Broken Dreams: Vanity, Greed And The Souring of British Football - Brossura

Bower, Tom

Brossura

ISBN 10: 184739003X ISBN 13: 9781847390035

Casa editrice: Simon & Schuster Ltd, 2007

Riassunto

Greedy, vain and ambitious personalities dominate English football. From the author of devastating exposes of Mohamed Fayed, Richard Branson and, most recently, Geoffrey Robinson, BROKEN DREAMS is a superbly incisive account of how self-interested individuals, adopting questionable and predatory business methods, are exploiting the sport of football to earn billions of pounds and huge glory. Focusing on key figures including Terry Venables, Ken Bates, David Dein, Harry Redknapp, Rio Ferdinand and other famous agents, chairmen and managers, Tom Bower exposes the money, the politics, and the vicious battles behind the beautiful game. For the first time a non-sports writer reveals the vanity and greed which endanger the national sport.

Su questo libro

Recensione:

'The serialisation of this book has helped it become one of the most eagerly awaited sports titles in recent times...Bower writes the book in a way in which anyone can read, even if you are totally naive to the process of modern-day football and what really happens...The role of footballing agent is also a mainstay of the book and his examination of the likes of Paul Stretford, Dennis Roach, Pini Zahavi, Willie McKay et al, is fascinating to say the least...This book is the best to have emerged in recent years and not since Alex Fynn and Lynton Guest's OUT OF TIME, has there been such a well-received piece of footballing literature' WWW.PLANETFOOT.COM
David Mellor, SUNDAY TIMES (Culture) 23/02
"Hugely entertaining..its main purpose is to educate and inform all of us about the real position of football today. And in that it succeeds triumphantly"
TELEGRAPH 23/03
"Bower's diligence in rounding up details and 'following the money'...is extraordinary"
' A devastating expose of what goes on off the football pitch...an astonishing job of investigation...At times he even seems to know what goes on in people's bank accounts...an indictment of the entire culture of British football' SATURDAY TELEGRAPH
'All fans should read this expose of football's financial secrets...devastating book...Bower reaches the grim conclusion that the 'beautiful game' has now become a 'game without shame'...thanks to his trademark tenacity in the pursuit of elusive facts he has done football an important servce by exposing its unseemly underbelly.
Bower's timely thesis is that football has become such big business - to the enrichment of a few at the expense of all too many - that it has lost touch with the grassroots fans without whom it would not exist. They are being short-changed by directors, managers and agents, who are, in turn, inadequately policied by incompetent officials and inept politicians.
Enter Bower, who loves taking on the Big Boys, but even he seems suprised by corporate football's ability to protect its own and shelter its financial secrets' Anthony Holden, OBSERVER
'You really must read BROKEN DREAMS. Tom Bower exposes the ineptitude, complacency, corruption and greed that permeate the game' SUNDAY TIMES
'Bower has pieced together a painstaking and detailed picture of football's gold-rush economy' FINANCIAL TIMES
Sunday's Observer's COMMENT section by Will Hutton, no less, who calls the book a 'tour de force' and continues that 'The evidence it assembles is devastating'.
'This book should be read by all who love the game. It proves, definitively, that an independent regulator is needed more than ever. Maybe the government will listen this time' KATE HOEY MP, minister for sport 1999-2001, NEW STATESMAN
'BROKEN DREAMS is a devastating book, an indictment of football that all fans should read and understand' Daniel Finkelstein, THE TIMES
'Bower's research is meticulous...he offers real insight into the strange impulse that drives certain individuals to take over a club' IRISH INDEPENDENT
'[Bower] writes with great clarity and concision about murky business dealings. The result is a book that skewers the game's malfeasance with a precision and lucidity than even a fiscal-illiterate such as myself can easily comprehend' Harry Pearson, WHEN SATURDAY COMES
'Even Bower, the man who forensically decomposed the rotting carcass of the Maxwell empire is amazed at what he finds...At Leeds the fans have been singing "Where's all the money gone?". Bower has looked for it, and we are all in his debt for doing so...Bower brilliantly recounts how [New Labour's] attemps to reform the game through the Football Task Force and the creation of an independent regulator were rebuffed by the Premier League' David Goldblatt, INDEPENDENT
'The fearless investigative journalist who produced exposes of Maxwell, Al Fayed, Branson and the intelligence service, truns to British football - a money-grabbing, predatory, billion pound business. Page-turning stuff. SUNDAY MAIL (GLASGOW)
'Meticulously researched, BROKEN DREAMS is a superbly incisive account of how self-interested individuals, adopting questionable and predatory business methods, exploit football to earn billions of pounds and huge glory. A non-sports writer, Tom Bower's fresh perspective casts new light on what is going on beneath the facade of the beautiful game. A gripping read' PROGRAMME MONTHLY
'this incredible book...will have you gasping at how businessmen turn into sailors on a spree' EVENING HERALD
'Having read Tom Bower's searing analysis of corruption in English professional soccer I can only assume that honest men are few in a field strewn with greed and egotism...Bower's research is meticulous... he offers real insight into the strange impulse that drives certain individuals to take over a club' IRISH EXAMINER
'Tom Bower exposes every manner of irregularity, conflict of interest and corruption, moral and financial, rife in professional football. Here is a condemnation of virtually every prominent administrator in the game' OLDIE
'Bower is one of the few investigative writers in this country to rival the best of the American tradition' TLS
'A fierce indictment of the modern game'
Sunday Times 19/10
‘If you are feeling cheerful, read this. It will rebalance your life. In minute and mounting detail it chronicles the avarice and megalomania that characterise our species at its worst. It is all the more upsetting because these manifestations occur not inside partisan politics or an overweening multinational corporation, but within a game loved by millions. Relentlessly and remorselessly, Bower kicks the ball of endemic corruption straight through the football clubs’ and the FA’s net’
The Times 31/3

L'autore:

Tom Bower has a distinguished reputation as an investigative historian, award-winning television producer and journalist. His books on tycoons, on the Nazis and on British intelligence are groundbreaking bestsellers. He lives in London with his family.

Su questa edizione

• Editore: Simon & Schuster Ltd
• Data di pubblicazione: 2007
• ISBN 10: 184739003X
• ISBN 13: 9781847390035
• Rilegatura: Copertina flessibile
• Numero di pagine: 448