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.

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.

City of Stars: The Controversial Story of Paris Saint-Germain is a detailed history of Europe's youngest super club, from their time as a small Parisian side in French football's Second Division to a global powerhouse that epitomises modern football. After many highs and lows and two major takeovers in the 1990s and 2010s, PSG have been catapulted to the forefront of world football thanks to Qatari billions and look set to remain a major force for years to come. But a deep dive into their history shows a club of tradition, loyal fans and remarkable players that preceded the Qatari era. However, controversy seems to follow the club in one guise or another, whether it be violence from Ultras, business dealings from their owners or even being a title challenger affected by a match-fixing scandal. Paris Saint-Germain's history is rich, vibrant, polarising but never dull.

West Ham United's move to the new Olympic Stadium ended a 114-year stay at the Boleyn Ground. The spiritual home of some of football's greatest heroes: Bobby Moore, Billy Bonds, Trevor Brooking and Frank Lampard were just a few who made their name there, and revelled in its close-knit east London atmosphere. With the club anthem 'Bubbles' ringing around the stands, the Boleyn Ground had a raw flavour of its own. There were unforgettable afternoons fashioned by the club's two greatest managers, Ron Greenwood and John Lyall; fabulous nights under the lights, as the tightly-packed confines of the ground made it the most intense of stadiums; wonderful evenings competing against the best in Europe, such as beating Eintracht Frankfurt on a mud-heap of a pitch. Now it is gone, but the magic, the fervour, the triumphs, the disappointments and the special brand of humour which flourished there is captured here in all its glory. With full access to The Times archives and stunning photographic collection, lifelong Hammers fan John Dillon has penned the definitive history of the Home of the Hammers.

How much do you really know about Manchester United? 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. It's packed with trivia on all the great Man United sides and players - from the 'Busby Babes' to 'Fergie's Fledglings', from Charlton, Law and Best to Rooney, Ronaldo and Rashford - providing hours of highly dippable fun and entertainment. Which player earned a taekwondo black belt and seriously considered abandoning his football career to work as a docker? Which Republic of Ireland international was raised in orphanages? Son of a Greco-Roman wrestling champion, which striker served in the Norwegian army? Which United striker made history when he played for Stockport County alongside his father? Which player appeared opposite Cate Blanchett in the 1998 movie Elizabeth? Trivquiz Manchester United holds the answers to all these questions and hundreds more.

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".

'If we lose, we will continue to be the best team in the world. If we win, we will be eternal.' Pep Guardiola Pep Talk celebrates the best witticisms, sayings, and insults from Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola, accompanied by 20 illustrations of the great man himself. Josep Pep Guardiola, is widely regarded as one of the best football managers in the world. Having been unearthed as a player by Barcelona manager Johan Cruyff, he was part of the Barcelona 'dream team' of the 1990s that won four consecutive La Liga titles from 1991 to 1994. As manager of Barcelona, he won 14 cup before taking over at Bayern Munich and then in 2016 he joined Manchester City where he has won a further 8 trophies. The perfect gift for all Manchester City football club fans and casual followers of the greats of the game

Andrew Jennings, an award-winning investigative sports reporter, spent four years delving into the dark side of 'the beautiful game'. The result is this explosive and damning expose of the officials that run football's world governing body, FIFA , now fully updated with the political fallout from World Cup 2006.

No individual has managed to penetrate the sanctified domain of FIFA and probed successfully into its often criticized yet unproven corruption of the world game. Until now. Author Andrew Jennings argues how FIFA President Sepp Blatter and his associates have misappropriated their position at the head of the world game in their desire for power, control, and a lucrative pay-off. How did these bizarre characters manage to take such control? Foul! is the explosive story.

Jennings has undertaken unprecedented research in Asia, Africa, Europe and the Americas, interviewing hundreds of officials and amassing an extraordinary library of damning documents. He tells how Blatter and his cronies built an invincible electoral machine to keep him in power forever. He revisits the 1970's and the privatization of international sport and its revenues by a close-knit group of officials and marketing agents working for their own self-interest.

And he brings the story up to date with new disclosures about how Germany won the contest to stage the 2006 World Cup and the inside story on the dirty battle to host 2010.

'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.

One of the greatest players of all time, Duncan Edwards's story is one of tragic heroism, brilliantly and movingly told in this superb biography. From a working-class Dudley upbringing, Edwards rose to great heights at Manchester United. In only five years, he helped United to win two league championships and to reach the semi-finals of the European Cup. Among the Busby Babes - United's young, homegrown team - he was the player they all looked to, someone who could (and did) play in any position and still be the best on the pitch. Edwards made his England debut in a game against Scotland at the age of 18 years and 183 days, becoming his country's youngest international since the Second World War - a record which stood until Michael Owen's debut over forty years later. He went on to play 18 games for his country, including all four of the qualifying matched for the 1958 World Cup, in which he was expected to be a key player. Sir Bobby Charlton described him as 'the only player that made me feel inferior' and Terry Venables claimed that, had he lived, it would have been Edwards, not Bobby Moore, who would have lifted the World Cup as captain in 1966. Sadly, it was not to be, after he lost his life following the Munich Air Disaster of 6 February 1958. Page-turning and poignant, author James Leighton tells a story of a magnificent sportsman and great man - the perfect antidote to the headline-grabbing footballers of today.

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.

England and the 1966 World Cup presents a cultural analysis of what is considered a key 'moment of modernity' in the nation's post-war history. Regarded as having an importance beyond its primary sporting purpose, the World Cup in England is examined within the complexity of the cultural, social and political changes that characterised the mid-1960s. Yet, although addressing the importance of non-sport related connections, the book maintains a focus on football, discussing it as a 'cultural form' and presenting an original perspective on the aesthetic accomplishment in football tactics by England's manager, Alf Ramsey. The study considers the World Cup in relation to the cup tradition, England as the World Cup host nation, the England squad and masculinity, the modernism of England's manager Alf Ramsey, design and commercial aspects of the World Cup, a critical engagement within existing academic accounts, and an examination of how England's victory has been remembered and commemorated. -- .

A must-read biography of one of the greatest football managers of all time. Sir Alex Ferguson CBE, born 31 December 1941, is a former Scottish football player and was manager of Manchester United from 1986 to 2013. During his 26 years in charge of United, he won more trophies than any other manager in the history of football. Packed with nearly 80 entertaining and exclusive interviews from those who know Ferguson best - friends, colleagues, associates and those who worked with him at both Aberdeen and Manchester United share their unique insight into the innermost secrets of Ferguson's fascinating life and hugely successful career.

High jinx and japes from Soccer Saturday's roving reporter extraordinaire, Chris "Kammy" Kamara, whose boyish enthusiasm and often baffling, at-the-ground football reportage has given him cult status and an army of fans.

Over the past decade, football results programme Soccer Saturday has become a television phenomenon, delivering goals and drama via a raft of ex-professional players positioned in TV studios and on precarious gangplanks in rusting stadiums around the country.

At the heart of this success is free-wheeling pundit and roving reporter extraordinaire, Chris "Kammy" Kamara, the former footballer-turned-manager-turned-cult hero who has astounded and dumbfounded a legion of armchair fans with his crackpot catchphrases, hyperactive reporting style and Lionel Richie haircut.

Mr Unbelievable is his rags to riches tale. As a player, Kammy trawled football's outposts with the likes of Bradford City, Stoke City and Portsmouth where he suffered the slings, arrows and hurled bananas of racial abuse. Later, during the autumn of his career, he played in Howard Wilkinson's swashbuckling Leeds team where he rubbed shoulders with the likes of Eric Cantona.

On hanging up his boots, he moved into the dugouts at Bradford and Stoke as manager before joining the Sky football revolution as roving reporter on Soccer Saturday and Goal On Sunday's eagle-eyed analyst, amassing a raft of catchphrases along the way.

Mr Unbelievable is a hugely entertaining, moving, shocking and laugh out loud funny story of a genuine cult hero.

Brimming with Blues trivia, facts and stats, The Top Ten of Everything Chelsea covers every aspect of the club's long and colourful history in dozens of ranked lists. A star cast features the best of the British, European and South American players who have worn the blue shirt with pride, the great managers who have led the club to silverware and the inspirational skippers, from Ron 'Chopper' Harris to John Terry. The book revisits the club's greatest triumphs, its most cherished London derby wins, the biggest thrashings handed out by the Blues, the finest goals scored by the likes of Drogba, Lampard and Zola, and the most gratefully received own goals gifted by the opposition. There's also a host of miscellaneous categories to rank the club's best (and worst!) kits, the most popular terrace chants, the most striking Chelsea player tattoos and the most bizarre moments on and off the pitch. Fun, informative, witty and thought-provoking, The Top Ten of Everything Chelsea is guaranteed to spark lively debate among Blues fans everywhere.

Fergus McCann Versus David Murray charts the changing fortunes of Glasgow's two great footballing rivals as shaped by two business moguls. Both men came to prominence in the 1990s when new methods of governance and finance were taking hold of football. At the start of the decade, under Murray's chairmanship, Rangers were the dominant force and the club went on to win a record-equalling nine consecutive league titles. Their success, however, was built on an extravagant spending strategy, which caused a financial catastrophe. Celtic, by contrast, were struggling in the early 1990s, thanks to a complacent and nepotistic board of directors. But McCann took charge of the club in 1994 and turned things around. The new owner left Parkhead having won the league, rebuilt the stadium and left his shares in the hands of supporters. It was Murray, however, who was lauded in the media throughout his tenure at Ibrox, while McCann was chastised. Ultimately, though, their legacies would be utterly different from those misleading media portrayals.

SHORTLISTED FOR THE SUNDAY TIMES SPORTS BOOK AWARDS 2022 'Anyone wanting an example of never being beaten should look at the incredible Francis Benali.' - Alan Shearer 'Honest, revealing story of a strong man who pushed his body to its limits and beyond on and off the pitch. Incredible read.' - Henry Winter, The Times 'The iron man with a will of steel and a heart of gold. Truly fran-tastic!' - Jeff Stelling, Soccer Saturday ------- Francis Benali is a Southampton Football Club legend and a celebrated charity endurance athlete, and he's ready to tell his story. Francis 'Franny' Benali played football for 20 years for Southampton FC in nearly 400 games, almost his entire career. His utter dedication to the club caused him to be a hero to Saints fans around the world. Written with the acclaimed Daily Mail sportswriter Matt Barlow, this book details Benali's humble beginnings and has countless tales involving players, managers, and matches detailing Benali's illustrious football career. But his story is much more than that. The intense commitment he had as a player found a new outlet in the world of endurance sport. Through Ironman triathlons and marathons, he has raised more than GBP1 million for Cancer Research UK. Benali's story shows us what can be achieved through dedication and commitment on and off the pitch. Through football and charity, he has made a positive difference in countless people's lives. His is truly an inspirational story.

The Number 1 football series - over 1 million copies sold! Jordan Pickford is the hero goalkeeper whose super-save won England their first ever World Cup penalty shootout, and whose will to win inspired England to battle all the way to the semi-finals. This is the story of how a young boy with a big dream became Everton's number-one keeper and England's star player at the 2018 World Cup. Ultimate Football Heroes is a series of biographies telling the life-stories of the biggest and best footballers in the world and their incredible journeys from childhood fan to super-star professional player. Written in fast-paced, action-packed style these books are perfect for all the family to collect and share.

'I loved every page, and ended up admiring David Kynaston, our greatest social historian, even more than I already did' Nick Hornby Brimming with wisdom and humour, David Kynaston's diaries written over one football season offer up his most personal take on social history to date. David Kynaston was seven and a half years old when he attended his first Aldershot match in the early months of 1959. So began a deep attachment to the game and a lifelong loyalty to an obscure, small-town football club. Though as he sits down to write his diaries almost sixty years on, he reflects that life might have been simpler if his father had never taken him to that first match at the Rec... Shots in the Dark is the diary David Kynaston kept in the football season of 2016/17, detailing the ups and downs of the 'Shots' in the year that saw a divisive referendum in the UK and the impending ascension of Donald Trump. Here Kynaston presents a social history of modern Britain with a difference - all through the prism of the beautiful game. A testament to the ways in which fandom gives solidity and security to our lives, particularly in these bewildering and rapidly changing times, Shots in the Dark gets to the heart of what it means to be a devoted follower of a sports team. This is a diary of the macro and the micro, as questions of loyalty, of identity, of liberalism and of nationalism all rub uncomfortably up against each other during nine charged months. ____________________ 'A master socioeconomic craftsman' Guardian '[A] delightful book ... This is a book about football but, like all the best books, it is about a thousand other things as well ... This thrilling, intimate, sometimes poignant, often wonderfully funny book shows the workings in real time of a deeply civilised, humane and tolerant mind in an age when those virtues are in short supply. Here is a man with whom you would want to go to a match, and even share a beer afterwards. David Kynaston is one of the good guys, and this is one of the very good books' Daily Mail 'A charming diary ... He's the sort of fan I want to sit next to: partisan yet civil, eyes on the match but aware there are bigger things to worry about' Financial Times

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.

The son of a Scottish plantation owner and a free woman of colour, Andrew Watson was provided for by his wealthy father. Receiving a first-class education in English public schools, he would later reject university to become a footballer in Glasgow. Schooled by the most advanced practitioners of the game at that time, he became one of the best footballers in Glasgow and captained Scotland's invincible national team. He played for the greatest clubs of the day on both sides of the border and as a 'Scottish professor', brought his talent to England and shared his knowledge with the Southern amateurs, helping the game evolve from a public-school pastime to a national obsession. He played alongside and educated many who would represent the English national team, changing the game forever. But the record of his achievements faded as the game he helped change took over the world, leaving his memory in the shadows. Over 100 years later, he was rediscovered in an old photograph, and after years of research, his achievements were finally recognised.

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.

Following Stalin's death in 1953, association football clubs, as well as the informal supporter groups and communities which developed around them, were an important way for the diverse citizens of the multinational Soviet Union to express, negotiate and develop their identities, both on individual and collective levels. Manfred Zeller draws on extensive original research in Russian and Ukrainian archives, as well as interviews with spectators, 'hardcore ultras' and hooligans from the Caucasus to Central Asia, to shed new light onto this phenomenon covering the period from the height of Stalin's terror (the 1930s) to the Soviet Union's collapse (1991). Across events as diverse as the Soviet Union's footballing triumph over the German world champions in 1955 and the Luzhniki stadium disaster in 1982, Zeller explores the ways in which people, against the backdrop of totalitarianism, articulated feelings of alienation and fostered a sense of community through sport. In the process, he provides a unique 'bottom-up' reappraisal of Soviet history, culture and politics, as seen through the eyes of supporters and spectators. This is an important contribution to research on Soviet culture after Stalin, the history of sport and contemporary debates on antagonism in the post-Soviet world.

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.