and opportunities for the football industry. This is the first book to bring together key contemporary debates at the intersection of football studies, leisure studies, and digital cultural studies. It presents cutting edge theoretical and empirical work based around four key themes: theorizing digital football cultures; digital football fandom; football and social media; and football (sub)cybercultures. Covering topics such as transnational digital fandom, online abuse, and gender, Digital Football Cultures argues that we are witnessing the hyperdigitalization of the world's most popular sport. This book is a valuable resource for students and researchers working in leisure studies, sports studies, football studies, and critical media studies, as well as geography, anthropology, criminology, and sociology. It is also fascinating reading for anybody working in sport, media, and culture.

The definitive biography of Cristiano Ronaldo, named Football Book of the Year at the Cross Sports Book Awards 2016 Fully updated to include the 2017-18 season and Ronaldo's transfer to Juventus Cristiano Ronaldo is one of the greatest footballers of all time, a dream he pursued from the age of just twelve when he left his humble origins on Madeira behind. It wasn't long before he had the biggest clubs in Europe knocking on his door, but it was Manchester United who won the race for his signature. Under the tutelage of Sir Alex Ferguson, Ronaldo developed into the complete footballer and athlete, winning three league titles and a Champions League along the way. He then became the biggest galactico of them all when he transferred to Real Madrid for a record-breaking fee. Unprecedented success in the Champions League and a record-equalling five Ballons d'Or followed, before his sensational move to Juventus in the summer of 2018. Guillem Balague, respected football journalist and expert on the Spanish game, provides the definitive account of a twenty-first-century footballing icon.

The Emergence of Football fuses sports history into mainstream economic, social and cultural history, setting the development of the people's game against the backdrop of the Industrial Revolution. The book challenges conventional histories of nineteenth-century football that surrounded mass games and the public schools and extends the revisionist critique of those histories with the imaginative use of new and original empirical evidence. It outlines the continuing presence of a working-class footballing culture across the century, arguing that the structure of football was a product of industrialisation, urbanisation and population growth that had resulted in a far-reaching restructuring of the class system and urban hierarchies. It was these new hierarchies and class system that gave birth to professional football by the late 1870s. It is essential reading for students of sports studies, economic, social and cultural history, urban and local history, and sociology, as well as a valuable resource for scholars and academics involved in the study of football across the world. This is an absorbing and fascinating read for any of the millions of fans of the game who are interested in the early history of football.

This book presents an overview on sport history research in Europe by giving insights into various topics between Europes south and north. Examples are physical activities in the middle ages in Cordoba, bullfighting in Spain, aspects of football in various countries to winter sports in France. Football is mainly looked at in the period of the late 1930s to the 1940s, a period of dictatorship in many European countries. This is shown at the example of the German press coverage of German-Danish sport collaborations and the identity of Spanish football during this time. A further focus are the Olympic Games. This topic is taken up in two articles: One discusses as its main subject the famous painting 'Sport Allegory/The Crowing of the Athletes' created by the father of Pierre de Coubertin, the other one has a more current content and shows stakeholders and challenges of the European Youth Olympics in 2015. Besides these broad topics, a focus is put on research in sport history by reflecting on historical frameworks and various methodological approaches. The chapters in this book were originally published as a special issue in The International Journal of the History of Sport.

WATERSTONES BEST BOOKS OF 2022 - SPORT 'This book is a work of art about football's works of art... Loved it.' - Kevin Day, broadcaster 'A beautiful showcase of such a distinctive part of the game's culture... impossible not to get lost in the book' - Miguel Delaney, The Independent 'Gorgeous to behold... Unmissable' - Danny Kelly, TalkSPORT radio presenter 'I absolutely love this book' - Jules Breach, football presenter On high-rise buildings, street corners and stadium walls in countries around the world, eye-catching murals pay tribute to footballing greats. From Messi and Ronaldo to Rapinoe and Cruyff, these striking displays are remarkable testaments to the awe and affection fans feel for these football legends and cult heroes. Join renowned football writer and broadcaster Andy Brassell as he explores this fascinating phenomenon. Offering a fresh, highly visual perspective on the global game, Football Murals is the first book to celebrate these towering works of art. Beckenbauer and Cruyff, Rooney and Ronaldinho, Totti and Salah, Zlatan and Zidane - being honoured with a mural cements a player's place in a club's heritage and links them to the heart of the community. This richly illustrated book showcases the most impressive examples, explores their inspirational qualities and examines what they say about these icons and their sport. Written and curated by respected football writer Andy Brassell, this ground-breaking book features more than 100 murals from around the world, capturing the scale, grandeur and wit of this powerful and popular art form. Through a series of short essays and extended captions, Andy shares the players' stories, discusses the cultural politics and explains just why these men and women have been immortalised in mural form. Covering such diverse topics as Home Town Glory, Football Fame and The Cult of the Coach, Football Murals addresses the issues important to fans worldwide. It spans Marcus Rashford's inspirational mural in a Manchester suburb, the George Best tribute on the East Belfast estate where he was born, the 15-foot depiction of Megan Rapinoe in St Paul, Minnesota, and the Naples 'shrine' to Diego Maradona.

In a world where so many books by and about footballers are little more than bland PR exercises, Full Timebreaks the mould decisively. Stripping away the facade of what we think life must be like for an international football star, Paul Kimmage reveals a different story when it comes to Irish footballer Tony Cascarino. Scarred by his childhood, haunted by indiscretion and troubled by a secret from his past, Cascarino is struggling to find answers as he speeds towards the most terrifying juncture in sport: the end. As Cascarino opens up about his fears, crippling loss of confidence and sexual indiscretion, no wonder The Timesvoted it one of the Top Ten football books of all time and Eamon Dunphy said of it: 'If it were fiction this book could win the Booker Prize.'

Comprehensive and thorough exploration of components in elite and professional football. Present's a great level of real world, practical information associated with research, specifically discussing job duties, with attention to different areas of sport and how to use the technology in the field All contributors are leading practitioners working in elite soccer

This handy guide to the greatest carnival of kick-a-ball the planet has ever seen won't just give you all the essential factual dope, but will dare to tell you all the things others won't.

The Scottish Cup: Celtic's Favourite Trophy is the story of Celtic's love affair with football's oldest prize. The club first won the cup in 1892, an achievement that meant so much to the young side and their struggling, oppressed community. In the years that followed this special trophy became entwined with the club's identity through many unforgettable moments. Jimmy Quinn scored the first hat-trick in a Scottish Cup final in 1904, there was Patsy Gallacher's extraordinary goal in 1925, a record attendance when Celtic lifted the cup in 1937, Willie Wallace's brace of goals en route to Lisbon in 1967, two remarkable comebacks in the 1980s, and Odsonne Edouard's heroic turnaround in 2019. The book goes beyond the cup finals, recalling the tough games in the early rounds, including the more spectacular encounters with Rangers and Aberdeen. Romance, drama and passion are all bound up in Celtic's annual quest for the cup, involving great players, from the Sandy McMahon era to the days of Scott Brown.

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.

Football Biomechanics explores the latest knowledge of this core discipline in sport science across all codes of the sport. Encompassing a variety of styles, including original scientific studies, syntheses of the latest research, and position statements, the text offers readers the most up-to-date and comprehensive reference of the underlying mechanics of high-level football performance. The book is divided into five parts, covering fundamental football actions, the biomechanics of direct free kicks, footwear, biomechanical considerations in skill acquisition and training, and artificial turf. It bridges the gap between theory and practice in a variety of key areas such as: ball kicking mechanics (in soccer and other football codes) ball impact dynamics aerodynamics of ball flight special techniques (such as the 'knuckle ball shot') by world-famous players the efficacy and development of footwear biomechanical and motor performance differences between female and male soccer players artificial turf from an injury and a performance perspective. Made up of contributions from leading experts from around the world, Football Biomechanics is a vital resource for researchers and practitioners working in all football codes, and useful applied reading for any sport science student with an interest in football.

Beautiful Bridesmaids Dressed in Oranje: The Unfulfilled Glory of Dutch Football is the story of a dazzling football dream. Built on the club successes of Ajax and Feyenoord, it's a utopian ideal that blazed with a bright but ephemeral Oranje flame, scorching the football pitches of the world in the 1970s. Although Dutch clubs dominated the European Cup from 1969 to 1973, until 1974 the Oranje had failed to qualify for a World Cup for 36 years. Two finals then followed in successive tournaments, as 'totaalvoetbal' burst from its chrysalis, proudly revealing to the world its wings adorned with vivid shades of Oranje. The winners were the brides. It was their day, but the Dutch sides were more beautiful, yet so fragile, and football loved them for it. This isn't merely a tale of bridesmaids who came so close yet failed gloriously. It is the celebration of a footballing counter-culture, a revolution, a flame that burned so brightly, but so briefly. It's the story of those Beautiful Bridesmaids Dressed in Oranje.

'EIGHT YEARS WITH RANGERS, MORE THAN 300 GAMES, INCREDIBLE HIGHS, PAINFUL LOWS - AND IT ALL CAME DOWN TO ONE NIGHT IN THE NOU CAMP' 24 May 1972. The biggest night in the history of Rangers. Having overcome the might of Italian giants Torino and Beckenbauer's Bayern Munich en route to the final of the European Cup Winners' Cup, Dynamo Moscow stood between the Light Blues and the trophy. The stage was set in Barcelona for an unsung hero: Dave Smith. Creator of two of the goals on the night and arguably man of the match. In a rollercoaster career, Smith joined the Ibrox club from Aberdeen in 1966 for a record fee. He tasted defeat in the 1967 European Cup Winners' Cup final and had his career blighted by two horrific leg breaks during a period in which he also experienced the tragedy of the Ibrox disaster. But by 1972 Smith was a lynchpin of Willie Waddell's team. Playing as sweeper, he dicated the tempo of games with his vision and pinpoint passing. The star of the Nou Camp victory was voted Player of the Year in Scotland to cap the most memorable of seasons. He departed Rangers in 1974, making a shock switch to Arbroath after a fallout with new Ibrox manager Jock Wallace, before going on to star overseas in South Africa and then alongside George Best for the LA Aztecs in America. Rejecting the chance to join Paris Saint-Germain, Smith chose to end his career in Scotland's lower leagues as player-manager at Berwick Rangers where he would find success and happiness playing the game the way it was meant to be played.

The study of football fandom is a fast-growing area of research in the sociology of sport. The first work of its kind, this book explores football fan activism and its impact on contemporary football culture in England, Italy and the Czech Republic. Presenting a comparative study of fan activism in national and transnational contexts, it explores the characteristics of each country's football fan culture as well as the varying and at times volatile dynamics between fans, authorities and the mass media. Its chapters address key themes and issues including: fans' reactions to policing and security measures in football stadiums; the socio-cultural significance of symbols and rituals for fans at football games; and fans' critical engagement with football club ownership and management. Offering original insights into the power of fan activism to influence social change, this book has wider implications for understanding social movements in other cultural and political spheres beyond Europe. Football Fans, Activism and Social Change is fascinating reading for all students, scholars and football fans with an interest in sport studies, fan culture, politics and society.

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.

Betrayed by his club but beloved by the fans, former Chelsea manager Claudio Ranieri has been a constant headline-maker in 2004. Occasionally puzzling, often eccentric, but always fascinating and refreshing, the Italian describes the highs and lows of an extraordinary season at Stamford Bridge - and the dramatic end to his English journey. 'Hello, my sharks. Welcome to the funeral.' 'People have said I am a dead man walking - but I am still moving ' 'Tonight I am a crazy man and Roman Abramovich is also going mad like me ' We rejoiced with him. We laughed with him. And we cried with him. In what turned out to be a year for the Blues resembling more a soap opera than a season of football, Claudio Ranieri reveals the highlights and the hurt of his farewell twelve months in England. This collaboration between Italian journalist Massimo Marianella and Ranieri promises to reveal the inside story of a rollercoaster year at Stamford Bridge, with a first-hand account of coaching the most expensively assembled team in the Premiership, alongside the increasing pressures of satisfying his bosses as Chelsea's season threatened to turn into anticlimax. How did Ranieri keep all his players contented, when the value of his subs bench often exceeded that of most Premiership teams? What were the skills required to mould a group of exciting individuals into a team capable of challenging the likes of Arsenal and Manchester United at the top of the tree? With the media suggesting an uneasy alliance between Ranieri and Roman Abramovich, what was it that drove their complex relationship? What was the real truth behind the allegations that Ranieri's position was being undermined by his bosses? And when did the 'Tinkerman' discover his final denouement? Just some of the questions that will be answered in this book by arguably the most talked-about man in English football in 2004.

New topic: Give Back Phenomenon, which has contributed to a new knowledge of African footballers' migration to the European leagues. Highlights the link between the evolution of African football, footballers' migration strategies and the Give Back Phenomenon Multidisciplinary analysis based on a socioeconomic model New perspectives on research concerning professional football and local interpretation of socioeconomic development in African countries. Written by three experts in African football and economic sociology of which two are African migrants who studied in Europe.

Football in Fiction represents the most comprehensive historical mapping and analysis of novels related to association football (soccer). It offers a theoretically informed field guide, a scholarly cartography of football fiction's uncertain - and until now - only partially explored terrain. Combining an extensive search for texts with up-to-date academic research, journals, surveys, catalogues, and reviews the book demonstrates a topographic perspective of the field - one that captures and establishes its breadth, depth, and distinctive identity. The book uses and adapts two distinct reading models of abstraction, in conjunction with closer textual analyses. Together they assist in realising a set of demonstrable conventions, outline a taxonomy of fictive types, establish the genre's current state of play, and advance the football novel as a form with its own literary history and traditions. This book is a valuable resource for those studying and researching in the areas of the social and cultural aspects of football, sports fiction, sports writing, creative writing, and literary and genre studies. Furthermore, related industry professionals will find this a fascinating read, particularly football writers, fans of the sport, and those interested in sports history and cultural phenomena.

The history of modern British football can largely be written through the stories of Jack and Bobby Charlton. Both were in the World Cup winning team of '66, and each has remained deeply involved in the game ever since. The book traces the parallel lives of Jack and Bobby Charlton, following them from their schooldays through to the present day. The brothers both played prominent roles in the finest hour of English football, the 1966 World Cup triumph. Each played for the dominant club of their era, and summed up the style of their respective teams. Bobby was at Manchester Utd during their glory days under Sir Matt Busby. He survived the Munich air crash and went on to become a fast, graceful attacker who set grounds alight with his power, speed and athleticism in a team that played free-flowing, attacking football. Jack came to professional football late, working in a coal mine before Leeds signed him. Don Revie's Leeds side was renowned for its uncompromising and physical style, and Jack was himself a tough, durable and aggressive defender, who once caused uproar by admitting he had a 'black book' with a list of footballing enemies who he would target on the pitch. The two retired from football in the same year, and since, the contrast between them has been marked. Bobby's forays into management at Wigan and Preston were distinguished only by their brevity, while 'Big Jack' took the Republic of Ireland team to an unprecendented level of success, reaching the quarter finals of the World Cup in 1994. Bobby has been a key figure in the ongoing success of Manchester United over the past decade, working on recruiting players and as an FA diplomat. But, despite their continued successes, the relationship between the two has been strained, sometimes barely even polite, and the book will investigate the reasons for this, including in-depth interviews with many of those the two have been in contact with over the years.

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.