Soccer and Soceity Book Review 2008

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Kingshuk Chatterjee a; Kevin Pocklington b; Graham Curry c; Anirban Mukherjee d; Somshankar Ray e;Chad Carlson f; Binoda K. Mishra a; John Gleaves f; Matthew P. Llewellyn f; Kausik Bandyopadhyay a;

Graham Curry c

a Maulana Abul Kalam Azad Institute of Asian Studies, Kolkata b Napier University, c Head of Physical

Education, Tuxford School, Nottinghamshire d University of Reading, e Vidyasagar College for Women,Kolkata f Pennsylvania State University,

Chatterjee, Kingshuk, Pocklington, Kevin, Curry, Graham, Mukherjee, Anirban, Ray, Somshankar,Carlson, Chad, Mishra, Binoda K., Gleaves, John, Llewellyn, Matthew P., Bandyopadhyay, Kausik and Curry,Graham(2008) 'Book reviews', Soccer & Society, 9: 4, 564 587

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Soccer & Society

Vol. 9, No. 4, October 2008, 564587

ISSN 1466-0970 print/ISSN 1743-9590 online

DOI: 10.1080/14660970802257655

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Book reviews

TaylorandFrancisFSAS_A_325932.sgm10.1080/14660970802257655SoccerandSociety1466-0970(print)/1743-9590(online)BookReviews2008Taylor&[email protected]

Above Us Only Sky: Liverpool FCs Global Revolution, by Paul Tomkins, Leicester:Anchor Print Group, 2007, 170 pp., 12.99, ISBN 978 0 9556367 0 7.

Make no mistake, Paul Tomkins is a Liverpool FC enthusiast and he wants you to know it.Regardless of how the club might fare, he does not, cannot or would not see anythingbetween the club and the heavens. Accordingly, the book gives you an assessment which isshort on objectivity, but Tomkins carries it off in style.

The book deals with Liverpool FC in 2007, telling the story of the clubs third season

under its Spanish coach Raphael Benitez, its change of ownership and its transformationfrom a relatively traditional English/European club to a major player in the global footballrevolution. Unlike most other books on football, it is written from the perspective of neitherthe man on the field, nor the one off it. Tomkins, an ex-semi-pro footballer is impressivewith his understanding the inner mechanics of not simply the game but also how clubs arerun, the problems they face, and how such problems tend to get resolved.

If you are not a Liverpool fan, for the better part of the book you might be excused forthinking why am I reading this? It frequently reads like and for all practical purposes is a cult book where the author communicates with his readers through a series of allusionsto footballers and club officials that are completely impenetrable if you are not a Red. The

cultish character of the writing is further reinforced by the fact that Tomkins assumes all hisreaders are fully conversant with the clubs activities since the 1960s. Abstruse referencesto individual players, managers and club officials which club enthusiasts are likely to befamiliar with might leave the uninitiated yawning. In fact, at a pinch I would furtherventure that Liverpool enthusiasts who came in later would be as much at a loss as anyoneelse for references before their time.

If, however, you are willing and able to stifle that excusable yawn, and wade throughsuch club-centric allusions, this book is worth reading principally for two reasons. First,Tomkins discussion about the transfer of ownership of the club from the chairman DavidMoores to the American millionaires George Gillett and Tom Hicks addresses many of thequestions that arise whenever such acquisitions take place. For instance: how do you set theprice for a club? Do club officials and stake-holders consider the transaction simply as abusiness phenomenon, or is there more to it? Does a change in the ownership of the clubnecessarily involve a change to the team or the manner in which the game is played?Second, if you take Liverpool FC in the year 2007 as a case study, the phenomenon of theglobalization of club football becomes intelligible, especially in terms of the key questionof how and why local football clubs develop trans-local profiles. Once the appeal of suchclubs stretches outside the locality of origin, is there necessarily a change in its identity?

Tomkins account of the acquisition of Liverpool FC is quite exhaustive, to the point ofexplaining why the American duo were supposedly a better choice despite having no back-ground in football. Tomkins asserts that money alone was not the consideration in favouring

Gillett and Hicks over the Dubai International Corporation when the club was being sold.His argument that the millionaire duo were preferred over the DIC because of their proven


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Soccer & Society 565

experience of running sporting clubs in America indicates the range of non-commercialdecisions that have to be factored in any transfer of ownership. Tomkins argues that the newowners justified this faith by trying to dislodge neither the players, nor the coach and hissporting strategy assuring the club and its supporters that the element of continuity on thefield would remain undisturbed.1 Such continuities frequently tend to be ignored in thesporting world, causing considerable annoyance to the supporters and players alike whenan outgoing management carries in its wake a departing coach followed quite often byunmitigated disaster on the field. Tomkins further points out that Gillett and Hicks not onlycontinued with decisions of previous management but actually improved upon these. Tobear this out, he cites the issue of the rebuilding of the Anfield Stadium, which Gillett andHicks attended to in a manner that not only conformed to the proposals of the outgoingmanagement but actually improved upon these by providing for future expansion as well.

The subtle point that Tomkins makes in this connection is that, by maintaining suchcontinuities, change of ownership does not alienate old loyalists, especially supporters. Theidentity of a club is frequently tied to particular peripherals the club jersey, the club

colours, the home stadium/playground, the club mascot, etc. Any dramatic alteration of anyof these emotive factors affects supporter sentiments and Tomkins is quite clear: withoutthe supporters, the club is as nothing.

It is in this context of what Tomkins understands as central to the existence of thephenomenon of club football that his approach to the issue of its globalization becomessignificant. He contends that management of the Liverpool FC has been effectively revolu-tionized by the Gillett-Hicks management with their taking the club beyond its normal orbitsof British and European football circuit. As Liverpool matches begin to be broadcast acrosscontinents, familiarity with, and enthusiasm about, the club and its stalwarts grew courtesyof global media, creating a global clientele for the club. While Tomkins appears perfectly

reconciled to the fact that club football is going global, and welcomes the emergence of aglobal community of club enthusiasts that is not confined to a locality or community, hebelieves that there should be no similar globalization of players. A Liverpool club with noplayer from Liverpool would not be much of a Liverpool team, would it?

A look at the jacket of the book tells the reader immediately that almost all of the praisefor the book has come from Liverpool fans, who have simply lapped up this cultish offering.It is a pity that Tomkins chose only one club and its performance in only one particularseason to raise a few very pertinent questions that have bearing not only on football in thetwenty-first century but virtually all forms of sport packaged as a spectacle. The cultish toneof the book would possibly restrict the readership of the book to a select band of Reds.

This is a pity because the broader questions he raises deserves a larger readership.

Notes

1. Of course, this is ironic considering disputes between Liverpools owners and its team managerduring the 200708 football season.

Kingshuk Chatterjee 2008Maulana Abul Kalam Azad Institute of Asian Studies, Kolkata


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566 Book reviews

Bobby Charlton, The Autobiography: My Manchester United Years (London: Headline,2007). Pp.388, 82 photographs, index. 20.00. ISBN 978 0 7553 1619 9.

This first volume of Bobby Charltons autobiography, based on his formative years andclub career, is an entertaining account which is ably ghosted by James Lawton of theIndependent. However, this collaboration (Lawton started his writing career as a reporter atOld Trafford), in combination with a commercial publisher, does result in a somewhatconservative product. While this was to be expected, there was the potential to provide morebite, particularly in terms of Charltons problematic relationships with family andcolleagues. The second volume, due to be published in 2008, and based on CharltonsEngland career, is one suspects likely to be written in a similarly restrained manner.

Bobby Charlton was born in the mining town of Ashington in Northumberland in 1937,the younger brother of Jack, and son of Robert and Cissie. InMy Manchester United Yearshe chooses to present little more than an impression of his childhood years, which inevitablybecame dominated by football. The disinterest shown by his father in Bobbys footballing

skills was offset by encouragement from his mother Cissie, competition from Jack andthe presence of his second cousin Jackie Milburn, one of the north-easts greatest footballheroes. Milburn was an inspirational character for Bobby, both through the example heprovided on the pitch and the encouragement he provided off it. Ironically, Milburnpersuaded Bobby that Newcastle Uniteds lack of investment in its playing staff should betaken into account when Charlton was considering his professional future. Despite interestfrom a number of clubs in signing him as a schoolboy, nobody could compete with theallure of Manchester United and Bobby has remained totally committed to the club sincesigning as a schoolboy.

Underlying these early years is Charltons supreme confidence and single-mindedness.

He knew he was good enough for professional football and that he had the potential to makean impact on a large stage. On joining United, two individuals had a significant impact onthe growth of Charlton as player and person. Matt Busby (The Old Man) signed Bobbyand nurtured him as a player through the ranks until he made his first team debut in late1956, scoring twice against Charlton Athletic. Charltons high regard for Matt Busby as amanager is interesting yet remains strangely unsubstantiated. Busby appears a somewhatdistant, elusive character, whose managerial skills seem largely intangible, based on moti-vational, rather than tactical nous. Charlton also fails to account for Busbys post-1968decline as a manager, and in particular his inability to tame the wild George Best, whichultimately would have a devastating impact on the club in the early 1970s. The other key

figure in Charltons early career was Duncan Edwards, who was a welcoming presencewhen Charlton joined United and was viewed by him as the greatest and most inspirationalindividual he ever played alongside.

Driven largely by Busby and Edwards as a joint motivational force, and already recog-nized as being a key part of the Busby Babes in the late 1950s, Charltons professionalcareer was almost over within two years of starting. The Munich disaster in 1958 occurredafter United had played Red Star Belgrade in a bruising European Cup encounter in theSerbian capital. The book captures the crash and its aftermath in all its eeriness and the trailof misery left behind, including the loss of Edwards. Following the crash, Charltonexpresses deep feelings of guilt and undergoes a period of introspection before resuming hiscareer in an emotional match at Old Trafford against West Bromich Albion. This introspec-tion and a tendency to distance himself from people is reflected in his public persona;Charlton is often perceived and criticized for being aloof and impatient by colleagues andfans in particular. Following Munich, his relationship with his wife Norma becomes the


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pivotal one in his life, and there are resultant difficulties with Jack and Cissie, well docu-mented in Leo McKinstrysJack and Bobby and addressed in a fairly perfunctory mannerhere by Charlton.

Gradually, Charlton becomes a key figure in Busbys rebuilding process in the 1960s,culminating in Division 1 Championships in 1965 and 1967, and the coveted European Cupin 1968. Driving Uniteds attacking force during this era was Charlton with support fromthe outrageously talented Best and Scottish goal machine Denis Law. The high level ofperformance, electric atmosphere and charged emotions of the night at Wembley on 29 May1968 is represented well here, though Charlton was unable to join his teammates in the post-match exuberance having fainted and spent much of the night alone in a hotel bedroom, thevictim of emotional overload.

Such behaviour was unlikely to endear him to his nemesis George Best, a ghostly figurethroughout the book, with whom Charlton had a somewhat testy relationship. Best was themore talented player but in Charltons eye was unprofessional, egotistical and embroiled in1960s pop culture. Their differences were never really resolved up until Bests death when

Charlton begrudgingly acknowledges the formers illness and the tragic impact this had onhis career and life. Charlton and his ghost writer could have been braver here by buildingon the material surrounding this fascinating relationship to discuss their differences in moredepth, the attitudes of other team mates and the impact on dressing room dynamics and teammorale.

Charltons career at United limped on until 1973 when he joined Preston North Endinitially as manager, then player manager with little success. He played for Waterford Townin 197576 before retiring, and at the beginning of the 1980s had a short spell as caretakermanager of Wigan Athletic. These years are covered with little enthusiasm by Charlton(understandably so) suggesting that the book may have been better ending with his depar-

ture from Old Trafford as a player and re-joining as a director in 1984. Overall, this is acompetently assembled product aimed at the mass market but will be a disappointment tothe reader looking for insights into what made United tick in the Charlton heyday. Likemany football biographies, there is a tendency to emphasis the technical virtues of team-mates, opponents and management without really presenting an understanding of importantinterrelationships on or off the pitch.

Disappointed readers can find a fair volume of insightful material on Bobby Charltonand the culture surrounding Manchester United from many other sources, yet it is morelikely that this autobiography will satisfy the majority of consumers. The soon to bepublished second volume, based on Charltons international career, provides an opportunity

to address the shortcomings ofMy Manchester United Years: however, bringing the twotogether in a single and comprehensive tome may well have proved a more satisfactoryrepresentation of what was a remarkable playing career.

Kevin Pocklington 2008Napier University

From Sheffield with Love: Celebrating 150 years of Sheffield FC, the Worlds Oldest

Football Club, by Brendan Murphy, Cheltenham: Sports Books, 2007, 224 pp., 24 photo-graphs, 8.99 (paperback), ISBN 978 1 899807 56 7.

One might have thought that the 150th anniversary of Sheffield FC, the oldest football club,would have produced a plethora of books on the subject. However, as far as I am aware,


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568 Book reviews

Brendan Murphys offering together with the official history1 are the only texts to appear.Murphys contribution is an honourable attempt to tackle a complicated subject from theother side of the world. The book is largely dependent on secondary sources though doesnot suffer to the extent that it becomes erroneous. Unfortunately, the author appears unde-cided as to whether to cover the anniversary or write a history of the game in the city duringthe mid-to-late Victorian period. Consequently both the title and parts of the text tend to bemisleading and only indirectly relevant, though generally the facts and arguments presentedare both varied and, at times, original. Taken as a history of Sheffield football with asprinkling of the games general development it is an excellent read and only rarelycommits any glaring mistakes. The authors Australian connections lead him to enter intoseveral indulgences attempting to draw somewhat tenuous antipodean connections, but evenhere his noting of a possible link between the Creswick family Nathaniel was a co-founderof Sheffield FC and the early development of Aussie Rules football appear thought-provoking and quite feasible (p.39). Though he attempts a connection between the Sheffieldand Australian Rules, I find myself in disagreement over his basic premise with regard to

this particular aspect of football history, as, with two ex-Cambridge undergraduates andone ex-rugby man on the framing committee, the Australian game was always morelikely to resemble those codes. As someone who finds himself estranged, presumablyvoluntarily, from his home city of Sheffield, Murphy maintains close links with, and retainsconsiderable enthusiasm for, his roots and the game of soccer in general. This admirablefervour is a recurring theme throughout the book and it is difficult not to empathize withsuch passion.

It is comforting to know that Murphy is acquainted with the first Cambridge rules of183942, something more experienced football historians frequently omit. However, hefails to mention those of 1846 and mixes up De Wintons and Thrings involvement. In fact

they were instrumental with those laws of 1846, whilst it was HC Malden and others whoinstigated the rules of 1848 (p.29). However, in gleaning other information he seems tohave been an assiduous employer of the internet which I continue to be suspicious of as anacademic tool. I think any data gained should be only suggestive rather than seen as whollyfactual. I say this for two reasons. Murphy, with his problem of tyranny of distance hasnot only relied heavily on secondary sources but also on Andrew Drakes internet site,The Owl.2 My only brushes with Drakes site have been negative. In particular, cross-referencing with newspaper reports has, on two occasions, proved Drake incorrect in termsof dates. Secondly, in recent written debate in Sport in History3 Tony Collins seriouslyweakens his already dubious argument by relying on information from an internet site on

football.Despite his best efforts Murphy appears to have made an unfortunate though under-standable error on the front cover. The photograph of a team group is noted as being bycourtesy of Sheffield FC and believed to have been taken in 1855. Indeed, it was firstproposed as the earliest picture of a football team by Denzil Batchelor in his bookSoccer:A History of Association Football.4 It was also the centre of an important newspaper articleof the same year by Richard Sparling, sports editor of the Sheffield Telegraph and writer ofan early history of Sheffield football, where he discussed its veracity.5 Murphy will rightlyclaim that Sheffield FC regularly make use of the photograph on their website and in othervarious forms of communication, but this does not eradicate the lack of depth in his knowl-edge. A deeper comprehension of football history would have indicated that this is almostcertainly nota Sheffield FC team. The gentleman fourth from the left on the back row canonly be Charles W. Alcock acting as an administrator following the end of his playingdays whilst the bearded player seated on the left of the front row looks suspiciously like


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Lord Kinnaird. Kinnaird was unlikely to have appeared in any photograph taken in 1855, ashe would only have been 8 years old at the time. Furthermore, the London FA representativeteam generally used white shirts as opposed to the red shirt of their Sheffield adversaries.Additionally the badge on the left chest of three players in the photograph seems to be thered cross of the city of London.

Murphy is also incorrect to state that the Scottish international Peter Andrews, who hadmoved to Sheffield via Leeds because of work commitments, only represented the SheffieldFA once (p.109). From November 1876 to March 1877 he played no less than seven timesagainst the likes of Manchester, North Wales, London, Birmingham and even, in February1877, against Glasgow, his former association.

Whilst Sheffields contribution to the development of football has been largely under-stated until quite recently, Adrian Harvey6 and now Brendan Murphy have placed too muchstress on the importance of the Sheffield football communitys influence on the nationalpicture. In a word their support for the citys impact on the games development has gone alittle too far. Indeed, although Sheffielders supported the Football Association (FA) in that

bodys time of need, the formers status was never likely to exceed that of devoted allyrather than leader in the organization of the game on a national basis. Hypothesis andassumption undoubtedly have their place but the FA didsurvive and prosper, remainingin its role as governing body to this day. A more detached view would surely diminishSheffields impact though at the same time accepting that, at some point, the influence offootballers from that city was considerable. Murphy further over-romanticizes the citysgeneral sporting importance. Indeed, other cities might also lay claim to be Englands sport-ing capital with Nottingham claiming an ice stadium, Torvill and Dean, racecourse, Testcricket venue, European Cup winners and a National Sports Centre.

The book could not succeed simply because of Murphys enthusiasm. What he

achieves is a furtherance of our understanding of football in the nineteenth century. Heprovides some new information including a previously unseen image of J.C. Cleggprovided by Tony Beardshaw, Cleggs great-great-nephew. He also draws together exist-ing knowledge and, in a way that other Sheffield football historians never accomplish,delves deep into the mid-Victorian footballing society of Sheffield. He can further becredited with successfully analysing a footballing sub-culture, Sheffield, before writingcredibly about the national picture a feat in itself. His asides add to the story rather thandetracting from it. His pleasing digressions on the Sheffield murderer Charlie Peace(pp.11112) he was defended by William Clegg and his expansion of the story of thetheatre impresario Thomas Youdan (Chapter Five) he donated the trophy for the first

football competition provide the reader with a more rounded picture of city life.However, there are several chapters which could usefully have been included with others.For instance, Chapters Ten and Six are but six pages long whilst Chapter Fourteenamounts to only three sides.

In short, though reliant on secondary sources, he has done the hard graft of a social histo-rian and related events empirically from afar both geographically and historically. Thebook is therefore well researched and Murphy has consulted most of the obvious sourcesthough one omission from his bibliography is Richard Sparlings Romance of theWednesday. Additionally I would have preferred many more references and footnotesthough the author does stress that this by no means a fully academic text.

In conclusion I still find myself disagreeing with some of Murphys thrusts in the bookbut this is only really in terms of hypothesizing. But after reading the book one can onlyconclude that it provides an enjoyable experience and adds to our knowledge in a pleasantand informative way. I would heartily recommend it.


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570 Book reviews

Notes

1. Curry, Goodman and Hutton, Sheffield Football Club.2. www.btinternet.com/a.drake/index.htm.3. Collins, History, Theory and the Civilizing Process.4. Batchelor, Soccer.

5. Sheffield Telegraph, 29 September 1954.6. Harvey, An Epoch in the Annals of National Sport.

References

Batchelor, Denzil. Soccer: A History of Association Football (British Sports Past and PresentSeries). London: Batsford, 1954.

Collins, Tony. History, Theory and the Civilizing Process. Sport in History 25, no. 2 (August2005): 289306.

Curry, Graham, Peter Goodman, and Steve Hutton. Sheffield Football Club: 150 Years of Football.Manchester: At Heart Publications, 2007.

Harvey, Adrian. An Epoch in the Annals of National Sport: Football in Sheffield and the

Creation of Modern Soccer and Rugby. International Journal of the History of Sport 18, no. 4(2001): 5387.

Graham Curry 2008Head of Physical Education, Tuxford School, Nottinghamshire

British Asians and Football: Culture, Identity, Exclusion, by Daniel Burdsey, Londonand New York: Routledge, 2007, x + 185 pp., 24.99, Bibliography, Index, ISBN 978 0 41539500 7.

As per the 2001 census, out of around 59 million people in Britain, around two million areBritish Asians of South Asian origin hailing from India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. Yet thenumber of British Asians in professional football can be counted on a single hand. DanielBurdsey, inBritish Asians and Football: Culture, Identity and Exclusion, tries to unravelthe mystery behind such gross under representation of the British Asian community in oneof the most popular sports in Britain.

The book is a developed version of a doctoral thesis and is based on interviews with play-ers (amateur and professional), members of anti-racist football organizations and staff fromfootball academies, and observation of the on-the field and off-the field footballing cultureof British Asians. In doing so Burdsey seeks to give voice to the concerns from within the

community, trying to understand the problem in a bottom-up manner rather than force atheory top-down. This book also seeks to contribute towards an understanding of contem-porary manifestations of Asianness and the manner in which the identities and lifestylesof young British Asian men are articulated in the early twenty-first century. (p.7) Burdseyis aware of the possible pitfalls of a white middle-class male academic grasping the life expe-rience of a non-white ethnic minority community. He is also aware that it would be a mistaketo essentialize the British Asian experience as there is much diversity in terms of religion,class, lifestyle and so on within the community itself. In fact he points out that it is a commonmistake among media and the public to perceive British Asians as a homogenous group.

In the second chapter of the book, Burdsey investigates the popular explanations of theunder-representation of British Asians in professional football. One among them is thestereotyping of the British Asians as being physically inept to compete in manly sportslike football and rugby. The cultural explanations cited are those of the diet and religion ofthe British Asians. Their eating habits are perceived as somehow leading to their physical


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ineptitude. There is also the understanding that British Asian parents do not encouragetaking up or even thinking of taking up football as a career. However, Burdsey finds thatwhilst some may have had that attitude in the early years of migration, in recent generationsattitudes have changed and some of the British Asian players in their interviews cite parentalsupport as vital to their achievements.

Chapter Three deals head on with the aspect of racism in professional football and insubtle ways in British life in general. Here Burdsey argues that we need to shift the gazefrom seeing British Asians as problems to understanding the operations of the footballinginstitutions that construct and maintain racial inequality and disadvantage (p.40). Forexample, football stadia continue to be unfriendly and unwelcoming for ethnic minorities,thus discouraging them from regular spectatorship and consequently excluding them fromthe football-experience circuit. A British Asian is most likely to encounter first-handexperiences of racism in and around stadia. Also people connected with professional foot-ball often view themselves as non-racists and yet the consequences of their acts may beracist. Hence there is a reluctance to admit such kinds of everyday racism which results in

problems not being tackled.The author thinks that a numerically healthy British Asian amateur football culture has

been there since the 1950s and the 1960s. Thus it is not the case that British Asians are notinterested in the game or that they cannot play football. Yet they continue to be excludedfrom the game at the professional level. One of the reasons for this is that British Asiansusually play in football leagues exclusively for British Asian teams and talents scouts usuallydo not visit such events. Their playing in such exclusive leagues is again due to subtle andnot-so-subtle forms of racism displayed in league matches with white teams by the whitespectators as well as the players. Also growing up within ethnic minority communities theylack the essential contacts to guide them into a professional football career. Burdsey also

gives an interesting account of how the current Islamophobia after 9/11, 7/7 and the IraqWar affect the perceptions of Muslim British Asians and British Asians in general in theirdaily life as well as their inclusion/exclusion in football fraternity. Amusingly contradictoryto the phobia is the growing British taste forcurry andBollywood.

British Asian identity formation often involves an assimilation of varying ethnicitiesand an ability to showcase them in varied situations. Burdsey notes that British AsianProfessional Footballers tend to disguise their Asianness because they want to be identi-fied as a footballer and not as an Asian footballer. This is also because Asianness isperceived by them as a disadvantage and something that makes them the other within apredominantly white dominated field. Hence there is a tendency to put on a white mask.

This is again a display of how British Asians negotiate their identities depending on thesituation. Anglo Asians (where one parent is white) rather than British Asians have anadvantage in having a favourable socialization.

When England plays cricket with south Asian teams the English stadiums are full ofBritish Asians supporting their countries of origin with flags and placards, something whichBritish Conservative MP Norman Tebbit had reservations about in the 1990s. Diasporapopulations have always had a romantic and sensitive relation to their countries of origin.Burdsey explores this significant side of the British Asian identity in the fifth chapter. Bysupporting the national teams of erstwhile lands of origin, a feeling of communion withones roots is celebrated. However the case is very different in football where the teamsfrom the sub-continent are not that successful.

Trying to counter racism against British Asians in the football field and encourage theirparticipation in the professional level of the game is a recent phenomenon starting in 1996with the publication of Bain and PatelsAsians Cant Play Footballreport and the initiatives


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572 Book reviews

of Kick It Out. Burdsey situates the problems relating to football participation in the contextof the history of governmental approaches to inter race relations and the positioning of theethnic identities in Britain. In studying the recent efforts to support British Asian inclusionhe points out that they either try to work through local community leaders who do not them-selves communicate well at times with the younger generation or through the idea of install-ing British Asian Coaches who may not always be that well qualified for the job orsufficiently well connected to the recruitment procedures of professional football clubs,leading to low motivation for the players. Arranging matches with teams from the sub-continent has also not yielded any positive result. There is also a tendency to over glorifythe achievements of the few British Asians who have/had just entered the circuit and to focuson their Asianness which the players themselves express unhappiness about. ComparingMichael Chopra with Michael Owen seems too far-fetched and unfair to both. However,focusing on the few who have achieved some success, however minimal, and showed somepromise might not be a bad ploy. It may give confidence to the next generation of playersthat a Singh or a Patel is actually being written about in the sports page of the paper. It

may make a career in football conceivable for many, and out of that some may go beyondthe stature of the players talked about at the moment. Real achievements at times are guidedby a false sense of the possibility of those achievements.

Burdsey, quite rightly, concludes that, for British professional football to be more inclu-sive in the true sense, a lot of structural adjustment in the system is required. The individualswithin this system often operate along racial prejudices and stereotypes that excludecommunities like those of British Asians from the mainstream. Blind-eyeing of the footballmanagement to overt and covert forms of racism in and around the football stadia developsan undesired association in the imagination of the ethnic communities of football withhooliganism, racism, abusive language.

Burdseys work is a very well balanced portrayal of the British Asian experience withfootball in Britain and how that experience is related to the everyday environment in whichthey operate. Frequent quotes from the interviews with the British Asian Players as well ashis situating of his ideas within the wider discourse concerning British Asian experienceadds worth. In addition to its argumentative facet it is engaging as a text.

Anirban Mukherjee 2008University of Reading

In Search of an Identity: History of Football in Colonial Calcutta, by Soumen Mitra,Kolkata: Dasgupta, 2006, 120 pp., index, Rs.130, ISBN 81 8211 023 8.

Sobar Sera, Bangalir Khela tumi Football (of all sports, football is the Bengalis bestgame). This popular lyric sums up the fervent appeal of football among Bengalis people.The focus of Bengal soccer is the Kolkata Football League, dominated by three clubs,Mohun Bagan, Mohammedan Sporting and East Bengal. The League and other Kolkatatournaments like the Indian Football Association Shield have historically formed the battle-ground of differing ideologies associated with various clubs. For example, the dominanceof white populations in the colonial era was projected by the European army teams, whileMohun Bagan embodied the Indian aspiration for freedom. Mohammedan stood for theMuslim resurgence of the 1930s and East Bengal was the flaming torch of the neglectedpeople of eastern Bengal. Naturally, incidents concerning the Kolkata maidan (vast sportsground) have become a part of contemporary urban Bengali folklore, widely circulated


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through literature, films and songs. We can easily recall the novels of Mati Nandi likeStriker, StopperandFerari, with the moving song of Manna Dey, Khela, Football Khelaand the hilarious motion pictureDhanni Meye as ready examples. A good number of popu-lar works on Kolkata football have also been produced by Bengali sports writers.

Recently, discourse regarding Kolkata soccer has taken a more academic turn, and a fewscholarly treatises have been produced. These include, in the main, Soccer in South Asia:Empire, Nation, Diaspora, edited by Paul Dimeo and James Mills, andA Social History ofIndian Football: Striving to Score by Boria Majumdar and Kausik Bandyopadhyay.In Searchof Identity by Soumen Mitra, a senior bureaucrat, is a happy addition to this growing genre.The book attempts to explore the conjunction between the popularity of football in colonialCalcutta and the trajectories of indigenous nationalism, communalism and sub-regionalism.The book is divided into seven chapters, plus an introduction. In the introduction, Mitra makesa significant statement: Throughout its history, football in Calcutta was used as a symbolicmetaphor for various classes and categories of people Different categories identified itwith their own motives which were coloured by varying perceptions.

The first chapter traces the gradual transformation of the Bengali bhadralok (gentry)from loyal supporters of the British Raj to its vociferous critics in the late nineteenthcentury. By the 1880s the Bengali middle class had realized that the English were nevergoing to accept them as their equals and would always humiliate them on any pretext. TheBritish sense of racial superiority was driven home during the Ilbert Bill agitation and fromthere on an extremist tendency started growing among the bhadraloks. It was impossiblefor them to surpass the Europeans economically, or to challenge them openly in militarycontests, so the Bengali elite began thinking about beating the rulers in the sporting fieldand providing public proof of their physical prowess.

The second chapter deals with the adoption of football by the bhadraloks as an instru-

ment of competition with the British. In a metropolitan society, the English had used thegame of soccer to inculcate ideas of manliness, discipline and self-control amongst itsyoung citizens so that they could manage the empire better. In the colony, the indigenouselite also took up the sport to imbibe the same values in their youth. People like NagendraPrasad Sarbadhikari and Nagendranath Mallik played a leading part in this. Soon local clubsbegan to crop up: Shovabazar in 1884, National Club in 1885 and, of course, Mohun Baganin 1889. The governing body for Bengal football, the Indian Football Association (IFA) wasformed in 1893. This organization, however, along with tournaments like the IFA Shieldand the Trades Cup, continued to be dominated by the white populations.

The author next turns to the historic win of Mohun Bagan in the IFA Shield of 1911.

Providing a valuable collection of contemporary newspaper reports, the author makes theimportant observation that the 1911 victory inspired all anti-colonial Bengalis. Thisrevealed that communal and sub-regional sentiments had not yet invaded the sporting field.The situation was to change ominously from the third decade of the twentieth century. Theincreasing politicization of the maidan is the subject matter of the next two chapters. Thefirst describes the success of Mohammedan Sporting in the context of the rise of a distinctMuslim identity in Bengal. Mitra argues that Mohammedan, despite its repeated victoriesover the British teams in the 1930s, failed to become a nationalist icon for the Hindubhadraloks, and was rather criticized for being overtly pro-Islamic. However, it quicklycaptured the popular imagination of the lower strata of the Bengali Muslims although theclub was mostly patronized by Urdu-speaking Muslim elite (who disliked the former heart-ily) and some pro-Islamic British officials. This would have been impossible without anincreasing cleavage between the two communities. The author, however, points out thatMohammedan was the first team, which took the game to the masses.


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More interesting, possibly, was the emergence of a sub-regional selfhood among theHindu Bengalis of East Bengal (bangaals) from the 1940s. There had been a long-standinganimosity between the Bengali Hindus of West Bengal (ghatis) centred around Kolkata andthose of Eastern Bengal (modern Bangladesh). A late-eighteenth-century West Bengalilandlord had even called the people of Eastern Bengal beasts. At the beginning of the twen-tieth century, a feeling of insecurity gripped the Eastern Bengalis as economic prospectsunder the colonial rule were becoming grim and the Partition of Bengal (1905) threatenedto cut off their direct link with Calcutta from where most of them earned their livelihood.Also the mass of Muslim peasantry were becoming increasingly hostile to the EasternBengali bhadraloks who were often petty landholders. The psychology of embattled minor-ity led to the hankering for separate institutions for the bangaals, and this led ultimatelyto the formation of the significantly titled East Bengal club in 1920. From the start, EastBengal entertained a kind of grievance towards Mohun Bagan, supposedly the bastion of theelite ghatis. Thus their encounters always had an element of belligerence. However, theirrivalry gathered genuine momentum after the 2nd Partition of Bengal in 1947.

The last two chapters present a broad overview of the various social undercurrents thatinfluenced the course of maidan football. They provide interesting details about the specta-tor culture of the maidan, such as the activities of the hawkers or the various superstitionsassociated with the game.

Still, there are some pitfalls that might have been avoided. First of all, the book is a littlerepetitive. The information provided in the introduction and the last two chapters mighthave easily been concentrated into a single chapter. More importantly, the theoretical struc-ture of the work leaves something to be desired. This was originally an M.Phil. thesissubmitted in 1988. It was published in book form in 2006. Within these two decades, somemajor scholarly interventions have been made in the relevant field of research, but the

author has failed to take sufficient note of it. Scholars like Paul Dimeo, Boria Majumdar andKausik Bandyopadhyay have stressed the importance of educational institutions in shapingthe destiny of Calcutta football. In seminaries, not only in Bengal but in North India also,the British encouraged the practice of Western sports for developing qualities within Indianswhich would make them loyal subjects. But in Bengal, both students and teachers of acad-emies like the Presidency College took to sporting activities not for becoming submissiveto the Empire but to challenge it. Significantly, the golden age of Presidency College sportscoincided with the Swadeshi movement in Bengal. That is why the intended imperial gamesethic was sometimes subverted on the sports field in Bengal. Calcutta maidan was an idealspace for the Bengalis to beat the masters at their standard. Of course, whether it was actu-

ally reflective of a success of cultural imperialism of the British, or a successful subversionof the imperial culture, still remains a legitimate subject of debate. But, these intellectualcomplexities are sometimes missing in the present work. Even then, it may be recom-mended for its lucid style and compact narrative.

Somshankar Ray 2008Vidyasagar College for Women, Kolkata


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Football in the Americas: Ftbol, Futebol, Soccer, by Rory M. Miller and Liz Crolley,London: Brookings Institute Press, 2007, xv + 291 pp., bibliography, information on theInstitute for the Study of the Americas and the Football Industry Group, 12.50/$24.95(paperback), ISBN 978 1 900039 80 X.

In October 2003, the University of Londons Institute for the Study of the Americas(formerly the Institute for Latin American Studies) hosted a conference on social andeconomic issues facing football in Latin America. Academics and journalists attended theconference and editors Rory M. Miller and Liz Crolley compiled 15 of its presentations asessays inFootball in the Americas: Ftbol, Futebol, Soccer.

Miller and Crolleys collection draws from a broad range of authors across landscapesand disciplines. Anglo-American and Latin American contributors offer exposs fromeconomics, sociology, anthropology, history and cultural studies, giving this volume awealth of perspectives on football in the Americas. Not surprisingly, the passionate researchfrom this set of football scholars shows great breadth, with charts and graphs backing up

empirical data on one end of the methodological spectrum and sophisticated narrative ortheoretical work on the other end.

Miller begins the book with an essay outlining the scope of the contributions. This meta-analysis serves as both an introduction and a postscript to the compiled work. He reveals thecategories of the essays in the text tersely, as, the meaning of football to people living inthe Americas, and the contemporary business of football (p.3). While these topics areboth necessary additions to the literature and sufficient for one compilation, Miller admitsthat Uruguayan and Colombian analyses along with research on the internal workings ofnational and regional federations are grossly under-represented.

Nonetheless,Football in the Americas: Ftbol, Futebol, Soccercaptures the essence of

important central and peripheral topics regarding football and society. Richard Giulianottiand Alan Gilbert follow Millers lead with essays correlating the history of South Americanfootball and globalization theories, and the economic and geographic characteristics ofsuccessful football, respectively. These broad writings conceptually clear the path for Millerand Crolleys two focal points: the meaning of football and the business of football.

Brazilians, Argentines, Mexicans and Peruvians have no trouble expressing the meaningof football. By and large, the citizens of these countries love football. Fittingly, the researchon this topic encapsulates specific aspects of these nations love for the game. The meaningthat football fans find in their beloved game parallel the views expressed in PabloAlabarces intriguing essay on the power and passion of the worlds game. He explains the

implications of the 200102 Argentine Crisis on football and its fans through his ownparticipation in the public political protests. His narrative demonstrates powerful journalis-tic insights as he records firsthand the barrage of rapid political turnover, historical revela-tion through his understanding of contemporary Argentine political history, and culturalawareness as he interprets how the medias discourse stabilized footballs identity.

Despite the public passion and connection with powerful politics, one trait in footballidentity throughout the Americas, as the contributors acknowledge, is poor finances. Foot-ball in the Americas with all its public appeal, power and success, does not translate intoprofits for the teams. Miller and Crolleys section on footballs economics includes anumber of interesting and well-written reports that come to the same sad conclusion:although many of the worlds premier players are native to the Americas, they all end upemigrating to the rich European leagues.

Five of the seven essays in this section focus on economic issues in Brazil andArgentina. While each essay illuminates a different aspect of the financial woes in these


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576 Book reviews

countries, it becomes very clear throughout the writings that Brazil and Argentina producevery good players, which produces a powerful institution football. This creates overzeal-ous owners and team administrators with little financial prudence as well as overzealousfans who act violently and maliciously at games. Rampant corruption and destructivehooliganism force the teams into fiduciary crises that compel the owners to sell their bestplayers to European clubs to stay out of debt. Once this happens, the product suffers and thedownward spiral continues.

This slippery monetary slope emerges in other footballing nations, as well. Miller andCrolley add to Brazilian and Argentine case studies Katherine Jones eye-opening piece onthe short-lived Womens United Soccer Association. Whereas womens soccer in theUnited States is nowhere near the Brazilian and Argentine mens soccer spectacles in anyterms, Jones article takes the reader to a much different economy and culture. Womenssoccer in the United States demonstrates the difficulty of football to break into neweconomic markets, even in the wealthy United States.

Regardless of the distinct difficulties between sustaining football in old markets and

cultivating it in new ones, the volumes final essay Marcela Mora y Araujos study of thelack of assimilation of South American players into the culture of European clubs remindsthe reader that after all the large-scale economic and identity issues, football comes downto the players. Mora y Araujo, who has a personal relationship with many elite footballersand their wives, provides anecdotes to describe the humanity that is all too often lost in thehigh-pressure world of football. Mora y Araujos portrayal of clubs failure to treat playersholistically makes one think twice about the humanity so often overshadowed in the gameby wins and losses.

As football fans themselves, editors Miller and Crolley understand football as a power-ful tool. Their allegiances in the English Premiership in no small way vest their interests in

the worlds game. It is through these often antithetical lenses of fan and academic that thisbook seeks to raise awareness of the problems growing in the institution of football. Theircompilation alerts football fans in first-world countries to the powerful hindrances keepingfirst-rate football from success in developing nations. Much more importantly to our world,however, the essays tacitly display the need for more discussion of the cultural andeconomic capital needed to save the beautiful game from the negative ramifications of itsown wild popularity and success.

Chad Carlson 2008Pennsylvania State University

Foul! The Secret World of FIFA: Bribes, Vote Rigging and Ticket Scandals, byAndrew Jennings, London: Harper Sport, 2006, xii + 386 pp., index, 12.99, ISBN 978 000 720870 8.

A unique book,Foul! claims to disclose those facets of football which the global adminis-trators of the game do not want revealed. A product of four years chasing the bad menin the game, the book is no less than a fascinating account of a detectives experience.Divided into 30 small chapters, it offers an account of behind-the-scenes activities withinFIFA. The book opens by asking the FIFA president to reveal the name of the person whoreceived a kickback of one million Swiss francs for being offered the telecast rights forthe 2002 and 2006 World Cups. Then the author starts his chase and comes across a hostof people who are involved in the business of controlling and manipulating power in


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the game. In these investigations he goes back as far as 1961 to trace the origin of thestory.

Jennings satirically reveals the political plan of the FIFA masters to keep certain groupsand (inconvenient) political agendas excluded from the beautiful game. The author tries tojustify his argument by referring to FIFAs disapproval of Arsenals travel to China and theorganizations indifference to the practice of apartheid in South Africa (p.9). The mainprotagonist of the story is the current FIFA president Joseph Sepp Blatter, who joined FIFAin 1975, and was elevated to the post of general secretary by Horst Dassler of Adidas, theman who, Jennings argues, controlled FIFA through the weight of his monetary and orga-nizational power. Jennings claims that Blatter was made general secretary to facilitateDasslers business interests: namely, to obtain the rights to market FIFA and football throughhis International Sports and Leisure (ISL) group. In true journalistic style, Jennings narratesthe story of vote rigging in the FIFA Congress of 1996 and claims that Blatter and his trustedmen placed a young lady in the place of an aged Dr Jean Marie Kyss, the representative ofHaiti.

The author dedicates minute attention to the election of Sepp Blatter to the post of pres-ident for the first time in 1998.Foul! aims to reveal the dirty politics which were allegedlyemployed by Blatter and his team to ensure his victory, which, the book claims, includedspending FIFA money for campaigning, bribing representatives of national football associ-ations, making false promises, and using the political regime of Haiti to prevent its repre-sentative Dr Jean Marie Kyss from leaving the country to participate in the 1998presidential elections. Jennings states that Blatter and his team succeeded in putting adummy voter in the place of Dr Kyss, effectively stealing a vote in the presence of 190 othernational representatives.

Next, Jennings turns his attention to the nature of Blatters rule. The author describes in

detail the method the FIFA president adopted for taking full control of the football world bydistributing unaccounted financial rewards to all those who could ensure votes in successiveelections. Jennings also claims that Blatter created more than 300 committee posts to makeappointments strategically to please loyalists and keep potential threats busy and responsi-ble without power. Some light is also thrown on the personal income of the FIFA president.Jennings does not find any clue about the exact remuneration of the president but makes aconservative calculation that runs into millions of US$.

Jennings also looks at two other players within FIFA political games, namely, JackWarner and Chuck Blazer, the president and the general secretary of the Caribbean Footballfederation respectively. The revelations are potentially stunning. Jennings provides an

account of fraud, nepotism, the siphoning of FIFA money, an utter disregard of sportsman-ship and, above all, vote rigging, all conducted in the name of apparent transparency.Jennings claims that all of this goes on in collusion with the FIFA bosses in Zurich. IfJennings is correct, one would be hard-pressed to believe the amount of money that JackWarner could extract from the FIFA account in the name of promoting football in theregion. As it transpires from Jennings findings, his actions apparently include helpinghis son to make a career at FIFAs expense, creating havoc among fans by printing bogustickets, and building a personal business empire using FIFA grants generously awarded byPresident Blatter.

The book is not merely a description of the apparently ugly world of football gover-nance. It portrays the current socio-economic and political trends at the global level. Theauthor tries to build a case of political double standards against FIFA officials and the lead-ers of both democratic and authoritarian countries. Jennings questions the commitment ofpolitical dictators towards transparency and democracy in their management of the most


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578 Book reviews

popular sport of the world. He also documents FIFAs insensitivity towards global human-itarian issues and its covert support for dictators in their acts of political execution and thesuppression of freedom through such examples as the awarding of the 1997 Youth WorldCup to Nigeria despite worldwide condemnation of the execution of humanitarian activistsin the country in 1995 (Ch.8, pp.6173), and Blatters praise for Tunisia in 2003 despitewarnings from Human Rights Watch about rising political repression in the country. Whilethe argument is well articulated with suitable examples, one needs to accept that the natureof government and governance should not be a criterion to determine whether the generalpopulation of that country have the right to be part of the global sporting activity. Theauthor, therefore, falls into the trap of attempting to impose politics on sports.

Jennings exposure of the background of the personnel that currently rule FIFA givesmany reasons to worry about the future of the game. The credentials of FIFA and some ofthe national association heads are presented by the author as being as dubious as street crim-inals. For example, Jennings points out that Blatters Special Advisor, Mr Peter J. Hartigay,has the credit of having been involved in drugs, poisoning and kidnapping, and has even

been prosecuted for his crimes.The impact of commercialization on the game of football and its management is well

understood and is evident from Jenningss investigations. The single-most important factorwhich, according to the author, is responsible for the present state of football administrationis the involvement of large-scale finance obtained from selling broadcast rights. Millions aresaid to have been unscrupulously earned by the FIFA officials and their family members be they the son of the CONCACAF president or the nephew of FIFA president. The tactfulsuppression of revolt within the FIFA governing body has earned President Blatter theauthors appreciation for his ability to manipulate. The way Mr Nelson Mandela, Nobellaureate and one of the greatest leaders of the present times, was made to plead before

Blatter and Mr Jack Warner exemplifies for Jennings another striking case of manipulation.The author has also hinted at the possibility of the FIFA president being involved in manip-ulating or trying to manipulate the ongoing legal investigations into selective FIFA officials.The removal of those who have dared to challenge his authority or have sought informationand have asked difficult questions clearly, for Jennings, puts a question mark over Blattershonesty and his claim to provide a clean and transparent administration.

According to Jennings, the authenticity of the information and the validity of his conclu-sions are apparently vindicated by Blatters interest in preventing him from accessing infor-mation regarding his remuneration, money laundering using the FIFA account and theselling of FIFA marketing rights to his friends. Mr Blatters unsuccessful attempt to prevent

the publication of this book, as well as his apparent efforts to monitor the authors activities,adds strength to Jenningss claims. The author also seeks to finds corroboration of his viewsin the fact that some of the FIFA officials have already been convicted by law or are undertrial.

The relevance of the issues raised in the book is well served by an updated postscript.Short but explanatory chapter notes, a timeline, a cast list and an exhaustive index makereferences to information of interest clear and easy. The only shortcoming is the authorsback and forth travel during narration. This has resulted in a few overlaps. Though theauthor is a journalist, the style of writing shows his sound academic insight. The languageof the book is devoid of ambiguities and over-complicated wording, and makes pleasantreading.

In short, the book provides answers to many of the questions that have intrigued footballfans world over be it the inaction of FIFA despite suffering a loss of 45 million or whyGermany hosted the 2006 World Cup and how South Africa could get hold of the rights for


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2010. Explosive in nature, the book speaks volumes about the authors quest for truth,fearlessness in investigation and boisterous revelations. Needless to say, the book is a mustread for all those who love football and wish to understand the inside world of this greatgame.

Binoda K. Mishra 2008Maulana Abul Kalam Azad Institute of Asian Studies, Kolkata

Child Welfare in Football: An Exploration of Childrens Welfare in the Modern

Game, by Celia Brackenridge, Andy Pitchford, Kate Russell and Gareth Nutt, New York:Routledge, 2007, xvi + 251 pp., figures, tables, appendices, bibliography, index, $47.95(paperback), ISBN 978 0 415 37233 6.

Celia Brackenridges work Child Welfare in Football: An Exploration of Childrens

Welfare in the Modern Game presents research, contracted by the English FootballAssociation (FA), regarding the current state of its child protection policies and their futuredevelopment. Brackenridge, along with her co-authors Andy Pitchford, Kate Russell andGareth Nutt, present their investigation into childrens welfare in the FA in three parts.Employing reflexive sociology throughout the work, the first part identifies the currentsituation of child protection in England and in English football. The second part followswith a presentation by the researchers of the various manifestations where child welfareissues arise in the English game of football. Last, Brackenridge presents reflections on theresearch concluding with an optimistic view of the future of the FAs child protection poli-cies. While the focus of the work is largely on the current state of football in the FA, the

team of investigators uses the text to assert the need to incorporate the voice of children intothe creation of child protection policies in the FA.

The authors reasoning for asserting the importance of children in the decision makingprocess in football emerges in Part I as the next step in child welfare for the sport. Afterpresenting the contemporary situation of youth football in England, the first part offershistorical models accounting for the sports child protection policies. Brackenridge arguesfor a new model that is more inclusive of childrens input in their football experience basedon a model of childrens rights created by the United Nations Convention on the Rights ofthe Child. After Pitchfords explanation of how children experience contemporary footballculture, Brackenridge concludes the first part of the work concisely by explaining the

researchers task, including the stakeholders, limiting factors and the current landscape ofFA football.The second part of the work presents the various sites where child protection in football

becomes an issue. Here, researchers Pitchford, Nutt and Russell present areas where thewelfare of children can potentially be affected through their involvement in football. Suchareas include the role of the player, coaches, referees, female athletes and school officials,among others. Each chapter identifies a specific way in which child protection plays into itsspecific role in football and the areas where each role can improve or is improving in protect-ing the child. Presented as the distillation of their research, this part presents the complex,multi-faceted role that any child protection policy must play in securing the welfare of chil-dren in the current football culture in England. The concluding part of the work is comprisedof Brackenridges reflections on the project. After a reflexive explanation of the researchprocess, Brackenridge concludes the work with an analysis of the research, attempting toprovide clarity and meaning to the researchers findings.


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Now one realizes that any work commissioned by an agency for a review of that partic-ular agency presents challenging conflicts of interest to the researchers. While the research-ers seemed very aware of their reflexive methodology in presenting their research, the factthat the FA commissioned the work appears to have hindered its efficacy. One manifestationof this is the texts disappointingly limited scope. The books cover makes no reference tothe fact that this bookonly deals with youth in the English football system. The works title,Child Welfare in Football: An Exploration of Childrens Welfare in the Modern Game,makes no hint that the work conceives of the modern game as only the English FA. Ratherthan presenting various problems to child welfare in football globally, the work only bringsto light the risks that English children face in the English football culture.

As the global reaches of football extend far beyond England, understanding the child asstakeholder in areas such as the manufacturing of footballs, football in third-world coun-tries, child football in oppressive political climates, the work focuses on a very small sliceof child welfare in the game. Although any research must select and limit its topic, thelimited scope of the work misses an opportunity to present widely underrepresented infor-

mation on child welfare in football.The second part of the work presents many interesting and nuanced insights into child

welfare. One example is the exploration of child referees and the effects that coaches,parents and players can have on the welfare of the child referee. Despite these observantinsights, the writers in the second section struggle to differentiate the different roles of childprotection, as they often switch between adults and childrens roles in child protection. Forexample, the chapter on women in sport moves quickly between women in the FA and girlsin the FA causing much confusion. Although the research provides many quotes from inter-viewees, the analysis of the current state of child protection in the FA becomes murky asthe reader is unclear who the subject of the writers criticism is at that time. For example,

when the author is discussing the training of referees, one is unclear if this is the training ofyoung referees to make them better prepared to officiate in challenging situations, or if thisis the training of adult referees to be more aware of their role in child protection through theofficiating of youth games.

Last, the conclusion to the work did not fit within the research. Brackenridges conclud-ing chapter does not seem to be supported by the rest of the text. In her final paragraph, shewrites, the cultural changes that we tracked within football gave cause for optimism(p.205). The conclusion that the FA is heading in the right direction seemingly contradictsmany sections of the work where the research points to clear problems. The introduction ofoverly competitive youth football and high pressure matches for children, highlighted in the

research, indicate the FA faces many problems that do not show signs of relenting. One isleft to wonder what, if any, role did the source of funding for this project have on its conclu-sion given its inconsistency with the previous sections of the research.

John Gleaves 2008Pennsylvania State University

Soccer in a Football World: The Story of Americas Forgotten Game, by DavidWangerin, London: When Saturday Comes, 2006, 350 pp., 19 photographs, index, 12.99(paperback), ISBN 0 9540134 7 6.

In the modern sporting world where soccer reigns supreme, the United States has seeminglystood alone in its failure to openly embrace the beautiful game. In Soccer in a Football


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World: The Story of Americas Forgotten Game, David Wangerin, an author of severalsoccer publications, traces the historical development of American soccer through the highsand lows of the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Avoiding the parochialism that hashindered previous studies on American exceptionalism in sport, Wangerin revises the grandhistorical narrative by revealing the nations rich and surprising soccer heritage. Focusingon the characters and events that defined American soccer during this period, Wangerinreveals how soccer fought, and continues to fight, against the label of being a foreign importplayed by commie pansies in the hope of becoming an established and much anticipatedAmerican sporting pastime.

Historically, Americas indifference towards soccer first emerged during the late nine-teenth century. As Wangerin contends, Americas desire to assert its own cultural identityduring this period encouraged the cultivation of distinctly national sporting pastimes (p.20).Subsequently, British sports such as cricket and soccer were quickly supplanted by baseball,American football and basketball, sports allegedly more suited to the tempo of Americanlife. Despite the national repudiation of the worlds game, small pockets of ethnic commu-

nities in St Louis, New England and New Jersey kept soccer alive in the nations imagina-tion. Adopting the early English professional model, company sponsored teams, such as theBethlehem Steel Company FC, competed in regular season fixtures during the early decadesof the twentieth century, organized under the auspices of the United States Soccer Federation(USSF).

Recognizing a latent interest in soccer, particularly within strong ethnic communities,American sports promoters were eager to propel soccer into a commercial ambience. In1921, the American Soccer League (ASL), the nations first noticeable professional league,was born. Occupying vacant major league baseball stadiums during the winter months, theleagues predominantly eastern-based teams relied heavily on the services of journeymen

European professionals. Lacking a real American presence, Wangerin argues that thenation proved far from receptive to the professional model as reflected by high-franchiseturnover rates and meagre attendances. Even the leagues attempts to Americanize the sportthrough goal-line judges, ice-hockey style sin-bins and increased substitutions failed tocapture sports fans more inclined to watching college gridiron and Babe Ruths prodigioushome-run hitting abilities. For the next few decades, the ASL and American soccer strug-gled for survival on the periphery of the nations sporting interests.

American soccer faced similar difficulties on the international stage. Despite joining theFdration Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) as early as 1913, the United Statesremained in a state of soccer isolation as competitive fixtures proved to be a rarity. As

Wangerin reveals, by the 1920s American teams consisting of ill-prepared amateurscompeted in the Olympic Games with little success. The nations performances in the WorldCup proved equally embarrassing, although Americas remarkable 1-0 success over Englandin the 1950 tournament provided the watershed moment for American soccer. Wangerincites inter-organizational frictions between the USSF and the ASL, the poor quality of thedomestic and intercollegiate game, and an apathetic public for the nations diminutive posi-tion in international soccer. It would take until Americas hosting of the 1994 World Cupand the success of Americas women in the 1999 tournament for the public to recognize theinternational soccer world and Americas rising profile within it.

Following the failure of a number of professional outdoor and indoor leagues, Americansoccer reached its zenith following the launch of the North American Soccer League(NASL) in 1968. Attracting a host of world-class greats on the down side of their careers,such as Pel, Franz Beckenbauer, Johan Cruyff and George Best, American soccer fansturned out in record numbers to witness the glitz and glamour of the star-studded New York


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582 Book reviews

Cosmos and its rival franchises. Despite its early promise and the attraction of majortelevision networks, the NASL proved an ephemeral blip on the nations highly contestedsporting radar. As the big names finally retired, crowds dwindled, television networkspulled the plug and the sensationalism wore-off, the NASL plunged into a state of disrepair.As Wangerin correctly points out, the NASL lacked a sturdy foundation (p.185). Adoptinga top down approach, the NASL promoted star-players instead of developing a pool ofyoung home-grown soccer talent that would lay the groundwork for the future of Americansoccer; a mistake Major League Soccer would not repeat decades later.

The downfall of the NASL provided further proof that soccer would never competeagainst the mainstream American sports. For the professional game to ever succeed, a moreeconomically viable model was needed, one which Wangerin maintains, develops itself asa niche professional league, growing without attempting to compete with its more cele-brated rivals (p.333). Embodying this attitude, Major League Soccer (MSL) was launchedin 1996. Limiting clubs initially to only four foreign players, developing young Americantalent by drafting from the collegiate system and discarding the Americanized off-side and

substitutions rules, MSL has earned a respectable following amongst die-hard soccer fansand an affluent middle-class audience. Meanwhile, as the MSL continues to expand and anincreasing number of American players ply their trade in Europes biggest leagues, socceris gradually being brought in from the periphery to the centre of the nations sporting inter-ests. As Wangerin concludes, although many Americans still consider the game foreign,effeminate or just plain dull There has never been a better time for soccer in a footballworld (pp.3378).

For the serious scholar, the absence of any endnotes will serve as a source of seriousfrustration especially since the author has extensively combed the soccer archives through-out Europe and North America. Meanwhile, with 338 pages packed full of extraneous detail,

Soccer in a Football Worldshould have been condensed to make it more accessible to thegeneral reader or, alternatively, been published in two separate volumes. The latter optionwould have allowed Wangerin to examine both the womens and collegiate game in fargreater depth and discuss the impact that the nations first soccer network, Fox SoccerChannel, has had on the games development in the United States. These weaknesses aside,Wangerin should be commended for bringing Americas rich soccer history to light and forlaying the foundation for future scholarship on this topic. This is a must read for socceraficionados and sport historians alike.

Matthew P. Llewellyn 2008

Pennsylvania State University

Pel: The Autobiography, by Pel with Orlando Duarte and Alex Bellos, London: Simon& Schuster, 2006, 357 pp., index, 54 photographs, 18.99 (hardback), ISBN 0 7432 7582.

Pel is arguably the greatest footballer the world has ever seen. The best of a generation ofBrazilians, universally acknowledged as the most brilliant group of footballers ever to playthe game, he won the World Cup three times and is Brazils all-time record goal-scorer.With his rise to football fame, the concept of a global sports icon acquired a new dimension.Even people who dont know football know Pel. Naturally therefore, there are quite a fewaccounts written on the life of Pel. The present edition of Pels story from the man himselfis a long-cherished addition to this list. We all know Pel, the legend, the player. But in thisautobiography, Pel reveals the man, the son, the husband, the father and the humanitarian.


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The Autobiography explains how this man a sportsman, a mere footballer, like manyothers became a global icon. Was it just by being the best at what he did, or do peoplerespond to some other quality? As Pel says, Every kid in the world who plays footballwants to be Pel which means I have the responsibility of showing them how to be a foot-baller, but also how to be a man. That is what Pel intended to do in his autobiography.

Edson Arantes Do Nascimento Pel was born on 23 October 1940 in Tres Coraces,Brazil. Under the training of his father, a former footballer, Pel started his football careerplaying on the streets, often smashing windows in his neighbourhood. His father, Dodinho,not only helped him learn the game but also how to be a man. Brazils failure to win the1950 World Cup at home affected him deeply. Post 1950, Pel began to make a markbeyond the streets and on to the pitches. He even polished shoes to earn extra cash to keephis football ventures going. At the age of 15, Pel joined Santos FC at the insistence of hismentor Waldemar de Brito, a move which proved to change his life forever. Tracing hisjourney from playing for Santos to winning World Cups and playing for the New YorkCosmos, where he ended his professional football career, every move and detail on and off

the field is described eloquently.Pels stint with Santos gave him the launch pad for his football career. His three years

at the club gave the national selectors sufficient cause to take the wonder boy into thenational squad for the 1958 World Cup to be played in Sweden. The Cup witnessed the birthof a star in fact a legend as Pel, at the age of only 17, played a leading role in makingBrazil world champions for the first time. This could be gleaned from Just Fontaines asser-tive confession: When I saw Pel play, I just wanted to hang up my boots. (p.101) The1958 victory changed Pels life forever. He became an international soccer star, and therewas no looking back. It also changed his status socially and financially. Yet joy did notlast long for Pel as he suffered a groin sprain due to playing excessive matches on the eve

of the 1962 World Cup. This cost him his place in the team after the group stage. Brazil,however, went on to win the Cup despite Pels absence on the field, although he remaineda source of inspiration all through for the team members.

While Pel continued to dazzle the world after his recovery with his mesmerizing skilland scoring sprees, he was destined to face the biggest disappointment of his career in thenext World Cup held in England. Brazil suffered a most unlikely exit from the group stage.The frustration was so crippling that Pel declared his retirement from the national team,only to reconsider it under pressure from all corners and rejoined the national side after twoyears. It helped Brazil to recover the road to glory once again in 1970 when, on winning theCup three times, they took away the Jules Rimet Trophy forever. Pel was never to play for

Brazil again, but his glorious run with Santos continued for another four years while heplayed with the New York Cosmos until 1977. These years saw him playing around theworld, giving a great fillip to the globalization of the game, particularly in Asia and Africa.Post retirement, Pel decided to exchange the world of pitches for a world of offices(p.234).

Pels life after retirement has been an example of how a sportsperson can become asuccessful cultural ambassador across the globe. The United Nations declared him ACitizen of the World, and in addition to his ambassadorial role with FIFA, he became aGoodwill Ambassador for UNICEF. He also joined the ministry in the Brazilian govern-ment in the late 1990s. But despite all these commitments, football remained a constant inhis life as he watched and analysed Brazil play in the World Cups that followed. Butconcerns developed at home and in his family, which resulted in a series of problems in the1990s. Pels son Edinho became a goalkeeper for Santos, but his career was cut short byinjuries and he soon turned his interests to other things, including an unsuccessful stint in


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584 Book reviews

an illegal Brazilian car race which led infamously to the death of a motorcyclist. Fallingprey to frustration, Edinho started taking drugs and became involved in drug trafficking. Hewas later arrested and spent time in jail. After his release, Edinho joined a drug rehabilita-tion centre. Unfortunately, on his way to recovery, he was again arrested for a breach of thelaw. This has been the most difficult time Pel went through in his life.

The Autobiography, more than anything else, reveals Pel to be an amazinglysentimen-talcelebrity. His love for Brazil, his passion for the global game, his counsels for youngerBrazilian players, his proposals to improve the sporting spectacle all are integral parts ofhis attitude towards life. But his very sentimentality probably gets the better of his prudenceand modesty when he hints at his superiority as a player over Diego Maradona. He couldhave avoided such a verdict from his own pen; but still at least, here as well, Pel does notbetray his honest feelings. Just as he candidly states: Im not a politician but Ive met morethan my share (p.301) or concludes: I have achieved more than I could ever have imag-ined (p.305).

Thus Pels autobiography is an interesting read throughout mostly because it is

written in a warm and lucid style and covers all the key events of the great mans career andlife outside the game. Perhaps the more interesting accounts are his experiences of theWorld Cups held between 1958 and 1970, as well as his emotional final match for Santosin 1974. Even for those who do not like him, they will find his writing absorbing notleas because of Pels sincere attempt to describe his work in the Brazilian governmentarticulately.

It is true that the quality of detail in the book is decidedly patchy. However, this is acommon fault with memoirs which depends on the memory and preference of the writer.Although Pel is mostly reticent about controversial matters during his career and postretirement, he tries his best to give readers an honest and entertaining account of his life.

Overall, this is an excellent work that does justice to one of the greatest footballers ever.

Kausik Bandyopadhyay 2008Maulana Abul Kalam Azad Institute of Asian Studies, Kolkata

Uppies and Downies: The Extraordinary Football Games of Britain, by Hugh Hornby,London: English Heritage, 2008, 188pp., 16.99, ISBN: 9781905624645.

Whilst football has established itself in the eyes of many as the worlds most popular sport,

bringing with it a heightened sense of commercialization, it appears important that thosewho champion the game are aware of its history in order that all can attempt to maintain asense of perspective. It is my pleasure to report that in Uppies and Downies Hugh Hornbyhas produced a highly readable, well-researched work which is brightly illustrated withpictures both old and new interspersed within the text. Indeed, the splendid original photo-graphs taken by Peter Holme are a real triumph and highlight the need for new visual mate-rial in enhancing historical texts. The author and photographer of the book have travelledthe length of Britain, from Ashbourne in Derbyshire to Cornwall, from Leicestershire to theOrkneys, where they have discovered centuries-old games of football still being played intowns, villages and the countryside. This, then, is their attempt to create an understandingof these games in the public consciousness. They generally succeed and bring to the fore thestories of how these games have developed and the fact that some of them still continue tothrive. The games have, indeed, been marginalized over the years, but many still manage toretain a quality and uniqueness which is both beguiling and intriguing. As a sport celebrated


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in the written word, football probably lacks the depth that cricket has developed over manyyears. It is, therefore, encouraging to note the appearance of a book which will undoubtedlyadd to the games increasing literature.

The middle chapters chronicling various football games around Britain are thorough andhighly informative. The first hand research in which Hornby has obviously been involvedpays great dividends. Whilst there may be some argument whether the Haxey Hood gamemerits inclusion, as the author notes, it has much in common with other contests in the book.The same could be said of the Cornish games or Hallaton bottle kicking, but their inclusionadds rather than detracts from proceedings. Probably the most well-known game appears inChapter Six and concerns the events in Ashbourne, Derbyshire. The towns game has, in2003, again benefited from royal patronage when Prince Charles visited, allowing himselfto be carried aloft by participants, unlike his great uncle, the future Edward VIII, who wasspared the physical contact in 1928.

Elsewhere, Hornby is not as precise. He erroneously believes that it is contentious todescribe these games as variants of football (p.12). As Eric Dunning and I have previously

noted,

It is commonly believed outside Australia, Canada and the USA that football implies a mainlynon-handling, primarily kicking and heading game, in which, during the course of play, onlythe goalkeepers are allowed to use their hands. Such a belief is erroneous. The term footballdates from at least 1314 when it was used to refer to a class of loosely regulated folk games inwhich handling and throwing as well as kicking were allowed. Some of these games werecalled by names other than football. More recently, football has come to be a generic termwhich refers to a class of sportised1 ball games, central among them Association football(soccer), Rugby football (both Union and League), American football, Canadian football,Australian football and Gaelic football.2

This type of understanding is vital when discussing the long-term, processual developmentof the game.

Hornby also stumbles somewhat within the schools section. It is problematic whetherthis particular area merits inclusion as many might argue that the subject deserves a book initself. It also raises the complex issue of how much influence public schoolboys had on thegrowth of the game and, as such, needs a good deal more space, eight pages being whollyinadequate. It is without question that Hornby is incredibly well versed in his primarysubject, but to begin to focus on football in the public schools requires a much wider breadthof knowledge. There are significant omissions from his bibliography or, as he refers to it,

Links, which might indicate a lack of depth in this area. Dunning and SheardsBarbarians,Gentlemen and Players, Shearmans Football and Masons Association Football andEnglish Society3 are three major works which surely should not be excluded. These wouldhave provided the macro before attempting the micro. It is also disappointing to see refer-ences in the text to links which do not exist Eardley-Wilmot and Streatfield together withMarkham (p.172). He should also be aware that, according to the extant evidence, Rugbywas the firstpublic school to commit its football rules to writing and not one of the first(p.173). This is significant in any further discussion of footballs growth.

The history section also leaves something to be desired. It is no surprise that Hornbyjumps on the revisionist bandwagon and is particularly supportive of John Goulstone andAdrian Harvey (pp.1819). There is no

Soccer and Soceity Book Review 2008

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