Product Description

From England dressing room to FA boardrooom, David Davies has enjoyed access all areas in football. He has known everyone from David Beckham to Wayne Rooney, from Sir Alex Ferguson to Sven-Goran Eriksson, as well as legends like Sir Matt Busby, Bill Shankly and George Best. He has lived through all English football's triumphs, tragedies, farces and scandals of modern times. Now, with the national sport perceived by many to be in crisis, no one is better placed to shed light on what has happened and why. His is a tale of fake sheikhs, fickle secretaries and beauty queens, and of how a boy from the Euston Road fell in love with football, and how he came to run one of the most high-profile organisations in the land.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #180809 in Books
• Published on: 2008-10-06
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 350 pages

Customer Reviews

A fascinating rounded read
For all the shenanigans that went on over the past 15 years or so at the FA this is brilliant. David Davies seems like a pretty decent bloke, Sven and Terry too, despite the dodginess. Its the others that need lining up against the wall. This is at times frustrating, at times hilarious, at times it makes you angry... bit like what it must have been like working there. But you really get a sense of what went on, and why we haven't won anything for so long. Not like your typical dull football autobiog. I really enjoyed it!

Just not worth the money or the time spent reading it
Davies spends far too much time trying to convince the reader that he could have been the saviour of English football. Every FA debacle in the last 10 years was someone else's fault with Davies to the rescue to the save the FA. He continually tries to portray himself as working class cos he supports Man United and fails miserably by continually mentioning more second homes than an MP. Before reading this I suspected Davies was a complete T****r. This book has convinced me now that he is. Avoid this or he will write a sequel.FA Confidential: Sex, Drugs and Penalties. The Inside Story of English Football

Better copy in the tabloids
I bought this book at a substantial discount and still think I overpaid.
It is difficult to see what new knowledge the book contributes: most of the stories have already appeared in the press in much greater detail. Davies's own take is largely anodyne and unrevealing. The film "LA Confidential" to which the book title alludes is a mystery-thriller with the truth about murder and corruption gradually being uncovered as the story unfolds. What unknowns are revealed in the book? That Sven and Mark Palios both had a relationship with Faria Alam (sex)? That Paul Merson had a drug problem (drugs)? That Gazza was an alcoholic? That England keep getting knocked out of international tournaments by missing free shots from 12 yards (penalties)? Is there something you don't already know here?
Far from spilling the beans after years keeping tight lipped while the FA festered and self-destructed, Davies is in fact pretty kind to most of the characters he describes (with the possible exception of Faria Alam). We are left to reflect that the true bastards are presumably those he chooses not to mention at all (again with the unfortunate exception of Ms Alam). Thus the book is neither salacious gossip (as the title tends to suggest) nor good history. Instead it is a lazy book hacked together by Henry Winter from a set of notes dictated by David Davies that amounts to not much more than stream-of-consciousness in print.
So what, then, was the purpose of writing the book? We are left with the conclusion that Davies badly wanted to tell his side of the Faria Alam story in which he was cast as the "Third Man" but exonerated by the tribunal set up to investigate the shenanigans. Clearly he was unfortunate to have been drawn into the affair - just as I consider myself unfortunate to have read his self-exculpation.
A lot of outstanding football books have been written in recent years. This isn't one of them.