From the publisher:
English football has grown into a massive global entertainment product. Now, supporters of its clubs have become consumers rather than fans, billionaires and foreign states have bought their clubs, and young people are priced out of attending matches.
The English Premier League exploded onto our television screens in 1992 – fuelled by broadcasting income and sponsorship. In Cutting The Mustard Ireland explores how the commercialisation and commodification of the nation’s favourite game actually goes back much further.
A fascinating insight into how football has been directly affected by the wider economic and social changes of the last half century, Ireland reveals how the game moved from the gloom of the 1970s and the disasters of the 1980s to the brave new world of the 1990s, and then towards the glitz and glamour surrounding today’s top men’s clubs in the 21st century.
While the ‘big six’ – with all their riches and crises – make the headlines, Cutting the Mustard tells the story of the provincial clubs, using Ireland’s team Norwich City as the prism through which we can truly understand football’s rollercoaster journey.
Richly illustrated with images and memorabilia from the author, Cutting The Mustard is a timely evocation of how money has changed football over a 50-year period, from the publishers and designer behind the William Hill Sports Book of the Year Award-shortlisted Breaking Ground.
The author:
ROBIN IRELAND is an academic, football fan and the author of Sport, Sponsorship and Public Health (Routledge, 2023). An Honorary Research Fellow in the School of Health and Wellbeing at the University of Glasgow, he first arrived in Norwich in 1972 to study for his A-Levels. It was the year that Norwich City kicked off their first ever season in the top flight of English football and began for Ireland what some might call a lifelong obsession. When he’s not been cheering on the Canaries at Carrow Road or the San Siro, he also enjoys cycling and running. www.robinireland.com
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17 x 25 cm
9781916408937