Publishers Weekly
11/26/2018
Journalists Robinson and Clegg, both of the Wall Street Journal, expertly explore the creation and expansion of the English Premier League, club soccer’s preeminent sports organization, in this investigative chronicle of sports, business, and global culture. The league was formed in 1992 when England’s top soccer teams broke with the country’s football league, in which they had been “bound to every other club in the country by a four-tiered structure” since the 19th century. By creating their own top-tier league, team representatives capitalized on new revenue streams, including a £304 million TV contract from Rupert Murdoch’s Sky TV. Enthralled by the intense competition and an influx of cash, billionaire owners from the U.S., Russia, and the Middle East bought up the likes of Manchester United, Liverpool, Chelsea, and Manchester City and began playing in state-of-the-art stadiums, selling merchandise internationally, and paying the world’s best players exorbitant salaries. Using their investigative journalism skills and mixing facts into a solidly entertaining narrative that melds boom-and-bust business with athletic competition at the highest level, the authors perfectly capture the rise of one of the world’s best-known sports organizations. (Dec.)
From the Publisher
"The transformation of the English Premier League, from the muddy pitches, primitive tactics, and unglamorous pub culture of its early days to the coveted, lavish, global colossus we now know and love is a rollicking tale. Robinson and Clegg delight in every detail of that evolution from backwater to behemoth, spinning a narrative that is part Great Expectations, part Game of Thrones, in equal measure." —Roger Bennett, NBC Sports, Men in Blazers “The Club is a richly detailed, remarkably told story of how the Premier League became the unstoppable force that it is today. Joshua and Jonathan provide unparalleled access to the people who make the league go, from the owners to the managers to the stars on the field. The Club is the definitive guide to the definitive league in sports.” –Billy Beane, Vice President for Baseball Operations, Oakland A’s "Clegg and Robinson are expert storytellers in unspooling the narrative of one of Britain's most successful exports, illustrating the creative tensions between owners that made it possible. The work is at once thorough but also readable and entertaining, with protagonists presented as real live characters, rather than faceless suits: a testament to their reporting and writing skills." –Gabriele Marcotti, ESPN “Not even thirty years ago, supporting an English soccer club meant risking life and limb to stand among brawling hordes on damp terraces, choking down a halftime cup of Bovril, and doing your best to never, ever enter the bathrooms. Joshua Robinson and Jonathan Clegg put readers in a padded boardroom seat next to the impresarios, visionaries, and hucksters – and, later, the oligarchs, sheiks, and hedge fund tycoons – who transformed a motley collection of unprofitable clubs into the international king of all sports leagues. The Club is an antic and definitive account of all that has been gained – and lost – along the way with the improbable ascent of the Premier League – quality, money, power, money, non-vomitous toilets, money – as well as all that’s been lost.” –Ben Reiter, bestselling author of Astroball "A fascinating and necessary investigation into the forces that led to the creation of the Premier League. Meticulous in its research." –Jonathan Wilson, author of Inverting the Pyramid —
Library Journal - Audio
03/01/2019
Robinson (European sports correspondent, Wall Street Journal) and Clegg (senior editor, Wall Street Journal) tell the incredible true story of how the English football Premier League was created in 1992 and how it became so very successful. Robinson and Clegg conducted more than 100 interviews with all of the major people involved in the creation of this dynamic group. They chose not to simply cover the 1992 beginnings but to go back a century to investigate why English football was not attractive to television executives and how it became dangerous for fans in attendance at matches. To combat these issues, the Big Five teams (Manchester United, Liverpool, Tottenham, Everton, and Arsenal) got together and broke off with 15 other teams to form the English Premier League, making a television deal worth millions of pounds. This led directly to higher team worth and the very expensive salaries of today's top players. Narrator Shaun Grindell performs perfectly, with a British accent that fits the book like a glove. VERDICT Fans of the English Premier League teams and players, along with those interested in how major sports leagues can alter history, will find this a fascinating audiobook.—Jason L. Steagall, formerly with Gateway Technical Coll. Lib., Elkhorn, WI
