Foul Football

The Knowledge

by Michael Coleman

From the first mad matches with a pig's bladder to the faithful fans and cracking competitions of the 21st century, this guide aims to give the reader the score on topics such as the foolish team who played in their Y-fronts or the fearsome goalie who dangled the opposing team by the ankles.

Genres: Nonfiction, Childrens, Football, 20th Century, Sports

144 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1997

About the author

Coleman was born in Forest Gate, a suburb in east London. Not long after he was born, his family moved a few miles east to Barking. At the time of his arrival, the area was just starting to recover from the damage it had received during World War II. He lived in a house on Bevan Avenue, named after Aneurin Bevan the architect of the National Health Service. He lived in that estate for 20 years. The area helped develop Coleman's love of sport due to the oblong shaped lanes of grass leading up the estate, which could be used as mini-stadiums. He pretended to play at various sporting events of the time, e.g. the Melbourne Olympics of 1956, the soccer Cup Final at Wembley Stadium, and the games at Lords Cricket ground. He still has medals he won for being school champion in the 100m sprint and the long jump. As said by Coleman himself "My information series Foul Football tries to convey some of the magic I felt about the game of soccer by relating the weird and wonderful history of the game and the personalities it has seen over the years. On the fiction side, my series about a junior soccer team called Angels FC tries to bring out the humour and sheer fun that you’ll find at the heart of the game when it’s played by youngsters who don’t even know how to spell the word cynicism." Coleman had his first children’s book published when he was 46 years of age. He has also said: "I didn't [want to become a writer] at first. I used to teach computer science at a university and my first book was a boring one about computers. I livened it up by putting a few jokes in. At the end I thought I'd try writing a few more things, but this time forgetting about the computers and concentrating on the jokes. After lots of failures I realised that youngsters enjoy jokes more than adults and started writing for them. Eighty books later, I'm still doing it...I write both fact and fiction. The Foul Football series are favourite fact books, simply because they're about football. On the fiction side, I'm just finishing a trilogy called The Bearkingdom. They're dark and scary, quite different to anything I've written before."

Reviews

[Stephen Coleman · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a 10 year old boy, this book gave me the strongest foundation to learning about football that I could've asked for.

[Clara Ventura · Rating 5 out of 5]

O LIVRO TEM MUITOS QUESTIONARIOS QUE SAO GIROS PORQUE A RESPODTA SO SE VE QUANDO SE VIRA O LIVRO AO CONTRARIO!

[Sophie Crane · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you have read his other titles e.g. from the TOP TEN series of books, you will be aware of the way in which MICHAEL COLEMAN puts knowledge across, in a humorous way. This book is no exception.

A colourful, witty cover opens to 143 pages, split over chapters:

1. Introduction
2. Foul football
3. Foul footballers
4. Foul football clubs
5. Foul football competitions
6. Foul foreign football
7. Foul football managers
8. Foul referees
9. Foul fans

'Are you a foul footballer? Of course you aren't otherwise you'd be kicking this book instead of reading it!
No, I bet you're somebody who simply enjoys playing the best, the most exciting game in the world.
So, what do you like best about playing football?
* scoring loads of great goals?
* getting in plenty of terrific tackles?
* scaring the other team with some dreamy dribbling (not the messy sort)?
* walloping fearsome free kicks?
* being stamped on, beaten up and generally hacked to bits?

Well, unless you enjoy playing against really foul teams (a team of teachers, for instance) then you probably didn't choose the last option!............. Of course this doesn't mean that you won't meet some pretty foul footballers in this book.
You certainly will!....

So start reading ...but if you're reading in class, watch out for your teacher.
You don't want to get fouled!'

[Aidan Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book tells about football when it started in 1870 till the present and how foul football is.....

[Linn Htet · Rating 5 out of 5]

I got some knowledge about English football thanks to this book!! It's also worth spending my time on it.