NFR: English football books

[vbg cottager]

hi there!
I'm doing my final exams in june. now I need to get some books about the history of english football (hooligans, modern football, how it began...).

Does anyone of you know some decent books? not some like Fever Pitch but more history based..

thanks in advance.

[TonyGilroy]

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Underdogs-Unlikely-Story-Footballs-Heroes/dp/0224083139/ref=pd_sim_b_4

I strongly recommend this. Essentially it's the story of how football developed from the villages and public schools and became professional.

Told from the viewpoint of Darwen playing Old Etonians in a cup tie almost as representing the tipping point as professionalism usurped the gentlemen amateurs as the dominating force in football.

Very readable and expertly researched.

[vbg cottager]

ok, thanks for that! looks great!
I'm also gonna read "Sing When You're Winning: Football Fans, Terrace Songs and a Search for the Soul of Soccer"

anyone heard of that?

[A Humble Man]

Striking for Soccer by Jimmy Hill is worth reading.  Simon Morgan's showing where present day Fulham came from and how far we have moved is a good bit of social history as well.  It is also a great laugh.

[Huxley]

Off subject I know, but a brilliant book about German Football is "Tor! The Story of German Football" by  Ulrich Hesse-Lichtenberger. A must for anyone interested in teh history of football. Sorry, can't help with a book about English Football.

[aFFCn_Fan]

I would recommend Inverting the pyramid by Jonathon Wilson....I would recommend it but I've never got round to reading it. its a history of strategy and tactics but I think it covers international games. If you have the time and inclination I'd look it up.

Foul by Andrew Jennings is a good read about Fifa, its beginnings and politics. Eye-openning.

But the best football book I've read in a while is the Secret Footballer - giving insight into the modern English game.

Not sure how much any of them will help you, but if you've got the time check them out.

[YankeeJim]

Check out "Among the Thugs" by Bill Buford. Buford is an American who ran with various English fan  groups for a few years and then wrote this book in 1990. Worth a look.

[vbg cottager]

thanks for all the ideas. I think I'll read two or three of them.