The Extraordinary World of the Football Fan Book

If you've ever stood on a freezing terrace on a Saturday afternoon, yelling silly rhyming songs about Peter Reid, while chomping your way through a meat pie and adjusting your lucky underpants all in the name of football, then this is the book you have been waiting for. The Extraordinary World of the Football Fan is written by dedicated fans of the game and attempts to shed some humorous light on just what makes us such a nation of footie addicts, obsessed with all manner of match-day rituals that, on any other day of the week, would single us out as a few cans short of a six pack. Hooliganism, club mascots, football food, kit sponsors ... you name it, it's covered in this superb book, that looks as good as it reads. Each double page spread covers a different aspect of the game from a fan's perspective, and is genuinely funny but also underneath has something to say about modern football from the other side of the pitch. Two pages of fantasy pitch-markings, for instance, show a barcode cut into the grass of Old Trafford, home of Manchester United. The book's dig at the football yob appears opposite a Union Jack torn up to form a swastika:"Some honest, patriotic supporters still wave the red, white and blue at matches and it should stir up pride in every fan. Unfortunately, we have to share a symbol with people who have taken the flag and made it mean something most people hate."This is a witty and refreshing take on the world of football that will have true fans foaming at the mouth and may just help a few football widows understand what all the fuss is about every Saturday afternoon. Put together with more enthusiasm than most other sports books out there, it avoids "laddish" toilet humour and takes a more cerebral, though no less amusing, approach, aided by doctored photographs and well designed artwork. If you are even the slightest bit interested in football, you need this book. It's as simple as that.--Jonathan WeirRead More