Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #18504 in Books
• Published on: 2006-11-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 256 pages

THE TIMES
'With style and erudition, [Wilson] proves that football is a metaphor, an allegory, and much more than just a game'

Review
'With style and erudition, [Wilson] proves that football is a metaphor, an allegory, and much more than just a game' (THE TIMES )

'Enlightening' (THE SCOTSMAN )

WATERSTONES BOOKS QUARTERLY
'Jonathan Wilson brilliantly plugs the gaps in our knowledge...an observant and witty guide to life in Eastern Europe.'

Customer Reviews

Intruiging view on a novel subject
I really enjoyed this book which is well written and takes the perceptive reader on a journey through eastern Europe with football acting as the Hitchhikers guide. Don't be lulled into thinking that this is simply a book about football in Eastern Europe - it is a book about people, politics, corruption and tragedy, with a great deal of humour, and empathy for the citizens of the nations that have emerged from Communist control.
I am not an avid football fan but have spent time in these areas and this book captures brilliantly the struggles of the new nations to find their own identity and deal with their past, whilst telling me all I could ever need to know about the old system and the way that football represented the microcosms of the communist lifestyle.
If you want to know about the great sides of the Communist era this book gives you what you need to know. If you fancy owning an eastern European football club (and I get the impression that it is quite easy to do this), this book is for you. If you want an interesting and thoughtful insight into an unexpecteed subject, this book is for you. Thoroughly recommended.

Engaging and informative
As a regular traveller and visitor to Eastern Europe, and having taken in quite a few games in the process, I found this book most interesting and would heartily recommend it to anyone interested in the region as a whole.

Minor criticisms would include the strange omission of Czech Republic/Slovakia and the Baltic states, and there is the distinct impression that this book should be viewed more as an introduction to the issues at stake rather than act as a definitive guide.

Nevertheless, Jonathan Wilson (who cannot be much more than 30, judging from some subtle dating in the text) clearly has excellent knowledge and experience of the area (with the possible exception of the Caucausus region, which seems to have been more of a flying visit) and hence this book should be required reading for any football and travel enthusiast who dares to look further than the dreaded Premiership for their sporting thrills.

An Excellent Read
This is a well researched, very interesting account of football in many Eastern European countries. Each chapter is well worth reading and personally, I have learnt a great deal about football in countries which get 1 or 2 lines a year in the British sporting press.