By the early months of 2012, it was clear that the appointment of Andre Villas-Boas as head coach at Chelsea wasn't delivering the required success. Instead, the club was spiralling towards its worst season of the Roman Abramovich era. On 4 March, Villas-Boas was dismissed, with his former assistant Roberto Di Matteo made interim head coach until the end of the season. Struggling in the league and with their place in the Champions League in peril, it was an appointment designed to make the best of things until a permanent replacement could be sought in the summer. Instead, under Di Matteo's guidance, Chelsea embarked on a run of performances that not only led to an FA Cup triumph, but resurrected their European hopes with improbable victories over Napoli, Benfica and Guardiola's all-conquering Barcelona before, against all odds, winning the Champions League by defeating Bayern Munich in their own stadium. This is the story of a triumph that came out of the blue.

Sammy McIlroy experienced one of the most memorable careers in football. After all, who else can say they played with George Best, Denis Law and Bobby Charlton, experienced relegation, won trophies and played under six different managers at Manchester United? With more than 400 appearances, McIlroy - the last player signed by the legendary Sir Matt Busby - is a bona fide Old Trafford legend, and is an intrinsic part of the fabric of its illustrious history. One of the few footballers to have played in two international tournaments for Northern Ireland (and been captain in one), 'Super' Sam went on to manage his country after a successful spell in charge of Macclesfield Town. He tells his extraordinary story with remarkable candour and emotion, pulling no punches. From the anxiety of his homesickness to the exhilaration of his club debut, from the lows of his heartbreaking exit from United to the highs of leading his country out in a World Cup, The Last Busby Babe finally puts on record one of the greatest careers in football history.

International football fixtures, such as the World Cup finals in italy in 1990, draw together not only rival teams but rival fans. The police and the media are increasingly geared up to tackle international fixtures as occasions for the outbreak of crowd disorder. It can sometimes seem that the behaviour of the fans is more important than the game itself. "Football on Trial" examines some of the causes of football hooliganism as a European and World phenomenon. It casts an eye forward to the 1994 World Cup in Los Angeles and asks why soccer hooliganism has not been a problem in the USA. It also examines the connections between player violence and spectator violence, and considers the role of the media in producing soccer crowd disorder. The authors have also written "Hooligans Abroad" and "The Roots of Football Hooliganism".

A football season ticket is one hell of a commitment! It's okay if you're guaranteed a good time - sexy football and three points a la Manchester City - but supporting a club of West Ham's stature is a marriage of convenience. In Fortune's Always Hiding, Paul Brand takes us through the Hammers' recent history, with a fan's-eye view that reads like 'The Secret Diary of a West Ham Fan Aged 40 and 3/4'. Chronicling a turbulent few years, from the final days at Upton Park to a European semi-final, this captivating account will resonate with anyone whose happiness is unwisely invested in the fortunes of their favourite team. Taking in fit and proper owners, the Leicester fairy tale, VAR, corporate greed, Covid lockdowns and the Three Lions renaissance (which has similarly teased success without delivering), this book is a must for Hammers devotees and anyone else who finds themselves disillusioned with the modern game but in too deep to ever give it up.

West Ham United: From East End Family to Globalised Fandom is the story of the evolution of West Ham. It charts how a works football team was transformed into a club that represented east London's working classes, only to be transformed again in the late 20th and early 21st centuries into a global brand with supporters in every habitable place on Earth. Starting as the Thames Ironworks Ltd works team, they changed their name to West Ham United in 1900, shortly before moving to the Boleyn Ground in Upton Park. For nearly a century they were supported by local working-class men from across the East End of London until a series of economic, social, cultural, geographical and technological changes brought the club a global fanbase. Through surveying West Ham United fan groups across the world, this book attempts to explain this phenomenon and to get a sense of what the club means to those who originally came from the East End, as well as to those who have no biographical connection to the area.

More than 20 Arsenal legends join together to offer a unique insight into the most magic moments in the history of one of the world's biggest clubs. Gunners greats from David Seaman to Bob Wilson and Theo Walcott to Charlie George take us behind the dressing-room door, enabling fans of all ages to relive these amazing memories through the eyes and emotions of the men who were there, pulling on the famous red-and-white shirts. Contained in these pages are previously untold stories from fan favourites including Ray Parlour on winning the Premier League title at Old Trafford and scoring the winner in the FA Cup Final in the space of just four days and what Arsene Wenger did to transform the club. Lee Dixon reveals how he and his team-mates toasted their remarkable last-gasp 1989 title win at Anfield by swigging Kenny Dalglish's champagne while George Graham offers a rare look back at his amazing Highbury career as both player and manager. Double winners Frank McLintock and George also relive the never-to-be-forgotten 1970/71 season and super-fan Piers Morgan offers a unique account of following Arsene Wenger's Invincibles.

John Harris's arrival at Bramall Lane laid the foundations for the appearance of some of the greatest players in Sheffield United's history. In his second full season in charge, the Blades were promoted back to the first division. Ain't Got a Barrel of Money is the story of Harris and those who came after him, building a team that would challenge for a place in Europe, the decline that followed and the inevitable sale of many of the club's finest players. In 1975, they finished sixth in Division One, playing some of the most exciting football in the country. Currie, Woodward, Colquhoun, Speight, Hemsley and Badger were all household names. But within six years Sheffield United had gone from the brink of greatness to the ultimate humiliation - relegation to the fourth division, for the first and only time in the club's wonderful history. Filled with anecdotes and memories from many of those who were there, both on the field and on the terraces, this book captures the highs and lows of being a Sheffield United fan.

Newcastle United are a team that really should do better. They have a football-mad city all to themselves and fans as numerous and passionate as you will find anywhere. Yet their recent record is mediocre at best and poor at worst, with every fan painfully aware that 1955 was the last time they won a major English trophy. But it wasn't always like that. In the Magpies' glory days of well over 100 years ago, they were considered the best team in the world. They won the English league three times in five years, the English cup once and had several near misses, while supplying many players for the England and Scotland national teams. In this fascinating book, David Potter recreates the atmosphere of 'the Toon' in those distant days when men like McWilliam, Veitch, Higgins and Shepherd walked tall. Above all, that great era is a potent reminder to the current generation of Newcastle fans that 'it doesn't need to be like this'.

World football is in crisis. The corruption scandal engulfing FIFA is arguably the biggest story in the history of modern sport and a watershed for sport governance. More than a decade ago, John Sugden and Alan Tomlinson laid the foundations for subsequent investigations with the publication of Badfellas, a groundbreaking work of critical sport sociology that exposed the systematic corruption at the heart of world football. It was a book that FIFA and Sepp Blatter tried to ban. Now re-issued to combine the original contents of Badfellas with new chapters covering the current crisis, this book points to the ways in which FIFA's new administration can learn from the Blatter story. The prequel traces the course of Sugden and Tomlinson's game-changing investigation into FIFA, while the sequel updates the FIFA story from 2002 onwards and provides a chronology of crises and scandals within the FIFA narrative. Demonstrating the vital importance of critical investigative methods in sport studies, Football, Corruption and Lies: Revisiting Badfellas, the book FIFA tried to ban is essential reading for anybody looking to understand Blatter's rise and fall.

Overpaid players. Sunday lunchtime kick-offs. Absurd ticket prices. Non-black boots. Football's menu of ills is long. Where has the joy gone? Why do we bother? Saturday, 3pm offers a glorious antidote. It is here to remind you that football can still sing to your heart. Warm, heartfelt and witty, here are fifty short essays of prose poetry dedicated to what is good in the game. These are not wallowing nostalgia; they are things that remain sweet and right: seeing a ground from the train, brackets on vidiprinters, ball hitting bar, Jimmy Armfield's voice, listening to the results in a traffic jam, football towns and autograph-hunters. This is fan culture at its finest, words to transport you somewhere else and identify with, words to hide away in a pub and luxuriate in. Saturday, 3pm is a book of love letters to football and a clarion call, helping us find the romance in the game all over again.

World football is in crisis. The corruption scandal engulfing FIFA is arguably the biggest story in the history of modern sport and a watershed for sport governance. More than a decade ago, John Sugden and Alan Tomlinson laid the foundations for subsequent investigations with the publication of Badfellas, a groundbreaking work of critical sport sociology that exposed the systematic corruption at the heart of world football. It was a book that FIFA and Sepp Blatter tried to ban. Now re-issued to combine the original contents of Badfellas with new chapters covering the current crisis, this book points to the ways in which FIFA's new administration can learn from the Blatter story. The prequel traces the course of Sugden and Tomlinson's game-changing investigation into FIFA, while the sequel updates the FIFA story from 2002 onwards and provides a chronology of crises and scandals within the FIFA narrative. Demonstrating the vital importance of critical investigative methods in sport studies, Football, Corruption and Lies: Revisiting Badfellas, the book FIFA tried to ban is essential reading for anybody looking to understand Blatter's rise and fall.

From using football to promote peace on the gangland streets of Medellin, to building a global network of 'Football for Good' organisations, Jurgen Griesbeck is now, through Common Goal, leading transformational change across the football industry. Set up in partnership with World Cup-winner Juan Mata - and with the likes of Megan Rapinoe, Mats Hummels, Pernille Harder, Paulo Dybala. Jurgen Klopp, Casey Stoney, Julian Nagelsmann and even entire competitions and clubs already taking the one per cent pledge of earnings - Common Goal aims to reconstruct football's role in society and put purpose, people and the planet at the heart of the game. This incredible story of one of the world's leading social entrepreneurs captures Jurgen's passion, drive and leadership, and presents a hopeful vision for the future of football, with contributions from some of the most disruptive, innovative and progressive thinkers in the game - the Radical XI. This remarkable book shows how the power of football can - and must - be unleashed for social change.

'The Europe of football' is one of the aspects of the history of European integration that has generated the smallest amount of academic research. However, the successive invention of sporting traditions with a European calling since the Belle Epoque, followed by the creation of various European cups during the interwar constitute at the same time an original form of 'Europe-building' and a lasting contribution to the creation of a European space and spirit. The target of the authors in this book is to look back on the genesis of European competitions that leads to the creation of the European cups now organised by UEFA. It also seeks to show how football has made possible the setting up of a partially transnational space through sports journalism. Lastly, through the study of the mobility and connections of football's actors, the different chapters will also try to identify the various phases of football's Europeanisation process on the old continent. It will lay strong emphasis on the anthropological, cultural, economic, political and social aspects of this history, notably the production of body techniques, representations, emblematic figures, consumption habits and their role in the larger context of international relations. This book was previously published as a special issue of Sport in History.

Taxi for Kiev: The Story of Six Strangers, Crossing Six Borders, Over Six Days is the true and uncensored story of six lads from very different backgrounds who had never met before but found kinship in a common goal: to get to Kiev for the 2019 Champions League Final between Liverpool and Real Madrid. They embarked on a 3,500-mile taxi trip that took them to many places - physically, mentally and emotionally. Deprived of basic comforts for six days, this was never going to be an easy journey especially among strangers. You'd be surprised what you can learn about a man living in such close quarters. Lack of sleep, space and sanctuary just compounded the issue. Add to this a severe lack of hygiene, and this trip looked like a recipe for disaster. Not only did the lads survive and get on well but, surprisingly, they formed lasting bonds. Taxi for Kiev is one man's account of that unforgettable six-day adventure - a candid tale that touches on the good, the bad and the ugly in human nature. It has shocks, tears and laughs aplenty.

The phenomenon that is Ted Lasso is not going away any time soon. This super-funny show about an American coach who comes to England to run a Premier League football team has captured the hearts of television watchers around the world – as well as caught the eye of critics and prize-givers worldwide. Perhaps it is the feel-good nature of the show and its timing that has seen it awarded Emmy awards aplenty, as well as many others. But it's more likely that such a funny, sharply scripted, brilliantly delivered comedy of manners, nationality, rationality, relationships and inspiration about someone who is so fundamentally decent and willing to help others, has mass appeal and critical acclaim. The third series is much anticipated, with Apple TV+ declaring that it will be out in 2022. Believe contains amusing quotes from the show, including many classic one-liners from Ted and the rest of the brilliant cast, as well as fun facts and stats about the actors, characters, writers and producers. Not to mention tea, scones and soccer. So let's quit goofing around and get on with it... Whistle! Whistle! SAMPLE QUOTE: 'I think I literally have a better understanding of who killed Kennedy than what is offside.' - Ted Lasso SAMPLE FACT: Ted Lasso first appeared in a series of short NBC Sports promos featuring Jason Sudeikis in 2013.

A Social History of Indian Football covers the period 1850-2004. It considers soccer as a derivative sport, creatively and imaginatively adapted to suit modern Indian socio-cultural needs - designed to fulfil political imperatives and satisfy economic aspirations. The book is concerned with the appropriation, assimilation and subversion of sporting ideals in colonial and post-colonial India for nationalist needs. The book assesses the role of soccer in colonial Indian life, to delineate the inter-relationship between those who patronised, promoted, played and viewed the game, to analyse the impact of the colonial context on the games evolution and development and shed light on the diverse nature of trysts with the sport across the country. Throughout this book, soccer is the lens that illuminates India's colonial and post-colonial encounter. This volume was previously published as a special issue of the journal Soccer and Society.

Why Is Soccer Played Eleven Against Eleven? reveals one hundred facts of football history and rules that are either unknown or little known, such as why football is played eleven against eleven, why football matches last 90 minutes, who the first coach was, how the referee appeared, and who invented goal nets, red and yellow cards, the penalty, and the penalty shoot-out. Included in this book are funny and weird anecdotes, such as the case of a player who scored a goal...without ever having stepped on the pitch, making this book the complete resource on the beautiful game of football. Millions of football fans will find all the answers to any question they could possibly have-including those they may not have thought of-in this amusing, yet informative, book by journalist Luciano Wernicke.

'He is skilful. He is outspoken. He is Zlatan' New York Times 'He is an amazing talent, one of the best around' Pep Guardiola Football's most prolific and controversial goalscorer has nothing left to prove on the pitch. There is only one Zlatan. In the decade since his megaselling memoir I am Zlatan Ibrahimovic, he has played at Paris Saint-Germain (2012-2016), Manchester United (2016-2018), LA Galaxy (2018-2019) and Milan (2020-). This outrageous and hilarious follow-up is bursting with personal confessions and revealing anecdotes about the world's best players and managers. Packed with revelations, in Adrenaline we hear for the first time what Zlatan really thinks about his time in the Premier League and what it was like to score that glorious bicycle kick against England. We hear about the club he very nearly signed for, and see his hilarious run-ins with the French media - and the French in general, really. Plus so much more. Zlatan transports you into the world of top-flight football like no one else. Filled with revelations - including Zlatan's life lessons on happiness, friendship and love - you'll be talking about this book a long time after finishing it.

Strength and power are key elements of soccer performance. A stronger player can sprint faster, jump higher, change direction more quickly and kick the ball harder. Strength Training for Soccer introduces the science of strength training for soccer. Working from a sound evidence-base, it explains how to develop a training routine that integrates the different components of soccer performance, including strength, speed, coordination and flexibility, and outlines modern periodization strategies that keep players closer to their peak over an extended period. Dealing with themes of injury prevention, rehabilitation and interventions, as well as performance, the book offers a uniquely focused guide to the principles of strength and conditioning in a footballing context. Fully referenced, and full of practical drills, detailed exercise descriptions, training schedules and year plans, Strength Training for Soccer is essential reading for all strength and conditioning students and any coach or trainer working in football.

This book is a fascinating journey through a series of scholarly articles. The journey begins by tracing one of the most significant stories in the popularization of Association Football. In the next leg of the journey it charts the diverse and changing face of the modern British game. It then moves on to the global spread of the game from England and its domestication and appropriation in its new homes across the planet. It also investigates the exchanges which are increasingly taking place between these new homes of football. In the concluding pieces football's global experience is compared with the attempts at globalizing baseball and drawing out the larger patterns that inform football's global experience. This book was published as a special issue in Soccer and Society.

Football has become one of the most mediated cultural practices in modern Western societies, providing players, officials and spectators with implicit and often hidden discourses about race/ethnicity, national identity and gender. This book provides new and critical insights into how mediated football as a contested cultural practice influences, and is influenced by, discourses and stereotypes about race/ethnicity, nation and gender that operate at the local, national and global level. It analyzes both contemporary media representations and the ways these representations are negotiated, interpreted and used by football media audiences. These issues are explored across all media genres (print media, television, online, social media, film, and so forth) in a multidisciplinary and cross-cultural manner, with contributions from diverse disciplines and countries. This book was originally published as a special issue of Soccer and Society.

This volume presents research on policy responses to racism in sporting codes, predominantly Australian Rules football, in a global context. While the three guest editors are based in Australia, and their work pertains to the uniquely domestic game of Australian Rules football, the outcomes, research vectors and key issues from this research are part of a much larger on-going international conversation that is equally relevant when considering, for instance, racism in English Premier League football, first class cricket and basketball. The book is an outcome of an Australian Research Council (ARC) funded project titled Assessing the Australian Football League's Racial and Religious Vilification Laws to Promote Community Harmony, Multiculturalism and Reconciliation, which investigated social participation and the impact of the Australian Football League's anti-racial vilification policy since its introduction in 1995. This book was published as a special issue of Sport in Society.

Soccer, the world's most popular mass spectator sport, gives birth to great achievers on the field of play all the time. While some of them become heroes and stars during their playing career, transforming themselves into national as well as global icons, very few come to be remembered as all-time greats. They leave an enduring legacy and thereby claim to be legends by their own rights. While the rise and achievements of these soccer greats have drawn considerable attention from scholars across the world, their legacies across time and space have mostly been overlooked. This volume intends to reconstruct the significance of the legacies of such great men of world soccer particularly in a globalized world. It will attempt to show that these luminous personalities not only represent their national identity at the global stage, but also highlight the proven role of the players or coaches in projecting a global image, cutting across affiliations of nation, region, class, community, religion, gender and so on. In other words, the true heroes, icons and legends of the world's most popular sport have always floated at a transnational global space, transcending the limits of space, identity or culture of a nation. This book was published as a special issue of Soccer and Society.

There's far more to vintage football programmes than optimistic manager's notes, unreliable teamsheets and grudging opposition 'pen pictures'. Before the era of the standardised corporate brochure, every club's programme had a different, unique personality, and played its part in the precious ritual of going to the match. Last weekend's action shots provided a foretaste of the excitement; the A-Z scoresheet provided a live lookout on the rest of the League, while 'At Home With - ' provided a peephole into a star's domestic life. Remember the allure of the Souvenir Shop ads? Football League Review centrespreads? 'Girl of the Match'? From the 'ground picture' cover era through the 'groovy' and 'colour action' phases to the dawn of clipart, programmes from our nostalgic 60s-90s Golden Age amount to a (slightly crumpled) pocket history of graphic design. Packed with pictures and memories, Fully Programmed offers an irresistible window back into more innocent times.

How much do you really know about world soccer? 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. From Ardiles to Zidane, from Aguero to Zlatan, this book provides hours of highly dippable fun and entertainment. The major milestones, legendary players and unforgettable moments are all here. Which Brazil winger overcame childhood polio to win two World Cups? What is the name of the annual award given to the best young player in European football? Which USMNT star almost had his feet bitten off by an alligator while playing golf in Florida? Who was the first Australian-born player to win the Champions League? Who made his international debut at the 1990 World Cup and finished the tournament as top scorer? Trivquiz World Soccer On This Day holds the answers to all these questions and hundreds more.