David Conn

Jack Warner, Chuck Blazer, Michel Platini, Sepp Blatter. All giants of global football administration and now all banned from the sport.

What Conn takes his time to lay out--but what ultimately makes the book quite profound--is the idea that "European standards of governance" are every bit as troubling as the corruption accepted as a cultural flaw of the non-European members of FIFA.

In many ways, this book is a dirge for FIFA's posturing as a humanitarian institution. Yet, Conn still keeps show more it engaging for lovers of the game by highlighting how little of the decision making within FIFA had any relevance to the interests of sport relative to the enrichment of powerbrokers.

So much of sports journalism is hagiography of utter bastards and Conn doesn't get sucked in. The one truly redeeming moment of the whole telling is the revelation that a crowd of French fans resoundingly booed Platini's image as the national team was poised to win the Euros on home soil. show less

Not only is this the story of the 2008 takeover of Manchester City FC by one of the richest men in the world but it also examines the wider implication of football’s change from what was regarded as the people’s game to that of a global business machine. All seen through the eyes of a long-time City fan turned investigative reporter who worked for some of this country’s biggest newspapers. It’s a very personal journey from choosing his team at the age of seven to finding out a few show more truths of how football in England was allowed to change from a game for the masses to a cash cow for a select few (City’s former owner, Thaksin “Frank” Shinawatra, making £90m in just one year of ownership for example). Various snippets of interviews pepper the history of the club but it’s not told in a linear way and this detracts the feel of the narrative slightly for me. There will be times when the author goes over the same ground in order to illustrate the current point he’s trying to make and I don’t think I needed to be told that Carlos Tevez (a star player of the time) earned £200k a week more than 3 times during this read. Overall this was an interesting look at how football has changed throughout the years but I was hoping for a little more detail on the takeover period itself so felt a little disappointed. show less