Norman Parkin's exotic football career took him all around the world, and he's still coaching football teams in the Philippines. On 8 November 2013, he touched down at Manila airport, as a natural disaster unfolded around him. He decided to do something to help: to write a book about some of football's greatest legends and rebels. Long-term aid is still desperately needed to rebuild shattered lives in the Philippines. Norman travelled up and down the UK, and spent hours on the phone to capture the stories of the heroes, villains and true characters of football, from Stanley Matthews to Malcolm Macdonald. On a quest to discover the true heart and soul of the beautiful game, he met ex-players in pubs, cafes, offices and radio stations. Open the pages to discover a world of blood, sweat and broken bones, a far cry from the multi-million pound game that football has become today. All royalties after expenses from the sale of the book will go to the Philippines Typhoon Relief Fund.

Arsenal's on-field success has been well documented. But what has never been written before is the equally remarkable history of Arsenal's rebels, both on and off the pitch. Spanning almost 120 years, and set against a backdrop of turbulent social and political change, Rebels for the Cause assesses the legacy and impact of Arsenal's most controversial players, officials and matches. From hard men like '30s player Wilf Copping to the reformed wild ones of recent years such as Tony Adams, Jon Spurling highlights the infamous figures whose refusal to conform has made them terrace legends. Mavericks such as '80s star Charlie Nicholas and the 'King of Highbury' Charlie George are here, as are '70s lads Alan Hudson and Malcolm Macdonald. The book also focuses on the club's revolutionary founding fathers, David Danskin and Jack Humble, the terrifying '20s 'soccer Tsar' Sir Henry Norris and David Dein's controversial introduction of free-market economics to Highbury in the regressive '80s. Also investigated are the stories behind Arsenal's most infamous tabloid exposés. Featuring extensive interviews with 15 former players, Rebels for the Cause is an indispensable guide to the alternative history of Arsenal Football Club, shedding new light on the origins of the rivalry with Tottenham, on many of Highbury's cult heroes and on the struggle of several players to adapt to life outside the game.

Sams local 11-22-2004 $24.95.

Are you a loyal England supporter? Do you look forward to the World Cup and eagerly follow England's progress? Would you like to find out more about the history of your national team and their past performance in top flight football? If so, this book is certain to appeal to you. England's World Cup Story documents England’s journey in the World Cup from 1950 under the guidance of Sir Walter Winterbottom up to 2010 with Fabio Capello at the helm as manager. Packed with fascinating facts, quotes and profiles of many of the all-time great players, this book tells the story of the England team through the years from the many near misses and disappointments to victory in 1966 and beyond. Who can forget the likes of Gordon Banks, Bobby Moore and Sir Stanley Matthews to name but a few? They are all in this book together with more recent heroes such as David Beckham, Alan Shearer and Wayne Rooney. As one of only eight national sides to have lifted the World Cup trophy, this book is a fitting tribute to the England team. This is a must-have for all fans of the beautiful game and anyone with an interest in the history of the World Cup.

Flight to Bogot&á tells the incredible story of one of the most infamous episodes in English sporting history, when a group of British footballers turned their backs on club and country before the 1950 World Cup for a sporting El Dorado in Colombia. It was a rebellion led by first-choice England centre-half Neil Franklin. The book charts how the players were secretly lured away from Britain, amid Franklin's strident complaints of 'serfdom' in English football, their brief struggles to adapt to Colombian life and the fallout once they humiliatingly returned home to face the wrath of club and country. This escapade was a personal failure for Franklin and left his career in tatters. But the players' vociferous defence of their behaviour enlightened a shocked nation about how clubs mistreated footballers. Ultimately, it led to reforms that would financially benefit future footballing generations, but these financial rewards were never enjoyed by Franklin and his fellow 'football bandits' who embarked on that fateful 'Flight to Bogot&á'.

Soccer, the world’s most popular mass spectator sport, gives birth to great achievers on the field of play all the time. While some of them become heroes and stars during their playing career, transforming themselves into national as well as global icons, very few come to be remembered as all-time greats. They leave an enduring legacy and thereby claim to be legends by their own rights. While the rise and achievements of these soccer greats have drawn considerable attention from scholars across the world, their legacies across time and space have mostly been overlooked. This volume intends to reconstruct the significance of the legacies of such great men of world soccer particularly in a globalized world. It will attempt to show that these luminous personalities not only represent their national identity at the global stage, but also highlight the proven role of the players or coaches in projecting a global image, cutting across affiliations of nation, region, class, community, religion, gender and so on. In other words, the true heroes, icons and legends of the world’s most popular sport have always floated at a transnational global space, transcending the limits of space, identity or culture of a nation. This book was published as a special issue of Soccer and Society.

. . . a cult, a deviant subculture, a revolutionary movement . . . these descriptions have been commonly used in the past to identify the Rastafari, a group perhaps best known to North American readers for their gift of reggae music to the world. With both compassion and a sharp sense of reality, anthropologist William Lewis suggests alternative perspectives and reviews existing social theories as he reports on the diverse world of the ganja-smoking Rastafari culture. He carefully examines this culture in its confrontations with the law, its growing ambivalence about itself as well as the continued conflict between many Rasta and contemporary middle-class values. Characterized by rich ethnographic detail, an engaging writing style, and thoughtful commentary, Soul Rebels uncovers the complex inner workings of the Rasta movement and offers a critical analysis of the meaning of Rastafari commitment and struggles. Soul Rebels offers a solid historical overview of the movement, an excellent picture of diversity within the faith, fair and accurate discussions of sexism among the Rasta, engaging life history material, and rich descriptions of what actually goes on in a reasoning session. Lewiss treatment of Rastafari populations in a Jamaican fishing village, an Ethiopian market town, and an urban neighborhood in the northeastern United States sets his ethnography in the cross-cultural and comparative framework central to anthropological analysis.