The Football Business: Fair Game in the '90s?

by David Conn, David Conn

In The Football Business , David Conn examines the changed game of football in the '90s and analyses the transformations of clubs such as Manchester United, Newcastle United, Tottenham Hotspur and others into stockmarket money-making machines. Why have so many top football clubs been taken over by businessmen? What have the changes meant to supporters? Why, with football enjoying phenomenal new wealth, are some Nationwide League clubs facing financial ruin? This book searches behind English football's hype to ask what has really happened, what has been gained, and what has been lost as football has ceased to be a game and become a business.

Genres: Football, Soccer, Sports, Nonfiction

308 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1997

Reviews

[Jonny Brick]

The question mark is crucial. A very good bridge between football as it was (shared gate receipts, honest chairmen) and today (rapacious hypercapitalism).

[Peter K]

An interesting look back to the late 1990s is provided by this book written by one of the finest journalists with an insight to the workings of British football clubs.

This book published approximately five years after the conception of the Premier League and some fifteen years ago is remarkably prescient in many ways, describing the increasing separation of haves and have nots and the effect this has had on the grass roots game.

Where the author was less prescient was in predicting a greater preponderance of market flotations amongst the clubs rather than the prevailing increase of private takeovers by hugely wealthy individuals.

A wise and caring book that suffers a little from the repetition of points in slightly different ways, this is nonetheless a passionate book from an author with a deeply held connection to the game of football.