Soccer, the most popular mass spectator sport in the world, has always remained a marker of identities of various sorts. Behind the fa ade of its obvious entertainment aspect, it has proved to be a perpetuating reflector of nationalism, ethnicity, community or communal identity, and cultural specificity. Naturally therefore, the game is a complex representative of minorities status especially in countries where minorities play a crucial role in political, social, cultural or economic life. The question is also important since in many nations success in sports like soccer has been used as an instrument for assimilation or to promote an alternative brand of nationalism. Thus, Jewish teams in pre-Second World War Europe were set up to promote the idea of a muscular Jewish identity. Similarly, in apartheid South Africa, soccer became the game of the black majority since it was excluded from the two principal games of the country rugby and cricket. In India, on the other hand, the Muslim minorities under colonial rule appropriated soccer to assert their community-identity.

The book examines why in certain countries, minorities chose to take up the sport while in others they backed away from participating in the game or, alternatively, set up their own leagues and practised self-exclusion. The book examines European countries like the Netherlands, England and France, the USA, Africa, Australia and the larger countries of Asia particularly India.

This book was previously published as a special issue of Soccer and Society.

Born in 1985 in Daveyton, Junior Khanye’s story cycles through themes of comedy, tragedy and triumph. His love for Kung Fu movies characterises his moxie for life - Ghetto Ninja. Kung Fu and dancing soon translated to undeniable skill on the soccer field.

Junior was scouted to Kaizer Chiefs aged just seventeen, where he soon became the darling of the nation with his goal scoring prowess. He shares how often he flirted with dangerous situations. Junior’s reputation as a troubled youth soon saw him kicked out of Kaizer Chiefs. From there he went through a tumultuous period cycling through phases of poverty and prosperity.

As Junior was at the brink of cementing his comeback and affirming his maturity, he suffered a great tragedy when a gang was sent to kill his family. His father was murdered that night. Junior was in the house but managed to escape the attack.

The soccer commentator and actor is living proof that one can come back from a state of darkness to achieve greatness.

'What makes a great player? He's the one who brings out the best in others. When I am saying that I'm talking about Billy McNeill.' JOCK STEIN A unique tribute to Celtic's greatest ever player to mark the 60th anniversary of his first appearance for the club. Billy McNeill is the greatest Celt of all time. He spent his entire playing career at the Glasgow giants and made 790 appearances between 1958 and 1975, winning the European Cup, nine Scottish League Championships, seven Scottish Cups and six League Cups in a glittering career. And it all started on 23rd August 1958 when Billy McNeill made his Celtic debut. Billy McNeill's breathtaking journey through the beautiful game is charted here from his debut against Clyde through the momentous years as player and manager, the highs, the lows, the triumphs, the tears. Sixty years on from his debut, this unique book celebrates the astonishing life and times of one of world football's best-loved personalities with tributes from many greats of the game. Celtic chief executive Peter Lawwell pays his own special tribute to the Parkhead hero along with a Who's Who of the game's royalty. They share their unforgettable experiences and wonderful memories of playing with and against Billy McNeill, one of football's most respected and well-loved men, and talk about him both as a world-renowned footballer and as a genuinely much-admired figure. Packed full of anecdotes and tributes, In Praise of Caesar is a must-read for all Billy McNeill and Celtic fans, and football supporters everywhere. Contributions from: Brendan Rodgers, Sir Alex Ferguson, Sir Kenny Dalglish, Denis Law, Mike Jackson, Steve Archibald, Gordon Strachan, Danny McGrain, Roy Aitken, Paul McStay, Davie Hay, Charlie Nicholas, Frank McAvennie, Pat Bonner, Alex McLeish, Davie Provan, and not forgetting Lisbon Lions Bertie Auld, John Clark, Jim Craig, Bobby Lennox and Willie Wallace.

The revealing autobiography of former footballer Emile Heskey. From humble beginnings, Emile became one of Leicester's favourite sons, as part of Martin O'Neill's swashbuckling misfits. In five years he won promotion, four top-ten Premier League finishes and two League Cups. England called, as did Gerard Houllier and an GBP11 million move to Liverpool, enabling Emile to form a memorable partnership with Michael Owen for both club and country. Then came the trophies - six of them, including the FA Cup, League Cup and UEFA Cup. Heskey's England career saw him play in two European Championships and two World Cups as part of the Golden Generation, earning 62 caps and scoring seven times - including the final goal in the 5-1 demolition of Germany. He went on to play for Birmingham City, Wigan Athletic, Aston Villa, Newcastle Jets and Bolton Wanderers, notably donating GBP100,000 to save Leicester City from extinction. Even Heskey Scored is the story of a largely unsung player, loved by his team-mates, who overcame fierce criticism to live the dream.

This volume investigates the way in which football supporters around the world express themselves as followers of teams, whether they be professional, amateur or national. The diverse geographical and cultural array of contributions to this volume highlights not only the variety of how fans express themselves, but their commonalities as well. The collection brings together scholars of North and South America, Europe, Asia and Africa to present a global picture of fan culture. The collection shows that while every group of fans around the world has its own characteristics, the role of a football fan is laced with commonalities, irrespective of geography or culture. This book was previously published as a special issue of Soccer and Society.

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 footballa (TM)s global experience is compared with the attempts at globalizing baseball and drawing out the larger patterns that inform footballa (TM)s global experience.

This book was published as a special issue in Soccer and Society.

Seville is the capital of Spain's Andalusian region and is the life and soul of the nation. Enchanted with effortlessly stylish bars and colourful buildings, this is a charismatic metropolis doused in the endless sun of southern Spain. The city is also home to two historic institutions of Spanish football - Real Betis and Sevilla - and when they go head-to-head to contest El Gran Derbi, the rest of Spain can only watch in awe. This is a pulsating and arresting experience which encapsulates the beautiful game in all its raw, spellbinding brilliance. Spanish football is more than Barcelona and Real Madrid. Much more. The city contrasts uptown Sevilla with downtown Betis. Los Rojiblancos pitted against Los Verdiblancos. Sevillistas and Beticos. Nothing can compare to this beautiful city and the crazy passion for football that it produces, either in Spain or Europe. Colin Millar - who made the city his home - charts the illustrious histories of football in the city and explores how both clubs represent a way of life for Sevillanos.

Goal! covers the history of the beautiful game from its origins in English public schools in the early 19th century to its current role as a crucial element of a globalized entertainment industry. The authors explain how football transformed from a sport at elite boarding schools in England to become a pastime popular with the working classes, enabling factories such as the Thames Iron Works and the Woolwich Arsenal to give birth to the teams that would become the Premier League mainstays known as West Ham United and Arsenal. They also explore how the age of amateur soccer ended and, with the advent of professionalism, how football became a sport dominated by big clubs with big money and with an international audience. There are intense rivalries in soccer, such as that in Glasgow, Scotland, between (Catholic) Celtic and (Protestant) Rangers, and the authors examine closely the social causes that make for such passionate fans. The book also discusses the use of soccer for political purposes, such as in Hitler's Germany and Franco's Spain. And - given the long-standing association of soccer as a man's sport and the rise of women's soccer, especially in the United States - the authors look at the gendered history of the world's most popular sport. This book, which will appeal to all connoisseurs of soccer, provides a lens through which to view the social and cultural history of modern Europe. The book is published by The Catholic University of America Press.

Two Brothers tells the story of a great sporting family, uncovering new details, exposing myths and placing Jack and Bobby Charlton in their historical context. It's a book about two English footballers but also about English football and England itself. In later life Jack and Bobby didn't get on and barely spoke but the lives of these very different brothers from the coalfield tell the story of late twentieth-century English football: the tensions between flair and industry, between individuality and the collective, between right and left, between middle- and working-classes, between exile and home. Jack was open, charismatic, selfish and pig-headed; Bobby was guarded, shy, polite and reserved to the point of reclusiveness. They were very different footballers: Jack a gangling central defender who developed a profound tactical intelligence; Bobby an athletic attacking midfielder who disdained systems. They played for clubs who embodied two very different approaches, the familial closeness and tactical cohesion of Leeds on the one hand and the individualistic flair and clashing egos of Manchester United on the other. Both enjoyed great success as players: Jack won a league, a Cup and two Fairs Cups with Leeds; Bobby won a league title, survived the terrible disaster of the plane crash in Munich, and then at enormous emotional cost, won a Cup and two more league titles before capping it off with the European Cup. Together, for England, they won the World Cup. Their managerial careers followed predictably diverging paths, Bobby failing at Preston while Jack enjoyed success at Middlesbrough and Sheffield Wednesday before leading Ireland to previously un-imagined heights. Both were financially very successful, but Jack remained staunchly left-wing while Bobby tended to conservatism. In the end, Jack returned to Northumberland; Bobby remained in the North-West. Two Brothers tells a story of social history as well as two of the most famous football players of their generation. Praise for Inverting the Pyramid: A History of Football Tactics 'If Jonathan Wilson's first book Behind the Curtain, marked him as the rising star of Sports literature, Inverting the Pyramid confirms his place among our very best sports writers' 'Simply one of the best books ever written about the world's game' Dominic Sandbrook Praise for Nobody Ever Says Thank You: The Biography of Brian Clough 'In separating the man from the myth, Jonathan Wilson's biography of Brian Clough is the first to do him justice' Barney Ronay The Observer 'Jonathan Wilson's mighty new biography' Harry Pearson When Saturday Comes

When studying the social phenomena in and around football, five major aspects of globalisation processes become evident: international migration, the global flow of capital, the syncretistic nature of tradition and modernity in contemporary culture, new experiences of time and space and the revolution in information technologies. In an exploration of these themes the collection provides insight into academic studies of football in Portugal, Germany, England, Spain, Brazil, Angola, Mozambique, China, Japan, South Korea, Russia and the USA. At examining football-related phenomena under the headings of nations and migration, myths and business, the city and the dream, it shows how modernised football itself is object and subject in processes of both neo-liberal globalisation and counter hegemonic globalisation. While the contributions highlight characteristics of particular local and national contexts, the volume focuses on global centre-periphery-relations and migration trajectories of football professionals by analysing recent developments in post-colonial Portuguese speaking areas: The high ranking of "Portuguese football" not only serves in national(ist) discourses or in order to emancipate the country from a marginal position, it also turns Portugal into a football-talent exporter, confronting it partly with the same ambiguous consequences as Brazil and the African countries, who "lose" their football talents to the European centre. The receiving countries, again, include Portugal. This book was previously published as a special issue of Soccer in Society

Rochdale AFC had occupied the fourth tier of English football for so long that the division was unofficially named after them. In 2006, manager Keith Hill took charge and transformed the unfashionable, cash-strapped club into a side known for flowing football and overachievement. But what about the other Rochdale bosses? Those who sought to rid The Dale of its tiresome fourth-tier anchor? The Rochdale Division is told by the managers and players, who reveal the struggles and joys of life at an out-of-step club in the modern football age. It features managers such as Hill himself, Mick Docherty, Graham Barrow, Paul Simpson, Steve Parkin, Steve Eyre and John Coleman, plus the players they led. The book shares insights from cultured centre-half Alan Reeves, Rochdale's sons Craig Dawson and Matt Gilks, prolific strikers Rickie Lambert and Adam Le Fondre, fleet-footed Will Buckley and Paddy McCourt, plus powerhouse Glenn Murray. Alongside them are cult heroes Steve Whitehall, Shaun Reid, Gary Jones, Calvin Andrew and Ian Henderson.

The 1970s saw a change in the fortunes of the Scottish national side. After a gap of 16 years World Cup qualification was achieved for the finals in West Germany in 1974. Credited as the only undefeated side at the tournament, the sobering trip to Argentina four years later prompted more realistic future expectations. In a decade in which the SFA celebrated its centenary, the scandal of the Copenhagen Five and a breakdown in relations between the press and players were significant events - while, on the park, players of the calibre of Dalglish, Hartford, Jordan, Souness and McQueen replaced the old guard. Scotland in the 70s looks beyond the decade's 89 matches, examining the role of the managers - Brown, Docherty, Ormond, MacLeod, Stein - and the circumstances surrounding the many memorable games. Extensive newspaper and video archive research is complemented by the memories of star contributors including Bobby Brown, Archie MacPherson, Asa Hartford, Eddie Gray, Willie Morgan, Willie Johnston, Lou Macari, Bobby Clark, Jimmy Bone and John Blackley.

"The Work of Professional Football: A Labour of Love?" presents unique long-term studies and provides rare insights into to the precarious careers and ordinary working culture of professional soccer footballers. Away from the celebrity-obsessed media gaze, the work of a professional footballer is infrequently glamorous and for most players a career in football is insecure and short-lived.
As a former professional soccer player turned academic, Martin Roderick's familiarity with the world of football is foundational to this privileged research into a world that is typically both 'closed' to the public gaze and ignored by media reportage and academic research which prefers to focus on a small, unrepresentative group of elite players. Key themes explored within the text include:
- The culture of work in professional soccer football
- The changing identity, orientation and expectations of players during their career
- The fragile and uncertain nature of careers in professional sport
- The performance and drama of a career under public scrutiny
- The role of relationships with managers, owners, support staff and partners
- The insecurities inherent in a football career such as injury, aging, performance and transfer
The text deals with a wide range of issues for sports students and academics, particularly those with a focus on the sociology of sport but also including sport development, sport management and coaching studies. The text will be of interest to researchers in sport studies, careers, industrial relations and the sociology of work.

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.

Reds and Rams: A Story of the East Midlands Derby is the tale of one of the most fiercely fought football rivalries in the world. Hewed from the Victorian industrial revolution, Nottingham Forest and Derby County have contested league games for 130 years. Ever since the 1898 FA Cup Final, the rivalry has ebbed and flowed, with each club enjoying both periods of sustained success and existential threat. The reasons for this deep-rooted antipathy are numerous, yet ultimately it boils down to two football clubs similar in stature, size, history and geography existing cheek by jowl. In essence, they are like two teenage siblings bickering about anything and everything. Throughout, they have traded managers and players, producing deep and lasting enmity. Derby is renowned for its railways, Nottingham for Robin Hood. Each city has its own proud identity and history. The only thing they have ever agreed on is the genius of Brian Clough.