Football Books

Inquisitive, eye opening and informative...owned it, read it, shared it, and lost it in the process. A must read for a big picture understanding perspective.

Imagine a government monopoly in ten-pin bowling where prospective bowlers must first apply with their local government council for a permit to play on a government-sponsored team. That would certainly be a bad idea. Similarly, in most countries government is a problem for the sport of soccer football. Exacerbating the problem of government are corporations - themselves creatures of the state. It remains a story of how government and their offspring - the corporation, has been a tool for greedy elites to enrich their pockets at the expense of the powerless. Soccer football has become a victim of corporate statism, pure and simple.

John Sugden, an investigative sociologist at the University of Brighton in England and author of the award-winning "Boxing and Society", has teamed up with colleague Alan Tomlinson to apply the methodology of participant observation to the study of soccer footballs' governing body - FIFA. Sugden and Tomlinson are not only creatures of Britain's socialist society, but prisoners. Their progressive leftist views are fruitful in discerning elite behavior but ill-serves them when trying to arrive at solutions to the problem. The British duo advocates more government for a problem generated by government in the first place, which is absurd. Government and their corporations are the problem, not the solution.

Beginning with a preface on page 7, the authors' saga runs for 277 pages ending on page 284. There is no bibliography and no index. It is a story more than it is a sociological or ethnographic account of an investigation of FIFA governorship and corruption. Despite these shortcomings, the authors are great storytellers and know how to write for story. This book is well-crafted and easy to read. It's 15 chapters are : Chapter 1) Blattergate; Chapter 2) The Blazer-and-Slacks Brigade; Chapter 3) Goodbye, Colonel Blimp; Chapter 4) The Big Man; Chapter 5) The Predator and the Protégé; Chapter 6) The Bounty Hunter; Chapter 7) The Big Boss; Chapter 8) A Rumble in the Jungle; Chapter 9) From Protégé to President; Chapter 10) The Politics of the Belly; Chapter 11) Tout Heaven; Chapter 12) The Best Club in the World; Chapter 13) Bidding Wars; Chapter 14) The Terminator; and Chapter 15) Fifaland.

The problem of government is give ample treatment by the authors. They tell us that FIFA leader Joseph Blatter "reeled in the face of accusations of administrative malpractice, financial mismanagement and outright organisational [sic] deception and fraud" by the media against "the FIFA president and his network of cronies, crooks and charlatans who have made personal gains from their lofty positions" (pp12-13). When Blatter was reelected double the margin from his previous election, it revealed that most governments "were worried about what would come out if Blatter lost, for so many had done well over the years out of him"(p13).

Another example of government as the problem is "When football emerged from colonialism as one of the few institutions which captured the imagination of diverse populations, it became a target for political interference and economic exploitation by powerful political elites" (p162). The authors explain that "Football administrators are often appointed and fired at the whim of unelected political leaders who want to have control of national teams and get their hands on any money which football generates" (p162). They conclude "We would not want national governments to run football".

John Sugden and Alan Tomlinson did a nice job of setting forth the problem of government, which is yielded like a cudgel by elites against those unable to take hold of it for themselves. What do the authors think should be done? Curiously, they say "FIFA must be brought within the embrace of an accountable international organisation [sic] such as the United Nations" with the caveat that "the UN and the EC have their own problems" (pp280-281). More government is not the answer to the problem of government in sport. If government is the problem, then it cannot be the solution. The answer is to abolish government games, thereby allowing individual teams to direct their own affairs. To get there, FIFA will need to be defanged.

This story of a small college that made football history is a blockbuster. Little Washington and Jefferson College, averaging about 400 students, from 1890 through 1935 played the likes of Pitt, West Virginia, Notre Dame, Penn State, Syracuse, Army, Navy, and a host of others. And W & J won far more of these games than it lost.There are loads of interesting pictures, including a monster bonfire in 1909 at WVU as Mountaineeer enthusiasts implored their team to "incinerate W & J." (But W & J won, 18-5.)The small Pennsylvania college produced many All-Americans, including Wilbur F. Henry, all-time All-America tackle; Deacon Dan Towler, who went on to a great pro career with Los Angeles; Tackle Russ Stein, who starred on W & J's 1922 Rose Bowl team; and Johnny Spiegel, halfback who led the nation in scoring in 1913.W & J produced the first black quarterback to play in the Rose Bowl, Dr. Charles "Pruner" West. This book has the entire Pruner story -- Washington and Lee refused to play the Presidents if Pruner played. The W & J players elected not to play if Pruner did not. The game was called off. In "Battling..." you'll also read about two of the strangest plays in football history, the nasty words WVU adherents used for Pruner West, and W & J's return to grid prominence in the 1990s after decades in the doldrums.

Lee North has done a superb job of recording the early history of football... the first team to wear numbers, the first indoor game, the first college powerhouses and their now famous coaches. Nicely illustrated and laid out. A must for all football enthusiasts!