Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #217125 in Books
• Published on: 2005-12-01
• Binding: Paperback
• 480 pages

Bobby Moore
There is no better book if you want to learn about the World Cup. This is the definitive history

Patrick Barclay, Sunday Telegraph
Most football writers fall into two categories: those who have been influenced by Glanville, and those who should have been

Sunday Times
Brilliantly written history

Customer Reviews

The definitive guide to the story so far!
A very comprehensive review of the World Cup from 1930 to 2002. All the matchs are reveiwed and each tournament has a break down of results at the end. A good read and a must for World Cup fans.

Very Good to very Poor
Glanville is not a football person - one can tell he never grew up with the game. He is a fine journalist thou. His knowledge of politics and behind the scenes stuff is very good. However his knowledge/understanding of the game itself is very poor - one particularily annoying thing he talks about the great players he has seen - but gets their positions wrong; did he really watch the games?

A true history of the world's greatest sporting competition
It really is amazing just how much Brian Granville has managed to fit into this wonderful book. However it really is far from just being an excellent source of statistics for each of the world cups. This book is quite simply jam packed with wonderful, and quite often hilarious tales, ranging from the poor organisation and violence that ravaged the first ever world cup in Uraguay, to accounts of individual players. The tale of the pure footballing genius of Garinsha who was also blighted with complete madness makes fascinating reading. A book that every football fan should have on their bookshelf.