'It's a funny old game.' The world's favourite sport has certainly given us its fair share of strange moments, and this absorbing collection gathers together the best of them, from more than a century of the beautiful game. From Blackburn Rovers' one-man team to Wilfred Minter's seven-goal haul in which he still ended up on the losing side, here are goals and gaffes galore drawn from all levels of the footballing world, whether high-profile internationals or the lowest tiers of domestic football. The stories in this book are bizarre, fascinating, hilarious, and, most importantly, true. Revised, redesigned and updated for a new generation of football fanatics, this book is the perfect gift for the soccer obsessive in your life.
Review: It has been said that “Football’s a funny old game”, and this book sets out to show how funny it can be. The author, Andrew Ward, has compiled over one hundred anecdotes relating to extraordinary happenings on the football pitch, and sometimes off it. These are arranged in chronological order, beginning at the end of the 19th century and going on to the beginning of the 21st century.
Each story is relatively short, making the book quite easy to read, whether you want to settle down for a long session, or just dip into one or two stories at a time. The matches covered mainly took place in the United Kingdom, but a few overseas incidents are mentioned. Topics that make it into the book include the North Korean team, who proved so popular during the World Cup in England in 1966, and the “Soccer War” between El Salvador and Honduras in 1969, that was said to have been precipitated by a World Cup qualifying match between the two nations.
I found this book to be thoroughly entertaining and it should appeal to all football fans, and to those who just enjoy the plain bizarre.
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