How They Stole the Game
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Product Description
Review
The authoritative inside account of how world football is run. --Observer
Book Description
The book that Sepp Blatter wanted to ban: How Fifa sold football.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
6 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
David Yallop is, for me, the world's greatest investigative writer. If anyone thinks otherwise then please let me know as I am looking for new authors. He has written only a handful of books over a 30+ year career and to my knowledge nothing he has ever uncovered has been disproved.
How They Stole The Game is about football and Yallop probes to the very heart of FIFA. More specifically, the FIFA president from 1974-1998, Joao Havelange and how he abuses his power to create his own fiefdom and abuse, control and corrupt his way to the top job, stay there for 24 years and furthermore, ensure this continues after his reign comes to an end.
This is the book that the FIFA president tried to ban and having read it I can understand why. If there was a single untruth in the book then I am sure Havelange would have taken matters further legally although to my knowledge, 8 years after publication, nothing has happened. Is this because the accusations are true?
A very well researched, detailed book that is fascinating and the story infuriating because, as ever, it is the fans who are the ultimate losers.
How They Stole The Game is about football and Yallop probes to the very heart of FIFA. More specifically, the FIFA president from 1974-1998, Joao Havelange and how he abuses his power to create his own fiefdom and abuse, control and corrupt his way to the top job, stay there for 24 years and furthermore, ensure this continues after his reign comes to an end.
This is the book that the FIFA president tried to ban and having read it I can understand why. If there was a single untruth in the book then I am sure Havelange would have taken matters further legally although to my knowledge, 8 years after publication, nothing has happened. Is this because the accusations are true?
A very well researched, detailed book that is fascinating and the story infuriating because, as ever, it is the fans who are the ultimate losers.
10 of 12 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Anyone with an interest in the world game should read this book. Recent events with the farce over the 2006 World Cup vote should read this and you won't be suprised by the dodgy dealing, back scratching and back stabbing that goes on to ensure that someone gets a big fat slice of the pie that a FIFA tournament brings to a country.
Yallop's investigations into FIFA make you wonder about the power and corruption going on in full view of everyone with an interest in football.
The game of the masses ? Don't make me laugh.
5 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
It probably says more about me and the times we live in than about the book but I didn't think the book was half as scandalous as I had expected it to be. It was with a sense of, 'Yeah but I figured this was going on already' that I read this. Perhaps it is also because I started reading this book a little bit too late and it's now perhaps slightly out of date. Having said that, if you replaced the name Havelange with the name Blatter and changed the dates, my guess is that the book is as up-to-date as anything.
Other disappointing things for me were Yallop's obsession with Maradonna's handball and other incidents that somehow disadvantaged the English squad and his strange symbolism of Brazilian football with the beautiful game. I agree that the Brazil team with Pelé were nothing short of magical, of what I have seen on videos. However, pre-Pelé and certainly post-Pelé there have also been numerous times that we saw the ugly, boring and cheating sides of Brazilian football. To say that Havelange stole the game and that game was or is epitomized by Brazilian football is a over the top.
For me this is an issue because he writes at length about the state of Brazilian football and how Havelange's son-in-law has corrupted it. I am sure this is the case but I am sure this is the case elsewhere too and for such a great investigator to ignore this was disappointing.
On the upside, this is a tremendous body of work in terms of Yallop's research. It is written very clearly and believably and it basically a good read. What is also prevalent is Yallop's passion for football. He shares the normal person's love for the beautiful game and is obviously aggravated by its decline. I, too, have sat in virtually quiet stadiums without any atmosphere and as an Arsenal fan, there was quite a lot of sad truth in the last line of the epilogue but I'll let you read that for yourself.
Other disappointing things for me were Yallop's obsession with Maradonna's handball and other incidents that somehow disadvantaged the English squad and his strange symbolism of Brazilian football with the beautiful game. I agree that the Brazil team with Pelé were nothing short of magical, of what I have seen on videos. However, pre-Pelé and certainly post-Pelé there have also been numerous times that we saw the ugly, boring and cheating sides of Brazilian football. To say that Havelange stole the game and that game was or is epitomized by Brazilian football is a over the top.
For me this is an issue because he writes at length about the state of Brazilian football and how Havelange's son-in-law has corrupted it. I am sure this is the case but I am sure this is the case elsewhere too and for such a great investigator to ignore this was disappointing.
On the upside, this is a tremendous body of work in terms of Yallop's research. It is written very clearly and believably and it basically a good read. What is also prevalent is Yallop's passion for football. He shares the normal person's love for the beautiful game and is obviously aggravated by its decline. I, too, have sat in virtually quiet stadiums without any atmosphere and as an Arsenal fan, there was quite a lot of sad truth in the last line of the epilogue but I'll let you read that for yourself.
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