Drawing on research from Britain, Europe, Argentina and the USA this volume examines the culture and loyalties of soccer players and crowds and their relationships to social order, disorder and violence. This informative and accessible book will be of interest to students of Sport Science and to all of those who love the game of soccer.
'A real knock-out' DAILY TELEGRAPH Random occurences that shaped the history of football - an alternative history of the game from loveable broadcaster Colin Murray. Nowadays a top Premiership football club can spend £50 million on a Portuguese pin-up or a legendary Italian goalkeeper, but you cannot take into account the effects of a dodgy takeaway meal, a dropped bottle of aftershave on a goalkeeper's toe, or the fact that your most creative player has to leave town because of a chance drunken encounter with another player's wife. It is these random moments that have shaped football as much as the headline-grabbing Cantona kung fu kick and that Russian linesman in 1966. In this witty alternative history of football you will learn: * Different sizes of football were used in each half of the inaugural World Cup Final of 1930. * Sheffield United almost signed Diego Maradona. * Saddam Hussein changed the result of an Iraq versus Chelsea match. * Bury FC's Robbie the Bobby tops the league of worst-behaved mascots. From the height of international football to the scandal of the Conference league Christmas party that cost far more than a bar-bill, Colin Murray tries his best to make you believe, once more, in football's unpredictability.
Football stadiums are supposed to be packed with cheering fans. It was that way for more than 100 years until the coronavirus pandemic changed all our lives. Football managed to struggle on at some levels but without crowds - just cardboard cut-outs and fake noise instead. There was even a half measure for a while with a couple of thousand spectators allowed in. A banner at Old Trafford read, 'Football is nothing without fans', but what we discovered is that it isn't nothing, it's just better with fans there. Filled with fascinating stories, anecdotes, opinions and social media comments, Football's Better with Fans explores what it means to be a supporter. It's a light-hearted and highly dippable look at the lives of loyal fans, the fun and games they've enjoyed, their songs, banter, commitment, tattoos and traditions. The book doesn't shy away from tragedies, hooliganism or racism, but mainly it's a joyful celebration of football fandom and how we all survived when we couldn't go to games.
What does a football hooligan do outside football? In the case of Mark Chester, the answer was: live off his wits and burn the candle at both ends. Sex, Drugs And Football Thugs is part travelogue, part confessional, and by turns harrowing and hilarious.
This examination of changes taking place in the world of football focuses on its growing commercialization. It covers such topics as fans becoming shareholders, with a say in the running of the clubs, and the setting-up of a government-sponsored scheme to support shareholder trusts.
Laurie Top is a talented footballer with a wayward personality. He loves women and has disastrous dalliances with a Page 3 girl and a Miss World. Risk is Laurie’s buzzword, gambling is his personal philosophy and he is up to his neck in debt to his bookmaker. Now Laurie’s football manager is becoming tired of his millionaire ways, and a clash is brewing between the old and new generation of football – as the dour manager threatens to call time on his playboy lifestyle. Football is a Funny Old Game is the second book by Kenneth Burke and this satire on the beautiful game contains home truths about modern football.
The story of British football's journey from public school diversion to mass media entertainment is a remarkable one. The Association Game traces British football from the establishment of the earliest clubs in the nineteenth century to its place as one of the prominent and commercialised leisure industries at the beginning of the twenty first century. It covers supporters and fandom, status and culture, big business, the press and electronic media and development in playing styles, tactics and rules. This is the only up to date book on the history of British football, covering the twentieth century shift from amateur to professional and whole of the British Isles, not just England.
Made in Yugoslavia: Studies in Popular Music serves as a comprehensive and thorough introduction to the history, sociology, and musicology of popular music in Yugoslavia and the post-Yugoslav region across the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. The book consists of chapters by leading scholars and covers the major figures, styles, and social contexts of music in the region that for most of the past century was known as Yugoslavia. Exploring the role played by music in Yugoslav art, culture, social movements, and discourses of statehood, this book offers a gateway into scholarly explanation of a key region in Eastern Europe. An introduction provides an overview and background on popular music in Yugoslavia, followed by chapters in four thematic sections: Zabavna-Pop; Rock, Punk, and New Wave; Narodna (Folk) and Neofolk Music; and the Politics of Popular Music Under Socialism.
Growing up in darkest Scotland as the son of the local poacher and then rampaging across Europe with a pack of Rangers hooligans is not the best preparation for high office in Australia. Father at 18, professional footballer at 20, Lawrie McKinna was living the dream until he uprooted for Australia at 25 to play in the NSL. Then he became a successful coach (NSL, A-League and China) and ultimately was elected to political office as an independent after being courted by both mainstream parties due to his massive popularity. These pages chronicle his journey, telling his dangerous truth with fearless candour, infectious enthusiasm and a wicked sense of humour.
