Conn's account of modern day football, and the sinister forces controlling the game, makes for a wonderful read.
Too often books on football ignore the trials and tribulations of lower league clubs. That is not a charge that can be levelled at Conn. His chapters on Wimbledon, York, Crewe, Bury, Notts County and others are magnificent accounts of the enthusiasm, passion and fervour of football supporters. In the same chapters there are often desperate tales of the greed of chairmen and directors of these same clubs.
Conn reminds the reader how fans are told that football is now a business, and as a result, has to be viewed in different terms from the game that many supporters grew to love. However, Conn responds with the argument that if football is now a business, then why are people who have continually run their business into the ground been rewarded with well paid jobs.
As a Liverpool supporter I recoommend the book. It's especially recommended to those supporters who perhaps are unsympathetic to the demands of the Hillsborough families. If you're in any way unsure about what happened on April 15th 1989, please read the book. Conn is not a Liverpool supporter. He's not a spokesperson for Liverpool or the bereaved families - he's just a journalist who has restored this reviewer's faith in football writers - and quite possibly football in general.
