A Matter of Life and Death: The History of Football in 100 Quotations

By Jim White

A seriously entertaining soccer gift book, in which 100 memorable quotes spark a richly informative and thought-provoking history of the sport in all its aspects

The sayings of the great and the good—not to mention the lovers and the loathers—of the beautiful game are used here as starting points for an informal, freewheeling, discursive, and entertainingly opinionated history of soccer. From the Pall Mall Gazette to Attitude magazine, from Brian Clough to Julie Burchill, from Diego Maradona to José Mourinho, the things they have said about the world's most popular team sport are examined, picked over, and placed in historical context—and sometimes found to inspire in unexpected ways. Exploring themes as diverse as the language of the sport, the role of the media, the role of money, and the careers of gilded geniuses from Pele to Ronaldo and maverick managers from Clough to Mourinho, and generously sprinkled with anecdotes, further quotes, and photographs, this book is the perfect present for the hardcore fan.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Independent Publishers Group
• Release date: Jan 1, 2015
• ISBN: 9781781859261

Jim White

Jim White has written for the Independent, the Guardian and the Telegraph. He is the author of MANCHESTER UNITED THE BIOGRAPHY and YOU'LL WIN NOTHING WITH KIDS.

Reviews for A Matter of Life and Death

[atticusfinch1048 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

A Matter of Life and DeathSports journalist Jim Write has written the book that every other sports writer will wish they had thought of, A Matter of Life of Death is a history of football in 100 quotations. A great idea which he has turned in to a fun but interesting read and if you did not already know some of the sport’s history you will be more enlightened by the time you have finished reading.The book starts with a quotation from the Mayor of London in 1314 when on behalf of the King they banned the game on the pain of punishment. Admittedly the game back then would to a casual observer look nothing like today’s game, as the game then was more a hooligan’s day out causing mayhem. White reminds us that we can see that ancient variant of the game still in action today out in Ashbourne on Ash Wednesday.We are guided through to 1863 when we get the first law of association football when the pitch measurements were laid down. We are also reminded that Melvyn Bragg selected the thirteen laws of football by the Football Association as one of the 12 Books that Changed the World. One just has to look around the world that someone always has a ball around for a kick about whether on the beach or the battlefield.One of the funniest quotations which often gets thrown at those of us northerners on our day out at the FA Cup Final these days is a derivative of the Pall Mall Gazette’s ‘ A northern horde of uncouth grab and strange oaths.’ We may be uncouth but if you want winners you need us uncouth northerners, but only once we have taken our clogs and caps off and stuff our pies in our jacket pockets.This book is a tour of the history of the world’s favourite game whether it was the great Arsenal side of the 20s and 30’s to the greatest team in the world, Brazil with Pele. We are taken through the good times for the sport to one of the worst nights ever at Hysel in Brussels, when Juventus died at the European Cup Final due to football violence. A time when many were turning their backs on the beautiful game and it looked like the game would die, as irrelevant and violent.Jim White takes us through the history to modern day when football has had a renaissance that those back in the 1980s would never have thought possible. He also describes what will always be my best day ever in football when I was cursing Manchester City for blowing, and given Martin Tyler’s commentary. I never heard the commentary until two days later when I was sober as I was in the stadium that day.There is something for everyone in this book, A Matter of Life and Death delivers on every level, sometimes with the sad history of the game to the better days from the sublime to the ridiculous. This is a great book written by a Manchester United supporting journalist that has swapped his usual crayons to learn some facts and write an excellent football book.