Football Books
his thrid spot-kick of the game, given the retake. He slots it
home, bottom corner, 3-2. We spend the last quarter of an hour
trying to assist the ball into the net by shouting. Five minutes
added time are announced. In the fourth of these Commons
runs at them again, scarifying the Preston defence into
condeding a corner which Commons takes himself. It flies into
the box and Cookie, in a diving-and-heading comic-strip-hero
last-minute-of-extra-time-equalizer-type-scenario, scores and
rescues a point.3-3! The time has come to fly into the arms of
your fellow man, woman or child in a deranged manner. We
know this activity as 'a Mental'. Superb. By far the greatest team
the world has ever seen. The ref will blow full-time
immediately after the restart. It's a formality. But he doesn't.
Still, from their kick-off, we win the ball back. Now we lose it,
in midfield. A Preston playeer is running through our defence.
We've tried to play offside, and failed. He has run through our
defence. This cannot happen. The whistle must sound, the ref
must blow. The Preston player rounds Cutler. Now, blow it NOW.
The Preston player slots the ball behind Cutler. 4-3. The ref
blows full-time.
was a classic, a thriller, one of the best I've ever been to,
and that, rather impressively, and against expectation, the
match of the day actually did turn out to be the one I made the
500-mile round-trip to see. But several hours and several pints
of anaesthetic later, the best I am able to say is that, when you
equalize in the last-minute-but-one, for f**k's sake, your
responsibility as a professional football player, for f**k's sake,
for which you are paid a nice fat wad, is to hoof the f**king ball
out of the ground until the ref blows full-time. Your
responsibility as a professional football player, for which you are
paid a nice fat wad, for f**k's sake, is not to f**king fanny about
in midfield allowing the opposition to nick the ball and score a
ninety-fifth f**king-minute winner you f**king cnuts.
For f**k' f**king sake."
were you even born then Wynners?
Football in sun and shadow-Eduardo Galeano (sometimes called soccer in sun and shadow)
thats my fave football book- vignettes about Sth American football culture
and what about Glanville's World Cup- he updates it after every WC-its like the bible dudes..........
Wgtn Cental Library has a fantastic Football section
Salmon072008-11-03 20:14:44
Johnny Warren's Poofters, Wogs and Sheilas really does offer an excellent insight on where the A-League has come from. If you can get past the Jingoistic moments, it is actually quite a good read.
Picked up a copy of these at Arty Bees on the weekend, plan on reading it up in Tauranga (I'm not coming back from Waitakere straight away...)
Of course, being a convict means I'll probably enjoy it a bit more
My Favourite Year and NZ's World Cup Story are two of my all time favourite books. I'm not much of a reader but i loved reading those books from cover to cover.
What are your favourite stories in My Favourite Year? Mine would have to be Ireland's 1990 WC campaign and Raith Rovers promotion season.
+1 for the Damned Utd, ok it's fiction but it is ace! You can get it at Borders. Read it pretty much in one sitting when I couldn't sleep one night.
My Favourite Year and NZ's World Cup Story are two of my all time favourite books. I'm not much of a reader but i loved reading those books from cover to cover.
What are your favourite stories in My Favourite Year? Mine would have to be Ireland's 1990 WC campaign and Raith Rovers promotion season.
Chris England spent five weeks covering the 2002 World Cup, when football became Japan's newest religion, constantly on the lookout for the odd, the offbeat and the downright strange. He ended up not only seeing plenty of football by also getting buried up to the neck in hot black volcanic sand, serenading Lawrie McMenemy with a bunch of drunk British MPs, performing stand-up comedy to an audience who spoke no English and visiting a railway station under the sea.
Football Against the Enemy - Simon Kuper
Throughout the world, football is a potent force in the lives of billions of people. Focusing national, political and cultural identities, football is the medium through which the world's hopes and fears, passions and hatreds are expressed. Simon Kuper travelled to 22 countries from South Africa to Italy, from Russia to the USA, to examine the way football has shaped them. At the same time he tried to find out what lies behind each nation's distinctive style of play, from the carefree self-expression of the Brazilians to the anxious calculation of the Italians. During his journeys he met an extraordinary range of players, politicians and - of course - the fans themselves, all of whom revealed in their different ways the unique place football has in the life of the planet.
How football explains the world - Franklin Foer
From Publishers Weekly
Foer, a New Republic editor, scores a game-winning goal with this analysis of the interchange between soccer and the new global economy. The subtitle is a bit misleading, though: he doesn't really use soccer to develop a theory; instead, he focuses on how examining soccer in different countries allows us to understand how international forces affect politics and life around the globe. The book is full of colorful reporting, strong characters and insightful analysis: In one of the most compelling chapters, Foer shows how a soccer thug in Serbia helped to organize troops who committed atrocities in the Balkan War�by the end of the war, the thug's men, with the acquiescence of Serbian leaders, had killed at least 2,000 Croats and Bosnians. Then he bought his own soccer club and, before he was gunned down in 2000, intimidated other teams into losing. Most of the stories aren't as gruesome, but they're equally fascinating. The crude hatred, racism and anti-Semitism on display in many soccer stadiums is simply amazing, and Foer offers context for them, including how current economic conditions are affecting these manifestations. In Scotland, the management of some teams have kept religious hatreds alive in order to sell tickets and team merchandise. But Foer, a diehard soccer enthusiast, is no anti-globalist. In Iran, for example, he depicts how soccer works as a modernizing force: thousands of women forced police to allow them into a men's-only stadium to celebrate the national team's triumph in an international match. One doesn't have to be a soccer fan to truly appreciate this absorbing book.
The Referee's survival guide - Jeffrey Caminsky
The Referee's Survival Guide, a new book on soccer officiating by veteran soccer referee Jeff Caminsky, has the answers to many of a referee's typical problems on the pitch. Clearly written and easy to understand, The Referee's Survival Guide explains many of the "what's," "how's," "who's," and "why's" of life on the soccer field...as well as many of the things for a soccer official to avoid. Whether you're interested in training or getting better as an official, learning where to be on the field, how to handle crowds and players, or applying the rules in a common-sense manner, The Referee's Survival Guide offers something for every soccer referee.
ginger_eejit2008-11-27 09:48:17
I live in Jafaland so maybe pay postage or pick up if you can.
http://www.yellowfever.co.nz/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=2798
I suggest A Season With Verona by Tim Parks. You can hear me yarn about it on the aforementioned thread
^ Best football book hands down
I will merely draw your attention to my avatar. That one's lined up for my Xmas stocking this year.
Seeing Red: The Chic Charnley Story
Chic Charnley is one of the most controversial, colorful characters in Scottish football history. Blessed with awesome talent, incredible ability and spectacular skills, he's the player who could - and should - have been one of the biggest names in sport. But, by his own admission, he blew it. Here he tells all in the most revealing, unputdownable book of the game. The maverick midfielder tells it like it is, including the real reason he did not sign for his boyhood idols Celtic; the genuine regrets of a stormy career that kept him in the headlines for all the wrong reasons; his bad boy image, crazy antics and why he was sent off a record amount of times; how he ruined Henrik Larsson's Celtic debut; the day he was attacked by thugs with a sword - during training! - and much more. Here, for the first time, Chic Charnley talks about the roller coaster career that saw him play for Partick Thistle, Hibs, St. Mirren, Dundee, Ayr, Clydebank, Hamilton and a few others in between. It's a journey through football with tales as outrageous as the character himself!
The Spirit of Wimbledon: Footballing Memories of the Dons 1922-2003
I'd love to read either of these. Such a fantastic footballing fairytale that is unlikely to ever be repeated.
read "Deep in the Forest" - a collection of pieces on players from Ian Storey-Moore through to Roy Keane via Larry Loydd, Archie Gemmill, John Roberston etc
didn't finish "Fathers, Sons and Football" as we had to leave it at place we were staying - but will get it from library (if possible)+1 for the Damned Utd, ok it's fiction but it is ace! You can get it at Borders. Read it pretty much in one sitting when I couldn't sleep one night.