Football Book Review Thread

[Anton Gramscescu]

Football Book Review Thread

I run a small business, actually (though I'd be a lot happier if I could just read). I did a program evaluation for a university bridging program in Riyadh just down the street from the Saudi tourist office last year and, unfortunately, just missed one of the big Al Ittihad derbies. This was followed up by just missing Al Saad play in the Asian champions league a couple of days later in Qatar. My luck with Arab football is not good.

I was just reading Christoper Davidson's book on Dubai last week - and his descriptions of the Dubai/Abu Dhabi rivalry put the whole Man City thing into perspective for me. Are certain teams in the new UAE league seen as being more "representative" of the respective ruling families than others? And does the league contain any decent teams which are from any of the five smaller emirates?

[Guest]

Football Book Review Thread

Well, the majority of teams are from Dubai and Abu Dhabi (if you count Al Ain as an Abu Dhabi team although they have their own distinct identity). Some teams are very closely linked with various members of the ruling family. I was at Al Jazira versus Al Wasl on Saturday...Al Jazira being the first love of Man City's Sheikh Mansour of the nayhans, Al Wasl being from Dubai. Al Ahli enjoy the patronage of Dubai's crown prince so, yeah, some teams are more equal than others. In terms of the rest of the league, Al Sharjah are really the only decent one...the emnity between Dubai and Abu Dhabi is palpable. It rarely gets aired, but you speak to people at the football matches and you realise that they don't see themselves as city rivals, rather as two seperate countries. Crazy.

[pawlu]

Football Book Review Thread

Seeing that you're here James: when will your book be available on play.com because I'll be buggered if I'll play Amazon's postage rates.

And, as Antonio said, hope you stick around.

Antonio, Jimmy Hogan was the coach who is credited with kick-starting the Austria and Hungary golden-eras. Great book and if you PM your address I'll send you my copy. I think you'll like it.

[Guest]

Football Book Review Thread

Antonio Gramsci wrote:

And no, I've not read that book you mention. I'm not even entirely sure who Jimmy Hogan is, to be honest.

Did Willy Meisl really go through his whole book without mentioning Jimmy Hogan?!?!?!
(gasp)

[Anton Gramscescu]

Football Book Review Thread

Upon revisiting the book, yes, he does mention him. Once.

In 1912 Hugo (i.e. Willy's brother - AG) introduced Jimmy Hogan to Vienna, who also became my club's coach. As a young grammar school boy, I was amongsthis first bunch of pupils. As Hugo's brother, I also received many a provate lesson. It was in Vienna that Jimmy discoverd how primitive British training methods were. With Hugo he worked out a more satisfactory scheme, probably the firstmoderntraining schedule in soccer. To save him from internment in the First World War, Jimmy was smuggeled to Budapest where he did splendid work, abover all with MTK.

.

Why he would have been safe in Budapest and not in Vienna when both were equally at war with Britain in a little bit beyond me, but there you have it.

[EIM]

Football Book Review Thread

That Eric Cantona eh? He's come out with some rubbish in his time.

*waits patiently in thread with camera and autograph book*

[Guest]

Football Book Review Thread

Antonio Gramsci wrote:

Upon revisiting the book, yes, he does mention him. Once.

In 1912 Hugo (i.e. Willy's brother - AG) introduced Jimmy Hogan to Vienna, who also became my club's coach. As a young grammar school boy, I was amongsthis first bunch of pupils. As Hugo's brother, I also received many a provate lesson. It was in Vienna that Jimmy discoverd how primitive British training methods were. With Hugo he worked out a more satisfactory scheme, probably the firstmoderntraining schedule in soccer. To save him from internment in the First World War, Jimmy was smuggeled to Budapest where he did splendid work, abover all with MTK.

.

Why he would have been safe in Budapest and not in Vienna when both were equally at war with Britain in a little bit beyond me, but there you have it.

That's it? Hogan and Hugo Meisl stayed in pretty close contact for the next 20 years. Is there any mention of the 1932 England-Wunderteam international @ Stamford Bridge, for which Hogan helped with the Austrian preparations? Feck... in the aftermath of the 6-3 in 1953 the Hungarians acknowledged Hogan's role in the rise of Central European football.

PS Re: Vienna v. Budapest WW1 - there was the case of local patronage IIRC. Will look it up.

PPS Hogan also coached the Austrian team at the Berlin Olympics.

[EIM]

Football Book Review Thread

http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/blog/2008/oct/08/sport.writing

[Anton Gramscescu]

Football Book Review Thread

Sash, the '32 game is mentioned, Hogan is not. His potted history of Hungary more or less skips straight from 1911 to 1948.

Eric's, man, I think you might have a long wait. Can I send you some sandwiches or something?

[EIM]

Football Book Review Thread

WHERE ARE THESE FUCKING SANDWICHES?

[Anton Gramscescu]

Football Book Review Thread

Try one of these.



mmm....Italian veal sandwiches....

[EIM]

Football Book Review Thread

Man, that looks good. I've been on a cheese and pickle run recently. Three a day. But as it says in the bible, you know, that line about that shit not being enough, or something.

[Guest]

Football Book Review Thread

Try beef bacon. You'll never eat a sarnie again...

[Anton Gramscescu]

Football Book Review Thread

That is one of the New Testament's most memorable passages, I agree. Although I've heard it's a mistranslation from the original Aramaic, which was more along the lines of: "Cheese and pickle, shitbird? Not enough". Still, one of Mary Magdalene's better one-liners in any language.

Actually, I should be clear - that *particular* sandwich, with cheese and sweet tomato sauce, is one half of a perfect summer day in Toronto. The other half being the walk from the sandwich bar to the match and the beers, singing and bitchy criticism about Mo's increasingly inane transfers that follow.

Almost finished Declan Hill's The Fix, so review to follow shortly.

[Anton Gramscescu]

Football Book Review Thread

The Fix: Organized Crime and Sports by Declan Hill

Sport is about two things: truth and surprise. Truth because over the long it is dedication, conditioning skill and teamwork that win, and they win precisely because the rules of sports are designed to reward them. Surprise, because despite that, on any given day, given the right combination of luck, hard work and desire, any team can beat any other, even with massive imbalances in talent. Take away truth and surprise, and you're left with nothing - an empty shell of human activity.

Declan Hill's new book contends that much of the Beautiful Game is well on its way to being just that. The book goes back and forth across four continents, from the back streets of Bangkok to the trinket-filled office of Sepp Blatter, and paints a picture of rampant corruption and match fixing due primarily to billions of dollars being spent by gambling-mad Asians.

Hill has done some absolutely sterling journalistic work in this book. He speaks to football players, referees, the suits from UEFA and FIFA, journalists, bookmakers, runners, and gangsters from Singapore, Thailand and the US. It's an eyeopening journey, on which he attempts to do three things: show the inside workings of how matches are fixed and document the extensive presence of Asian syndicates in Europe; provide a potted history of some of the main match-fixing stories of the past two decades, and to suggest that games at the very highest level - including the World Cup - have been the subject of fixes. He succeeds in two and a half of these tasks.

The sections on recent history and the setting of fixes are excellent in their own right. He raises a lot of important questions without being sensationalist. Why have so few cases of match-fixing - most recently that of German referee Robert Hoyzer - resulted in any wider investigations of systemic wrong-doing? Why do we believe that English football - which was rife with match-fixing in the 1950s and 60s according to no less an authority than Brian Clough - has since become pristine when so many European leagues have clearly been penetrated by the gambling syndicates?

The casual football observer might be forgiven for thinking - based on the very extensive coverage given to events like the Calciopoli scandal in Italy two years ago - that fixing was primarily something that ambitious teams did to improve their chances of winning championships, or something desperate teams did to avoid relegation. But, as Hill shows, while this is certainly part of the story, he shows clearly the extent to which the real threat comes from gambling, primarily from Asia. In a biting analogy, he compares European sports' blindness to the Asian threat with the fall of Singapore in 1942, which occurred because the racist English defenders could not bring themselves to credit their Asian opponents with cleverness or skill.

The book's third strand is the one that - perhaps unfortunately - received all the attention when the public was published a few weeks ago. The last third of the book is taken up with Hill's quest to prove that the Brazil-Ghana second round match, which the latter lost 3-0, was fixed. He claims to have been present at key meetings leading up to the fix. He claims to have been present at other occasions when this particular fixer had correctly predicted the outcomes of major European matches in advance of the game. He does not claim to have been present when the match was actually fixed, but he presents a lot of circumstantial evidence to back up his claim. Unfortunately, it doesn't quite add up to anything that would stand up in a court of law; he doesn'tquite seal the deal on his case. But it presents such tremendous interviews and food for thought along the way that you shouldn't mind.

Hill's not short on solutions to the problems of fixing. An increase in the number of female referees should cut down on the use of prostitutes to influence officials. Beefed-up offices of security at both clubs and leagues are desirable, too. But most important of all is the need to be alert. What has passed almost without comment since this book's publication that some players in Premiership teams have been open to bribery. This result was perhaps predictable - as Hill points out, most people don't want to believe, and most investigations are half-hearted because no one wants to find evidence of cheating. But everyone needs to be more sceptical and more watchful about football, if truth and surprise are to be maintained in our favourite sport.

[pawlu]

Football Book Review Thread

Antonio, thanks for the review even though I'll be giving this a miss as it isn't the sort of book I normally read.

Oh, and if Ursus happens to read this, I've sent you a PM.

[danielmak]

Football Book Review Thread

EIM wrote:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/blog/2008/oct/08/sport.writing

Nice story. Thanks for sharing this. If folks haven't checked this out yet, read into the comments. There are some interesting issues raised about translation and printing small runs as an alternative to the current state of trying to cash in on blockbuster books.

[pawlu]

Football Book Review Thread

Anyone on here read any of the following?

The FC Nantes Experiment
A Load of Balls by Simon Inglis

I spotted them on e-bay and hadn't heard of them before. Inglis is one of my favourite authors so I'll probably by that one. Not so sure about the Nantes one though so any pointers to its quality would be appreciated.

Paul

[danielmak]

Football Book Review Thread

I know AG has prodded for more reviews but I guess the movement of this thread to page 2 has finally pushed me. I hear stuff about an old board and don't know exactly when that board existed or what was on it so if Adrian Chiles' We Don't Know What We're Doing has already been reviewed/discussed, apologies for the repetition. Either way, I really enjoyed this book because it provides an alternative narrative to the football as event vision that seems to dominate most pubic discourse about contemporary football (e.g., the frenzy that is already starting about the transfer window because rumor and gossip can fit into entertainment/celebrity reporting, introductions of players or announcements of goals that are on par with a wrestling match, the opportunity to set every replay to music so our emotions can match some kind of MTV experience).

The blurbs in the front of the book and on various on-line bookseller sites are quick to compare this book to Fever Pitch. While Chiles share the neurotic and fanatical self-presentation that we find in Hornby's book, I think the comparison ends there. Chiles is the central character and narrator but it's really a book about community and the randomness of how being a fan takes shape more than it is a book about him or the affects of his fandom on his personal life. For some of the people in the book following West Bromwich Albion is almost like a job; they show up week after week and year after year but don't seem to be moved one way or the other by wins or losses. We learn about these types of fans but we also learn about people who really need the Albion as an escape from various problems that exist in their everyday lives (e.g., Steve, a man who was battling leukemia but instead of focusing on the disease is more eager to talk about and get back to the football). Chiles' strengths as a writer really shine when he describes the community of fans and the details of how they came to support Albion as well as how that support takes shape. Ultimately, it is a book about the cultures of fandom.

The book begins with Albion's EPL survival in 2004-2005 but mostly focuses on the 2005-2006 season. Perhaps because the team is horrible and ultimately relegated, Chiles has more time and space to focus on the fans rather than the football itself (which is a good thing for the neutrals among us) and ultimately leads to a book that is very funny, (com)passionate, and smart. If you avoided this book because you are not an Albion fan or because you thought this was going to be just another Fever Pitch wannabe, you should reconsider because it really is an interesting and engaging book.

[Jon]

Football Book Review Thread

"For some of the people in the book following West Bromwich Albion is almost like a job; they show up week after week and year after year but don't seem to be moved one way or the other by wins or losses."

The first part of the sentence is me to a tee, but the second part not. I wish my mood wasn't moved so significantly by our wins or losses.

Here is the original thread from the old board:

http://www.onetouchfootball.com/ubb/...5;t=000806;p=1

I agree with you daniel. I think it's a really good read and one that a neutral (maybe even a non-football fan) would enjoy. I was surprised it didn't get reviewed in WSC, especially as at one point they were giving it away with a free subscription.

Has anyone read 'Can we play you every week?' I heard the author, Max Velody, on Radio 5 the other week and he convinced me to buy it. Not read it yet but it looks like good bog-reading stuff.

[Ronny Delgado]

Football Book Review Thread

I'd love it if someone would write a good book about the Mitropa Cup in the years before the European Cups started.

[Anton Gramscescu]

Football Book Review Thread

Inter-war football in general is covered pretty meagerly (only Goldblatt and Wilson have paid it serious attention). There's room for a book that takes European football from the home nations' withdrawal from FIFA in 1920 through to 1954 and the creation of UEFA, WC '54 and the Wembley debacle. It could be a kind of "rise of rest" theme: At the end of WWI, England (and Scotland) was absolutely predominant in world football; by the end, professionalism and leagues were established in most of Europe and England was left far behind. Also, this was also the era where international club competition began, and where tactical innovation was at its greatest. It would be a cracking read, if done well.

I'm really looking forward to winning the lottery so I can write these kinds of books.

[danielmak]

Football Book Review Thread

I am usually way late on football books and so am most attracted to texts that have some kind of timelessness to them. With that in mind, and knowing that most people who read and post to this thread have probably already read it, let me just say that if you have considered picking up Always Next Year 1998-99 but have yet to do so, it really is worth your time. Although Manchester United's treble provides a general frame (and a kind of timeliness), many of the issues raised in the book are interesting not only as historical markers but also as contemporary sources of excitement and concern (i.e., what makes the book so interesting is its timelessness). For example, Villa's loss of Dwight Yorke continues to play out each season as larger clubs swallow up stars at mid-level sides while unsettling those mid-level sides, the emergence of Boca as a South American superpower is intriguing as the side has dominated the Copa Libertadores and the Argentine league since the late 90s, Chelsea's quest for brand loyalty continues to play out in problematic ways, and struggles to find spaces for youth football remain an issue (see the last issue of WSC).

I was alternating between this book and Perfect Pitch, which was released about a year before, before deciding just to read Always Next Year. Perfect Pitch is framed in its introduction as filling a gap in English language literary approaches to football writing. Ironically, the heavy focus on individual footballers in Perfect Pitch reads like a collection of profiles compared to the truly literary and multi-faceted exploration of football and football culture found in Always Next Year.

I must admit, though, that part of my excitement about this book stems from my own experiences with football. Living in the USA my exposure to European club football started in the mid-1970s with Soccer Made in Germany. Then there was a giant gap (other than World Cup finals) until a friend of mine started taping Champions League games for me in 1998-1999. So the book certainly speaks to my own return to watching football and thinking back to the excitement of that season. Perhaps, the same reflection might play out for other readers in similar ways. Either way, I recommend that you check the book out if you haven't read it yet. WSC has a nice deal on this volume and two others as part of a multi-pack.

[Anton Gramscescu]

Football Book Review Thread

Nice one, dm.

You've inspired me to go back and finally read David Conn's The Football Business, another book from (roughly) that period.

[ursus arctos]

Football Book Review Thread

danielmak, which volume of Perfect Pitch are you referring to?

There are at least four (the original idea was to try to produce a volume on a different theme each quarter, essentially a football-based equivalent to the likes of Granta), and I've found them each to be rather different (it is also rather difficult to find them all, I still have not done so.)