Football, the People's Shame: How to Revolutionise a National Sport

by Micky Kerr

Asks what has happened to English football and how we can launch a revolution amongst English fandom in order not just to take back control of the game, but invent new ways our society and economy can work in the interest of the people again.

Despite thirty plus years of rampant commercialization and marketization, football and football clubs remain central to many sources of solidarity, civic engagement and national and international pride. This book explores the history of the people’s game, looks at how it has become less and less the province of the people and more and more the plaything of oligarchs, billionaires and commercial interests, and explains why and how we need to take it back.

Football's importance not just to local communities but to local and national economies is used as the jumping-off point to argue for a new economic model for the sport, one based on the idea of the public-commons partnership. These partnerships and the reorganising of production around them offer a theoretically grounded and fully worked through alternative to current models and propose an entirely different set of relationships between citizens, the state and each other, one more in keeping with the principles that underly the traditions from which football and its deeply felt and lived allegiances belong.

As neoliberalism continues to exploit English fandom’s love for the game, loading up clubs with debt, hiking ticket and shirt prices, blasting them with adverts and exposing them to unscrupulous gambling companies, Football, the People's Shame seeks to be a clarion call to the fans to break out of their passivity and fatalism and begin to demand something new, offering a workable set of progressive alternatives while also daring to dream big about a complete transformation of the current depressing reality. Football is more than just a sport. It’s a way of life, a vital social, political and economic dynamo and fan’s deep and abiding passion for the game can and should become the engine through which society is reorganised.

Genres: Nonfiction

228 pages, Kindle Edition

Published December 3, 2024

Reviews

[Brayden Raymond · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think this book certainly has its moments. The author is right about a lot in theory but with my education background there is certainly a lack of numbers and other breakdowns of the "how" to back some of it up. I'm sure with time the author could create an even more comprehensive outlook on this. Though credit for trying nonetheless and producing numbers that they could. I think 3 stars is fitting only because I think there was room for the author to include more case studies on successful clubs that are fan owned and operated and there was certainly room to discuss the drawbacks of the MLS style system which was notably absent.

[Isaac Wade · Rating 4 out of 5]

Seems like pie in the sky stuff until backed up with examples of the radical ideas in action elsewhere. The best example of this is the chapter on creating a public gambling company; something that seems mad until it's pointed out that Finland and Norway have exactly that and so did the UK (!) until new labour came in. Football is an interesting little case study in the moving of the Overton window since the 80's and neoliberalism's spread

[Callum Law · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was recommended a podcast the author was on before the release of the book and due to the way he talks and expresses his passion on the topic I gave the book a go.

I did enjoy the way the book is written, it is clearly thought out and researched but can still recognise the passion and interest in the text. Absolutely agree with the premise and ideology behind the book regarding the state of the sport in England and change is required to ensure it remains 'the people's game'. However, I don't see it happening anytime soon and I think that's why the book is thought provoking, it offers some belief, a spark, an idea that does bring football back to the people.

Beyond the initial belief and imagination of what football would be like if it was revolutionised and nationalised in the country, I just can't picture a way in which it happens. The author mentions recent governmental projects that have cost the nation billions, like track and trace and HS2 as examples of affordability, but these projects despite their ridiculous funding were also failures. So how could you trust a government to one, nationalise the sport, two, govern and fairly regulate it, and three why would they do it to football when they haven't nationalised the energy sector or public transport?

On top of this, the change in football governance and regulation in Britain requires protest and unification of football fans in the country which is rare as it is. However you can see this growing as we have recently seen fans of Manchester United and Everton but also Manchester city and Liverpool unite over rising ticket prices for match going fans. Contrastingly, the efforts from these sets of fans didn't gain the traction they deserved in the media as this wouldn't bring in as much attention as potential transfer sagas or what a player was up to at the weekend which is a part of the current problem.

The book as a whole is great and is worth the read, even if you are sceptical about the end result being achievable, it will at least get you thinking of what this change could look like. I don't disagree with the author and his aims and proposed course of action to achieve mass change within the sport, I just don't see it happening in the near future due to the numerous cogs required to be aligned all at the same time.

[Andy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wanted to really like this book. I like Micky, he comes across as a decent bloke whenever I've heard him. But it's a book that goes a bit overboard. We start with "the German 50+1 model and the MLS' salary cap are good ideas" then suddenly we're on to nationalised breweries and the government buying Manchester City.

Heart's in the right place. And I guess if you're gonna call for change, go big. But it all got a bit much for me.

Maybe he's right and I'm just too small-minded/embedded in the system to see it.

[Steven Vinnicombe · Rating 5 out of 5]

An interesting insightful informative read about reclaiming English football for the fans .
A well researched study of ways for all fans to get back clubs and make them more viable without relying on foreign millionaires .

[Tbrowne · Rating 5 out of 5]

Interesting book would love to see a move towards this idea.

[Stefan Persson · Rating 1 out of 5]

super generic...what do you want to say with this book mr author? nothing new is being presented. don't waste your time if you're contemplating reading this one.