A comprehensive look into early professional football, this biography of Everton and Liverpool’s founding father John Houlding breaks new ground by addressing the important role of football club ownership in the early history of the game. Football supporters the world over are aware of the great rivalry that exists between the two giants of Merseyside football, Everton and Liverpool. This rivalry was created out of a split within Everton FC that gave rise, in 1892, to Liverpool FC. The two clubs subsequently went on to dominate the English game, amassing twenty-seven English top flight titles between them, more than any other city in the country. What isn’t as well known is that one man was responsible for the rise of both clubs: former Lord Mayor of Liverpool, John Houlding. In The Man Who Created Merseyside Football: John Houlding, Founding Father of Liverpool and Everton, David Kennedy recounts the sporting legacy of Houlding. A brewer and Conservative politician, Houlding was a polarising yet fascinating figure. His financial input, first at Everton Football Club and then at Liverpool Football Club, provided the launch pad for the establishment of two nationally and internationally known sporting organizations. By the time of his death in 1902, both clubs had reached the pinnacle of the English game and Houlding’s place as the founding father of professional football in Merseyside was assured. More than just a football biography, The Man Who Created Merseyside Football also details the many other aspects of Houlding’s life—a family man, businessman, and local politician with parliamentary aspirations. His business and political life, in fact, became entangled in dramatic fashion with the Liverpool football scene on more than one occasion. The complete story of this captivating and influential individual is finally told for the first time in this book, in full and wonderful detail.

This biography of John Houlding, the principal figure in the creation of both Everton and Liverpool football clubs in the late nineteenth century, provides a comprehensive look into early professional football, breaking new ground by addressing the important role of football club ownership in the early history of the game.

Kevin Keegan is one of the greatest players in English football history. Throughout his career as a player and manager he was famed for his style on the pitch and the passion for the game, which he shared with his fans. In My Life in Football, Keegan tells the story of his life, from the streets of Doncaster to signing for Liverpool under Bill Shankly where he won three First Division titles, two UEFA Cups, a European Cup and the FA Cup before moving to Hamburg where he won the Bundasliga as well as the Ballon d'Or twice. After retiring, Keegan enjoyed a legendary five-year spell as manager at Newcastle United during which the club was promoted to the Premier League and then finished runners up in the top flight, not once but twice. In My Life in Football, Keegan tells the full story of the glorious highs, but also the pain of managing England and his unhappy return to Newcastle for a short-lived second tenure. Brilliant, funny, passionate, deeply moving and incredibly honest, My Life in Football is the full story of an incredible journey from miner's son to being crowned 'King Kev' by his adoring fans.

Anti-Racism in European Football: Fair Play for All challenges the issue of racism in European football, identifies the causes of the problem, and seeks its remedy.

Andy Nicholls is known to every football intelligence officer in Britain. For twenty-five years, he was one of the most active hooligans in the country, a leading figure among the violent followers of Everton FC Classified as a Category C thug, the worst kind, he amassed more than twenty arrests and has been deported from Belgium, Iceland and Sweden. His terrace fanzine was closed down by the authorities and he was banned from every ground in the UK. Revealing the truth behind the vicious knife attacks of the so-called County Road Cutters and the bitter Merseyside and Manchester rivalries that left scores injured, SCALLY caused a storm of controversy on first publication. It is widely acknowledged as the most revealing, most shocking book ever written about soccer gang culture.

Stanley Park Story: Life, Love and the Merseyside Derby charts the recent history of the longest continuous running derby game in English football. Liverpool and Everton have now contested the fixture every season since 1962. Using a mixture of fact, fiction and personal experience, Jeff Goulding has crafted a compelling tale spanning three generations of two families, Red and Blue. Their lives become intricately woven together through 50 years of this unique sporting rivalry. The story explores the changing fortunes of each team and the relationship between the two sets of supporters, which evolves over the years. The life and times of Jimmy, a Blue, and Tommy, a Red, form the basis of the drama which unfolds against a backdrop of thrilling sporting encounters, social and political upheaval and catastrophe. Ultimately, the story is one of a love so strong it reaches across the park to forge a timeless bond between the two families.

Soccer has the unique ability to represent and strengthen different cultural identities and ideologies throughout the world. Perhaps nowhere can this be seen more prominently than in Spain, which has surged to the forefront of the world’s most popular sport. The national team has won the last two European Championships and the 2010 World Cup, while the two preeminent club teams in Spain, Real Madrid and FC Barcelona, have reached the semifinals of the UEFA Champions League in 2011, 2012, and 2013. Even before the sport became a global phenomenon, soccer had established a strong connection with Spanish identity and culture. In Soccer in Spain: Politics, Literature, and Film, Timothy J. Ashton examines the sport’s association with Spanish culture and society. In this volume, Ashton demonstrates how Spain’s soccer clubs reflected the politics of the region they represented and continue to reflect them today. The author also explores the often-tenuous relationship between the intellectual classes and the soccer community in Spain. Although some of the country’s most highly-praised literary figures had a passion for soccer—which was often reflected in their work—many intellectuals deemed the topic unsuitable for critical study. Ashton also discusses how soccer films faced a similar rebuff from Spanish intellectuals, though the popularity of these films has grown in recent years. As soccer continues to be one of the modern world’s most significant representations of globalization, its importance as a cultural touchpoint cannot be ignored. For anyone wanting to learn more about the relationship between soccer, politics, and popular culture, this volume offers critical insights. Soccer in Spain is a valuable read for students and scholars of Spanish political history, literature, film, and sport.

This ambitious and fascinating history considers why, in the space of sixty years between 1850 and 1910, football grew from a marginal and unorganised activity to become the dominant winter entertainment for millions of people around the world. The book explores how the world’s football codes - soccer, rugby league, rugby union, American, Australian, Canadian and Gaelic - developed as part of the commercialised leisure industry in the nineteenth century. Football, however and wherever it was played, was a product of the second industrial revolution, the rise of the mass media, and the spirit of the age of the masses. Important reading for students of sports studies, history, sociology, development and management, this book is also a valuable resource for scholars and academics involved in the study of football in all its forms, as well as an engrossing read for anyone interested in the early history of football.

For the Anfield faithful, Jamie Carragher represents everything that is great about Liverpool Football Club, prompting the Kop to sing 'we all dream of a team of Carraghers'. The club's vice-captain, longest-serving player and one of a select band of players to have made more than 500 appearances for the Reds, Carra never gives less than 100 per cent for the cause. He is the embodiment of old-fashioned football values - a rarity in the modern game - honest and uncompromising. In Carra: My Autobiography, the Liverpool defender takes us deep into the heart of Anfield, into the club's past glories and its uncertain future. In his typically down-to-earth style, Carra reveals what made him discard his blue Evertonian roots to become a fully fledged Red, how he mended his wild ways to become a true professional and a multiple trophy-winner, and the truth about a succession of managers - Evans, Houllier, Benítez - in the hottest seat in football. A Scouser through and through, Carra also has some forthright views on the England team, and tells why he rejected calls to return to the international fold. Full of sensational stories and controversial opinions, of glory and heartbreak on and off the pitch, Carra: My Autobiography is a football book unlike any other. The authentic voice of Anfield, Carra is one of the Bootroom Boys in true Liverpool tradition, and is as committed on the page as in every game he has played.

Merseyside has been the birthplace or home of literally hundreds of extraordinary men and women over the years. Modern-day noteworthy figures, such as Kim Cattrall, Daniel Craig, Beth Tweddle and Patricia Routledge rub shoulders with the historical great and good, including Sir Thomas Beecham, George Stevenson and Lady Emma Hamilton. Personalities from all eras and walks of life are featured, from politics, art and industry to music and entertainment. In this book Christine Dawe has penned a fascinating selection of mini-biographies of Merseyside's most famous sons and daughters to make a perfect souvenir for visitors to the area. This is also essential reading for Merseysiders everywhere, and is sure to appeal to those wanting to know more about these people's contributions to the Merseyside we know today.