"If you buy only one item from this store, make it this one" - Simon Cope, Seadog Trust Chair

---

Product Description

Once, football proudly claimed to stand for passion, community, honour, even beauty. Today, football is about money. Its richest club, Manchester United, earned GBP175 million last year; yet since 1992 thirty-six of the Football League's seventy-two clubs have been insolvent. The game is in danger of losing its lifeblood - and its soul. David Conn, the game's most respected investigative journalist, sets out on a journey through the heart of our national game, exploring how the sport has failed - and who is to blame. Travelling to football's every outpost, Conn interviews players, managers, chairmen and fans, building up a picture of a game mired in crisis. At its heart, football is a game deeply loved by millions. This is a book for those who keep the faith, who believe that the sport itself, stripped of the greed and self-interest blighting its organisation, still has values, and can still be beautiful.

---

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #90153 in Books
• Published on: 2005-08-04
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 432 pages

Review
This is a quite magnificent book- With a splendid eye for important detail and a determination to ask difficult questions, Conn reminds us of what is important- Conn's greatest feat in a book that is well researched and written with searing honesty is to show the game's magnificent resilience', David Wash, The Sunday Times .'For a fascinating insight into the causes, and the creators, of the game's ills this is a superbly told tale', Peter Corrigan, Independent .'An important book', The Times .'A thoroughly researched, well-crafted dissection of the modern game', Independent .'This is a must-read for all who love football', Delia Smith, .'An intelligent and passionate work about the business of football from Highbury to Glossop that is as skilfully written and structured as any thriller; a worthy book without a hint of worthiness about it', When Saturday Comes .'Hard-hitting- but the added value of The Beautiful Game lies rather in the effort to understand what is happening to the minnows, not the sharks. The stories he tells are scandalous, touching, and encouraging, at the same time', The Times

Synopsis
Once, football proudly claimed to stand for passion, community, honour, even beauty. Today, football is about money. Its richest club, Manchester United, earned GBP175 million last year; yet since 1992 thirty-six of the Football League's seventy-two clubs have been insolvent. The game is in danger of losing its lifeblood - and its soul. David Conn, the game's most respected investigative journalist, sets out on a journey through the heart of our national game, exploring how the sport has failed - and who is to blame. Travelling to football's every outpost, Conn interviews players, managers, chairmen and fans, building up a picture of a game mired in crisis. At its heart, football is a game deeply loved by millions. This is a book for those who keep the faith, who believe that the sport itself, stripped of the greed and self-interest blighting its organisation, still has values, and can still be beautiful.

From the Publisher
A powerful, passionate exploration of a game in turmoil

---

Customer Reviews

Practically perfect
This is, in my opinion, the best book ever written about English football. Conn explores everything, from the politics behind the formation of the premiership, to the chronic mismanagement of some of England's proudest clubs to League Two teams struggling with financial survival, to the myths and untruths surrounding the Hillsbourgh Disaster. What really endeared me to the book however, was that throughout the devastating criticism of footballs corruption, Conn is always remains constructive and outlines an effective blueprint that could provide hope for the future of English football, focusing on Crewe as an example of how football should be run. Very informative and enlightening, especially for Premiership fans who have only a vague knowledge of the plight of teams struggling to survive without the bountiful riches from Sky.

Outstanding
Read this book and it will change the way you think about football forever. Go with confidence, it's an outstanding piece of writing.

A Brilliant Book
Conn's account of modern day football, and the sinister forces controlling the game, makes for a wonderful read.

Too often books on football ignore the trials and tribulations of lower league clubs. That is not a charge that can be levelled at Conn. His chapters on Wimbledon, York, Crewe, Bury, Notts County and others are magnificent accounts of the enthusiasm, passion and fervour of football supporters. In the same chapters there are often desperate tales of the greed of chairmen and directors of these same clubs.

Conn reminds the reader how fans are told that football is now a business, and as a result, has to be viewed in different terms from the game that many supporters grew to love. However, Conn responds with the argument that if football is now a business, then why are people who have continually run their business into the ground been rewarded with well paid jobs.

As a Liverpool supporter I recoommend the book. It's especially recommended to those supporters who perhaps are unsympathetic to the demands of the Hillsborough families. If you're in any way unsure about what happened on April 15th 1989, please read the book. Conn is not a Liverpool supporter. He's not a spokesperson for Liverpool or the bereaved families - he's just a journalist who has restored this reviewer's faith in football writers - and quite possibly football in general.