Product Description

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 1970s 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.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #53864 in Books
• Published on: 2007-04-16
• Binding: Paperback
• 448 pages

Review
'Award-winning reporter Andrew Jennings has led the way investigating corruption in world football' Daily Mail 'A meticulously researched and detailed dossier into the inner workings of FIFA' Sunday Business Post 'In Foul!, Jennings has turned his unerring attention to the bun fight that masquerades as the global governance of football' Independent 'The appalling Sepp Blatter and his cronies' activities are laid bare in a mind-boggling web of deceit. Essential reading for cynical football fans.' Evening Herald Dublin

About the Author
Andrew Jennings is an internationally respected journalist, writer and film-maker. His seminal book exposing Olympic corruption 'The Lords of the Rings' was an international bestseller in 1992. He has written for The Times, Daily Mail, Sunday Times and New Statesman as well as for publications all over Europe. For many years he produced and reported for Granada TV's World in Action and also for BBC radio and television.

Customer Reviews

Every football fan should read this
If you've ever wondered why the average fan can hardly ever get tickets at World Cup games, read this and you'll find out why.
Jennings lays out detail after detail about how the money and tickets are systematically being redirected by Sepp Blatter and his team who run FIFA. No wonder they want to ban this book.
Lets hope the tradition of booing Blatter and co when they turn for matches continues throughout this year's World Cup.

Fabulous - Buy This Book!
Quite simply the best football book I have ever read. Andrew Jennings outs the woeful corporate governance inside FIFA that makes a complete and utter mockery of their motto "for The Good Of The Game". Ever wondered if the average football fan is being fleeced and people within the game are lining their pockets at your expense? Read this book and you'll never feel the same way about football again. A disgraceful indictment on the way the game is now seemingly run. A superb read.

Public are cheated again
Andrew Jennings is in a similar genre to David Yallop and having read his The Great Olympic Swindle highlighting the vote rigging and corruption behind Olympic Bids I thought I would try out his latest book. This was also subject to a recent Panaroma episode.

Rather bizarrely (not sure if this is by accident or design) the book covers the period from 1998 to the 2006 World Cup ie, almost a continuance of Yallop's How They Stole The Game although this time Sepp Blatter is the main protagonist. Additionally, this is largely a story of how voting is rigged and FIFA members are paid off/induced/persuaded and at times impersonated to get the right vote result.

Again, this is an excellently researched book which takes a slightly different tack to Yallop's although the underlying story is one of lies, bribes and corruption within FIFA.

Similar to How They Stole The Game this is another book FIFA tried to ban through the courts although this attempt was unsuccessful and as far as I am aware there nothing within the book has been disproved by FIFA since publication.