The Beautiful Game? Searching for the Soul of Football

by Consultant Anaesthetist David Conn

Football is at the heart of British culture – yet never has it been in greater turmoil.

Once, football stood for passion, community, honour, even beauty. The game is in danger of losing its lifeblood - and its soul.

In The Beautiful Game? 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. 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.

‘For a fascinating insight into the causes, and the creators, of the game's ills this is a superbly told tale’ Independent

Genres: Football, Sports, Soccer, Nonfiction

410 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2004

Reviews

[Nick Grammos · Rating 5 out of 5]

Once you read this book, your enjoyment of the game will never quite be the same, but tempered by an ugly side where people's love and passion is easily exploited by owners and speculators.

I mean, I still love the game, but I can no longer see it for the innocent joy it brings to children like those I have coached. Even at amateur junior level, I saw the way presidents of clubs manipulated funds to get their senior mens teams promoted, buying players, dirty deals to pay a top striker etc. I've see the way teenage kids from public housing are duped into thinking the game is their meal ticket and become exploited by the same ruthless presidents. Imagine this scenario with real money, one-eyed, doe-eyed fans who love their club and dream about it's glory days returning getting screwed by a ruthless owner who forces the 'club' to rent the ground from him for exorbitant rates and pay him many times what he's worth as a general manager. Then decamping and leaving the club saddled with debt and an uncertain future.

Passion vs profit, if only clubs were owned by their members, and that were law. Then it would be worth believing in football again.

[Martin Rouchmann · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a book for everybody who have a real interest in football and what mechanics, economical and emotional, that drives people to the beautiful game.

If anybody thought that rich people's interest in football started with the oligarchs and sheiks this book proves them wrong. Rich people have always invested in football, some because they thought it was a good investment, others for the love of the game. Unfortunately most of them failed and drove the clubs into economical despair.

The book is a warmhearted ode to the small clubs and their supporters, and a big shout out to the people who Conn feels are ruining football with their money and debt.

I'm curious though, Conn is Man City fan, my copy of the book is from 2005, so before the sheik entered City. How is Conn's feeling about the current championship (2011/12) did he celebrate or mourn? Does he feel that this is a victory of his City or a loss for the beautiful game?

[Richard O'Brien · Rating 4 out of 5]

Top read which covers a selection of chapters which aim to show the current plight (as of 2005) of English football & how some of the happenings in todays game can be put into perspective with incidents from the past.
The chapters bearing the connections between Glossop NE and Arsenal where quite enlighting & the ones concerning Sheffield Wednesday & Mr. Richards shed no light as to what I already knew about very own club.
But also a great read about clubs I knew little about like York City, Bury and AFC Wimbledon.
Prahaps Sepp Blatter should read this following his 'slave' comment!

[Steve Chilton · Rating 4 out of 5]

A brilliant, but ultimately depressing, dissection of the changes that have happened in football. It makes you wonder if the Football Association are fit to be the governing body of the sport. The success of Wimbledon brighten the story as does Conn’s excellent analysis of supporter buyouts of clubs.

[Gregg · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent but worrying for any real football fan

[Matt Riley · Rating 5 out of 5]

David Conn eloquently and effectively analyses why we are hopelessly in love with football, despite it being commodified, monetised and separated out from the common stock of everyday experiences. Conn is emotionally engaged, consistently enraged and curiously compassionate with the plight of ‘legacy fans’ being treated as commodities.
This is the quote that stood out for me:
‘The worrying upshot for the professional clubs is that they have always relied on the irrationally stubborn loyalty of fans, prepared to keep coming despite all the ignominy, expense and disappointment heaped upon them, but now the clubs are pricing out the next generation’.
He spotlights the paradox of an emotionally charged, community-based love for our local club that is often, especially at the top table, more of a backchanneling, soft power nation-state vehicle for global influence and profile. With a guiding hand, he walks us through the way football creates dark deeds that are evened out by passionate support for clubs we pass down as heirlooms through our generations.
Despite his well-founded concerns, the penultimate chapter hopes for, ‘A Positive future.’ He left me feeling that, with the march of time, the greedy will eventually die off and be replaced by those who are ruled by the heart, not the head. Let’s hope. For all our sakes, he is right.

[Alexander Bancroft · Rating 5 out of 5]

A must read in the wake of the European Super League. Written in 2003-04, Conn charts the long history of the big clubs taking any and every opportunity to seek more revenue. It makes for sobering reading as an Arsenal supporter, and that is well before Stan Kroenke. There are many interesting chapters about lesser known clubs (Glossop North end a must read) that have battled for survival while the Premier League shares just 5% fo their revenues, which used to be 50% before the 1992 breakaway. Any football supporter should read this book.

[Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book covers a wide-range of topics, but focusses mainly on the financial implications of the Premier League era. The author chooses to cover all levels of football in the UK, giving attention to clubs that are normally not covered in the mainstream media. The book is over 15 years old now, but still keeps its relevance today.

[Jonny Brick · Rating 5 out of 5]

The question mark is crucial here. A gallery of rogues, each worse than the last, who suck the joy out of football. It must all be true or such men would have sued.

[cjtoine · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tears in my eyes

[Jak · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked and hated this book in equal measure. I liked it because it’s a well written expose on the mismanagement, duplicity, foolishness and out right corruption of how badly football and it’s individual clubs are governed. But having my cynical worst fears confirmed was saddening and made my blood boil.

This book is a must for any true footie fan.

[Sean · Rating 4 out of 5]

I didn't truly understand the incompetence of the game's governing bodies, the greed of the clubs' shareholders, or more encouragingly, the love (and sheer bloody mindedness) of football supporters up and down the country until I had read this book.

[Tim Evans · Rating 5 out of 5]

A must for any football fans. Covers all the disgraces from the formation of the Premier League, MK Dons, York, Bury, Hillsborough and, of course, the Woolwich Wanderers move up north. Conn is a god.

[Simon · Rating 2 out of 5]

It had some slow parts, and went over a lot of what I read in Broken Dreams about how the Premier League is ruining football in England. I liked when he went into depth on a few clubs and how they were either ripped off by a rich jerk or run well.

[Richard · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great insight into the murky world of football. If you like football, read it.

[Ben Hathaway · Rating 3 out of 5]

a must-read for any football fan.