2024 the best league in the world football review

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The Club is the inside story of how English soccer’s Premier League became the wildest, richest, most popular sports product on the planet, "a narrative that is part Great Expectations, part Game of Thrones, in equal measure." (Roger Bennett, NBC Sports, Men in Blazers)
 
This is a sports and business tale of how money, ambition, and twenty-five years of drama remade an ancient institution into a twenty-first-century entertainment empire. No one knew it when their experiment began, but without any particular genius or acumen, the motley cast of billionaires and hucksters behind the modern Premier League struck gold.

Pretty soon, everyone wanted to try their luck, from Russian oligarchs to Emirati sheikhs, American tycoons, and Asian Tiger titans. Some succeeded beyond their wildest dreams. Some lost everything. Today, players are sold for tens of millions, clubs are valued in the billions, and games are beamed out to nearly two hundred countries, all while the league struggles to preserve its English soul.

Deeply researched and drawing on one hundred exclusive interviews, including the key decision makers at every major English team, The Club is the definitive and wildly entertaining narrative of how the Premier League took over the world.

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Customer Reviews

4.7 out of 5 stars
1,553

4.5 out of 5 stars
543

4.5 out of 5 stars
110

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Publisher ‏ : ‎ Mariner Books; Reprint edition (September 3, 2019)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 384 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0358213053
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0358213055
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 2.31 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.31 x 0.94 x 8 inches
Reviewer: Weston P.
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Great read
Review: I never thought a non-fiction book could be a page turner but this one is it. I blew through it in under one week which is pretty fast for me! As an American who is relatively new to European soccer/football, this book really gave me a lot of insight into the Premier League.Have you ever looked at the list of Prem champions and wondered how and why Blackburn Rovers snuck their way onto that list? This book goes over a lot of interesting stories like that.It’s non-fiction but reads like a novel. I highly recommend it.

Reviewer: Tara S.
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Such a well-written book!
Review: I was unfamiliar with European football until a friend tried explaining how it works. I decided that I needed more information, and this book did the trick! It was interesting to read the history of the sport and how it is constantly changing. A great book to own!

Reviewer: abcerra
Rating: 4.0 out of 5 stars
Title: if you are into...
Review: ...football, business, empires or all the above, you'll enjoy it. An easy reading, full of anecdotes and memories, that will give you a different time perspective on the Premier League

Reviewer: ssolomon
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Would even recommend to non-football fans
Review: When I read the first edition of Soccernomics 5 or 6 years ago, I didn't think I could like a book about football as much. And true to form, I haven't since. But this book was incredible. Well-written, funny, interesting, and full of so many things I didn't know! For PL die-hards, reading this book is a little like reading a book after you've seen the movie: you spend a lot of time like "I remember that!" and being excited (or heart-broken) to relive some pieces of your club's history, anticipating a build-up to some key events in Premier League history, BUT you find out SO MUCH backstory, it's fascinating!Now I'm reading the 3rd edition of Soccernomics, and it doesn't feel as good as the first two versions, but ONLY because The Club was so good it simply eclipsed it.Hard recommend this book to any football fans, and even to people who know nothing about football.

Reviewer: Julia Wharton
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Fantastic
Review: As an American who only started following the Premier League a few years ago, this was a fascinating book. It was so incredibly well structured and well researched. I finished the book with a wealth of knowledge about the league and additional context behind stories, managers, and players whom I've heard of before, but didn't know the history of.Would highly recommend this book! Even for people who don't follow the league closely, or at all!

Reviewer: pooja
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: One of the best written books
Review: This is a fantastic place to start if you're interested in football/the premier league. It reads like fiction, but is very well researched and written. It keeps you interested, laughing and most importantly tells the tale of how we got here in a very clear and gripping manner.

Reviewer: Thomas S. Peel
Rating: 4.0 out of 5 stars
Title: How English Football Became a Cash Super-Cow
Review: English football used to be drunk fans beating each other up in stadiums made of wood and chicken wire. Today it's corporate and very profitable.Book explains how the sport built US-style stadiums and monetized everything possible. US football is #1 in only one country, while soccer-football is supreme in 150-plus. TV rights go for zillions! This is both a sports and business book, showing how upgrading facilities and looking for every possible revenue source can increase profits.

Reviewer: Brandon Kuring
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: A+ book for all sports fans
Review: Very well-written. Learned a ton about the business side of the premier league with some added humor from the writers. Wasn't too technical when getting in depth on certain deals/contracts made within the league. Written much more like a story than a history lecture. Would highly recommend to anybody interested in sports business....definitely a must read if you're a soccer/football fan.

Reviewer: Robinson Vasconcelos
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: Ótimo livro. Muitas informações inéditas de bastidores que ajudam a entender por completo o contexto histórico desse grande desafio que foi construir o maior produto de esporte da atualidade.

Reviewer: Umair
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: The book goes into detail in what the league was like before the creation of the PL and the astonishing growth since. I would recommend this to any sports business fan

Reviewer: Michael Elliott
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: An excellent well reseached and well written book that could be just a fact filled,but is in fact is an exiting ,intriguing journey through the history of the the Premier League

Reviewer: gabriel
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: Excellente

Reviewer: Christian Merschinger
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: The book is informative and - like the subject of the book - a good entertainment in itself. Great read for anyone interested in football (soccer), globalization and the 'love match' between Football and TV.There are many funny passages, perhaps even more so for non native speakers like me, here just one example:"On the pitch, Gullit's comically superior standard was obvious. From his position behind the defence, he would bring down long balls on his chest and then volley a pass out to this fullbacks just to hear the crowd gasp. (The more traditional English approach in that situation would have been to hammer the ball into the next parliamentary constituency) But when he tried to build Chelsea's play from the back in the Dutch style he'd always known, Gullit ran into trouble: he'd pass the ball to his fellow defenders only to find that they didn't want the damn thing.... . (p. 83).