The Football Business English Football in the 90's

by David Conn

In eight years English football has been transformed. In 1989 clubs were banned from Europe and the Hillsborough disaster exposed football's crumbling grounds. Today football is cleaned up and is also big business. Since the Taylor report forced English clubs to spend

Genres: Football, Soccer, Sports, Nonfiction

304 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1997

Reviews

[Jonny Brick · Rating 4 out of 5]

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 · Rating 3 out of 5]

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.