Betfair Book Review: 50 People Who Fouled Up Football

Other / Ari Last / 13 January 2010 / Leave a Comment

"Diving, thuggery, sensationalism, crassness, egotism and negative tactics increasingly stain the game and Henderson highlights these trends, and several more, in what is an interesting and welcome read."

With stars eager to spill their stories and a new super-smart generation of sports writers producing erudite studies of our beautiful games, there are more compelling sports books on the market than ever. From time to time, Betting.Betfair contributors will be reviewing some of the best and worst... Ari Last kicks things off with a timely study of where it all went wrong...

Title: 50 People Who Fouled Up Football
Author: Michael Henderson
Publisher: Constable

Ruled by money and orchestrated by men in love with its riches, not rituals, there's much to gripe about when discussing the modern day plight of the beautiful game.

Michael Henderson's 50 people who fouled up football is a 250 page letter of complaint, aimed at individuals who, in the author's opinion, were responsible for a glorious sport built on passion and sportsmanship being reduced to a deceitful, commercial enterprise devoid of dignity and soul.

As a concept, the book should appeal to multitudes of fans fed up with the pillage of their beloved sport. And while much of what Henderson has to say will resonate, when one glances at the list of 50 individuals that Henderson bluntly, and in many cases, brutally savages, initial reactions may range from surprise to disgust.

Bill Shankly, Sir Alf Ramsey and even Freddy Mercury make it onto a hit-list that requires the reader to keep early scepticism at bay and indulge the author. It is only while reading the reasoning behind each selection that one begins to understand the slightly deeper, abstract thinking that is behind the inclusions of some legends of football and beyond.

Some inclusions require little explanation. Just uttering the names of Ashley Cole, Piers Morgan and Peter Ridsdale would be enough to get most football fans seething; yet even with these aforementioned, Henderson goes further than simply describing why their actions alone fouled up football, and instead explores the wider malaise that their behaviour both inspires and perpetuates.

Diving, thuggery, sensationalism, crassness, egotism and negative tactics increasingly stain the game and Henderson highlights these trends, and several more, throughout what is an interesting and welcome read.

Henderson's experience and the depth of his knowledge ensure that the book is packed with absorbing anecdotes and insights, although his attempts at humour often fall flat and his irritating desire to make certain that the reader is fully aware of just how well he 'knows' the game is all too apparent. His bitterness towards certain individuals can come across as a little too spiteful and his logic for choosing certain names is some times tenuous.

Over all though, Henderson deserves credit for bravely conveying his dislike and anger towards certain individuals who are the benefactors of far too much adulation and reward than they are actually worth.

And as the gap in football between the fans and the players (on and off the pitch) grows, 50 people who fouled up football is a refreshing commentary on a sport which takes more and more, and gives back less and less.