The most important football book published this year -- a powerful, passionate exploration of a game
in turmoil.
Soccer has never been richer, more hyped or more central to Britain's culture than today. Yet never has it been in greater turmoil. Once, football was about passion, community and beauty. Today, football is about money. Its richest club, Manchester United, earned 146 million last year; yet since 1992, thirty-four of the Football League's seventy-two clubs have been insolvent. The game is in danger of losing its lifeblood -- and its soul.
David Conn, the game's premier investigative journalist, sets out on a journey through the heart of English football, exploring how the national sport has failed -- and who is to blame. From top clubs in the Premiership League, all the way down to the lowest leagues, Conn interviews players, managers, agents, chairmen and fans, building up a picture of a game mired in crisis. For every all-conquering Manchester United or Chelsea, there are ten clubs in desperate straits. There are also new revelations about the Hillsborough tragedy of 1989 where ninety-six people died; on the decline and fall of Sheffield Wednesday; and on the formation of the Premier League itself, born from an influx of TV money, bitterly regretted.
Yet, at its heart, soccer is a game deeply loved by millions, and this is a book for those who keep the faith, who believe that the sport itself, stripped of greed and self-interest still has values and can still be beautiful.