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Football Book of the Year shortlist announced

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For the first time, The Telegraph Sports Book Awards to take place at The Kia Oval’s new hospitality suite on 20th September 2021.  The FWA is delighted to have been involved in the judging process for the Football Book of the Year. 

Shortlisted authors include Joe Wicks, Jamie Redknapp, Harry Pearson, Eddie Hearn, Andy Cole, David Walsh, Tyson Fury, Andy Robertson, Ruqsana Begum, Tom Fordyce, Gianluca Vialli, Jeff Stelling, Geraint Thomas, Chloe Madeley, Luka Modric, Nicklas Bendtner, Marco Van Basten, Joe Marler, Rob Kearney, Catherine Spencer, James Haskell, Chris Sutton, Alan Brazil and many more. 

The shortlist for The Telegraph Sports Book Awards 2021, announced today, features a diverse mix of extraordinary writing from new and established writers and sportspeople across 11 categories, including the inaugural Clays Best Sports Writing Award, the fiercely contested CLOC Football Book of the Year as judged by the FWA, The Arbuthnot Latham Rugby Book of the Year, adjudicated by The Rugby Writers’ Club, The Children’s Book of the Year supported by our charity partner, The National Literacy Trust, as well as another new category, Sports Entertainment Book of the Year, in recognition of a rapidly growing area of sports writing.

Arsene Wenger, shortlisted in the International Autobiography of the Year, says: ‘I am honoured to see my book, MY LIFE IN RED AND WHITE, shortlisted for International Autobiography of the Year alongside such outstanding sportspeople. I am grateful to the judges for recognising my story in this way and proud to show that sport crosses international borders to unite us all.’

The Telegraph Sports Book Awards is the major annual promotion for sports writing and publishing. The awards exist to highlight the most outstanding sports books of the previous calendar year, to showcase their merits and, to enhance their reputation and profile.

To tie in with the announcement of The Telegraph Sports Book Awards shortlist, the public are now, for the first time ever, being asked to cast their votes online for their favourite sports books of the year. The Sports Book Awards esteemed judging panels are still in place for each category associated with an individual sport, where judging remains under the remit of the respective sports writing associations.

The Autobiography of the Year, International Autobiography or the Year, Sports Entertainment of the Year, and Sports Health & Fitness Book of the Year will all be decided by a public vote.

Voting is now live on the BRAND NEW Sports Book Awards website – www.sportsbookawards.com – but keep your eyes peeled, as there will be more information on the voting process released across the Sports Book Awards channels in the coming weeks.

The inaugural Clays Sports Writing Award will also be adjudicated by a specifically assembled panel, with Clare Balding appointed as the judging chair for 2021. The award replaces the Biography and General Outstanding categories, ensuring the very best works are appropriately recognised within a singular category. Alongside Clare Balding, the judges include Olympic Champion Christine Ohuruogu, Sky Boxing’s Adam Smith, Cricketer and TalkSport host Darren Gough, The Telegraph’s Chief Sportswriter Oliver Brown, The Chairman of European Rugby Simon Halliday and Olympic Silver medallist and bestselling author Annie Vernon. They will be looking for outstanding storytelling with literary merit that leaves a lasting impact on the reader.

Olympic champion and judging panellist Christine Ohuruogu says: ‘I’m thrilled to be part of the judging panel for the inaugural Sports Writing Award. It’s a fantastic campaign and ceremony and I’m looking forward to sharing my thoughts on the outstanding books with a stellar group of sports stars, broadcasters and journalists.’

The Sports Book Award’s Children’s Sports Book of the Year, once again in association with The National Literacy Trust, encompasses a broad range of excellent Children’s titles. Picture books, YA titles, fiction and non-fiction will all be considered, leaving this year’s judges with a tough decision. However, all shortlisted books encourage a love of reading through sports & physical activity, using sports & sporting stories to inspire its young readers. The National Literacy Trust is a charity dedicated to improving the reading, writing, speaking and listening skills of children who need it most, giving them the best possible chance of success in school, work and life. Over the past 20 years, the charity has improved the literacy skills of more than a million children through the power of sport.

Sports Book Awards founder and Chairman David Willis reflects: ‘There has been an explosion of titles in the sports department of bookshops and this reflects the enormous and growing interest in the worlds of sport and games, fitness and leisure and mindfulness and meditation.

The energetic and imaginative team who make this lively and much anticipated event happen, work throughout the year reading, debating, sometimes arguing, and above all enthusing all comers with their love of sport and its literary heritage. My sincere thanks to everyone at AGILE, Omar Khan and our hard working judging academy.

We remain committed to the work of the National Literacy Trust. The numerous initiatives the National Literacy Trust run to increase child literacy rates are absolutely essential, and we look forward to using our platform to help them meet that challenge. The Children’s Sports Book Award provides the opportunity to recognise fantastic contributions to Children’s sporting literature.

Sport is such an integral part of the essential British psyche so it is inevitable that reading and reflecting upon it continues to give us all great pleasure and enjoyment.’

Finally, winners will all be announced on September 20th at a London gala ceremony in the 175 Suite, The Kia Oval’s brand-new hospitality suite. The Sports Book Awards are delighted to be hosting the showpiece event in partnership with such a historic venue. Tickets will be available to purchase at sportsbookawards.com from Tuesday 3rd August. 

The Telegraph Sports Book Awards 2021 shortlist is as follows:

The Clays Best Sports Writing Award

Frankel – Simon Cooper (HarperCollins)

The Biggest Bluff – Maria Konnikova (HarperCollins)

The Moth and the Mountain – Ed Caesar (Viking)

The Russian Affair – David Walsh (Simon and Schuster)

The Breath of Sadness – Ian Ridley (Floodlit Dreams)

The Farther Corner – Harry Pearson (Simon and Schuster)~

Autobiography of the Year

Me, Family and the Making of a Footballer – Jamie Redknapp (Headline)

Fast Forward – Andrew Cole (Hodder & Stoughton)

Out of the Darkness – Matt Piper (Pitch Publishing)

Robbo: Now You’re Gonna Believe Us – Andy Robertson (Reach Sport)

Born Fighter – Ruqsana Begum (Simon and Schuster)

Mud, Maul, Mascara – Catherine Spencer (Unbound)

Children’s Book of the Year, in association with National Literacy Trust

My Greatest Football Team Ever – Tom Fordyce and Kieran Carroll (Hachette Children’s Group)

Chasing a Rugby Dream – James Hook and David Brayley (Polaris)

Johnny Ball: Accidental Football Genius – Matt Oldfield and Tim Wesson (Walker Books)

Karate Kids – Holly Sterling (Walker Books)

Football Superstars: Rashford Rules – Simon Mugford and Dan Green (Welbeck)

Macbeth United – Michael Rosen and Tony Ross (Scholastic)

OWN GOAL! (Football Mad #1) – Paul Stewart and Michael Broad (Barrington Stoke)

Roy of the Rovers: Rocky – Tom Palmer and Dan Cornwell (Rebellion Publishing)

The Heartaches Cricket Book of the Year

The Commonwealth of Cricket – Ramachandra Guha (HarperCollins)

Comeback Summer – Geoff Lemon (Hardie Grant)

One Long and Beautiful Summer – Duncan Hamilton (Riverrun)

Barbed Wire and Cucumber Sandwiches – Dr Colin Shindler (Pitch Publishing)

That Will be England Gone – Michael Henderson (Constable)

The Unforgiven, The Missionaries or Mercenaries? – Ashley Gray (Pitch Publishing)

Bob Willis: A Cricketer and a Gentleman – Bob Willis, Mike Dickson (Hodder & Stoughton)

VAARU Cycling Book of the Year

Colombia Es Pasión – Matt Rendell (Weidenfeld & Nicolson)

Dead Man to Iron Man – Paul Smith (Pitch Publishing)

Signs of Life: To the Ends of the Earth with a Doctor – Stephen Fabes (Pursuit, Profile Books)

Mountains According to G – Geraint Thomas (Quercus)

Tour de France Champions: An A-Z – Giles Belbin (The History Press)

CLOC Football Book of the Year, in association with the Football Writers’ Association

Sacré Bleu: Zidane to Mbappé – A football journey -Matthew Spiro (Biteback Publishing)

Champagne Football – Mark Tighe & Paul Rowan (Sandycove, Penguin)

The Quality of Madness – Tim Rich (Quercus)

Soccer Diplomacy – Heather L. Dichter (UKP)

How to Run a Football Club – Jim Keoghan (Pitch Publishing)

St. Pauli: Another Football is Possible – Natxo Parra, Carles Vina (Pluto Press)

Illustrated Book of the Year

British Football’s Greatest Grounds – Mike Bayly (Pitch Publishing)

Skate Like A Girl – Carolina Amell (Prestel)

This is Cricket – Daniel Melamud (Rizzoli)

We Are Home – Mike Dunn & AFC Wimbledon (Vision Sports Publishing)

175 Years of Surrey CCC, Surrey CCC (Vision Sports Publishing)

Pinsent Masons International Autobiography of the Year

Luka Modrić: My Autobiography – Luka Modrić (Bloomsbury Publishing)

True Colours – Barry Geraghty (Headline)

Both Sides – Nicklas Bendtner; Rune Skyum-Nielsen (Octopus)

Basta – My Life, My Truth – Marco van Basten (Octopus)

My Life in Red and White – Arsene Wenger (Weidenfeld & Nicolson)

No Hiding – Rob Kearney (Reach Sport)

Arbuthnot Latham Rugby Book of the Year, in association with The Rugby Writers’ Club

Loose Head – Joe Marler (Ebury)

What A Flanker – James Haskell (HarperCollins)

Our Blood Is Green – Gavin Rich (Polaris)

Exe Men – Robert Kitson (Polaris)

The Hurt – Dylan Hartley (Viking)

No Hiding – Rob Kearney (Reach Sport)

Sports Entertainment Book of the Year

Never Stop Dreaming – Stuart Pearce, Oliver Holt (Hodder & Stoughton)

You’re Better Than That – Chris Sutton (Monoray, Octopus)

Only Here For A Visi – Alan Brazil (Bantam Press, Transworld Books)

Lights Out, Full Throttle – Damon Hill and Johnny Herbert (Pan Macmillan)

26.2 Miles to Happiness – Paul Tonkinson (Bloomsbury Publishing)

I’ve Got Mail – Jeff Stelling (Headline)

Sports Health & Fitness Book of the Year

Relentless: 12 Rounds to Success – Eddie Hearn (Hodder & Stoughton)

The Whitlock Workout – Max Whitlock (Headline)

Goals: Inspirational Stories to Help Tackle Life’s Challenges – Gianluca Vialli and Gabriele Marcotti (Headline)

30 Day Kick Start Plan – Joe Wicks (Bluebird, Pan Macmillan)

The Furious Method – Tyson Fury (Century, Cornerstone)

Eating for Results – Chloe Madeley (Bantam Press, Transworld Books)

For more information about The Telegraph Sports Book Awards 2021, visit http://sportsbookawards.com/

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Football Book of the Year longlist

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Once again we at the Football Writers’ Association have selected the long list of candidates for the Football Book of the Year, one of 11 Telegraph Sports Book Awards categories. All the shortlists will be unveiled in a virtual announcement on July 28th 2021, with the gala dinner and awards ceremony to be held on September 20th 2021 – NEW venue to be announced soon!.

Jim Keoghan’s How to Run a Football Club tells the story of our national game, exploring common themes between sunday league and the premier league. Harry Pearson follows up his classic The Far Corner, with The Farther Corner, another poignant assessment of football in the North-East. A little further from home, Hassanin Mubarak tells the story of the early years of the Iraqi Football team in Birth of the Lions of Mesopotamia, while Steven Scragg provides a definitive account of the glory years of the UEFA Cup in Where the Cool Kids Hung Out.

Heather L. Dichter assesses how football has influenced and been influenced by international relations over the past century, with her expertly researched and insightful, Soccer Diplomacy. James Montague uncovers the growing political influence of the Ultras in his immersive book 1312: Among the Ultras. Carles Viñas & Natxo Parras’ St. Pauli explain how the club and it’s tribal following offer up an alternative future for football. Conversely, Mark Tighe & Paul Rowans’ story, Champagne Football, looks at another shocking example of how unrestricted power can have catastrophic consequences, telling the story of John Delaney’s destruction of the FA of Ireland. Daniel Gray reminds us all there is still much to love about the modern game in Extra Time, with 50 reasons why we still love football.

Matthew Spiro’s Sacré Bleu gives a fascinating account of the rise and fall and rise again of France’s national team, told through the lens of Kylian Mbappé. Stuart Horsfield’s 1982 Brazil tells the story of arguably the most famous Brazilian side, told through the eyes of a young boy who fell in love with the team. Laura Lexx’s humorous imagined diary of married life with Jürgen Klopp tells of an altogether different kind of love in Klopp Actually. Every bit as unreal and fascinating is Tim Rich’s account of the brilliance behind Marcelo ‘El Loco’ Bielsa in The Quality of Madness. Finally, Flight to Bogota by John Leonard tells the unbelievable story of the English players that turned their back on the English game in a stand against mistreatment by their clubs, led by first-choice English centre-half, Neil Franklin.

The CLOC Football Book of the Year, judged by the Football Writers’ Association is part of The Telegraph Sports Book Awards, which celebrate their 19th birthday this year.

The esteemed Telegraph Sports Book Awards Judging Academy includes an outstanding group of sports celebrities, broadcasters and journalists, with this years’ judges including: Clare Balding, Miles Jupp, Simon Brotherton, Adam Smith, Christine Ohuruogu, Oliver Brown, Darren Gough, Simon Halliday and Sir Tim Rice.

David Willis, Chairman of the Telegraph Sports Book Awards said: “We are delighted to be announcing the Football Writers’ Association Book of the Year Longlist and working in partnership with CLOC Printing for the second year in a row, and honoured to continue an excellent relationship with the highly esteemed Football Writers’ Association.”

Philippe Auclair, Chair of the Football Writers Association Books Committee, commented: “2020, the year of the pandemic, presented a unique challenge to writers and publishers alike, a challenge to which they responded superbly. This longlist is testimony to the vitality of football writing in the UK and in the English-speaking world as a whole; it also demonstrates how football writing keeps expanding its reach beyond the traditional boundaries of the genre. The fourteen books which we selected reflect this richness. Academic works sit alongside biographies, essays, historical accounts, moving personal reminiscences and works of humour, by male and female writers of all ages. I believe that of all the longlists the FWA Book Committee has ever drawn, this one is, by far, the most genuinely diverse we’ve selected, and purely on merit. This is an encouraging sign for football writing as a whole. It is also proof of its resilience in what has been a hugely difficult time for football and those who write about it.”

Alongside CLOC Printing, The Telegraph Sports Book of the Year Awards partners include Clays, VAARU Cycles, Pinsent Masons, Arbuthnot Latham, Sky Sports, Tim Rice’s The Heartaches & The National Literacy Trust. The final shortlists for all categories for the 2021 Sports Book of the Year Awards will be announced virtually on July 28th 2021. The winners ceremony will be a gala dinner at a and awards ceremony on September 20th 2021 – NEW venue to be announced soon!

The Telegraph Sports Book Awards Categories 2021:

Best Sports Writing Award Autobiography of the Year

International Autobiography of the Year

Children’s Sports Book of the Year

Cricket Book of the Year

Football Book of the Year

Cycling Book of the Year

Illustrated Book of the Year

Rugby Book of the Year

Sports Health & Fitness Book of the Year

Sports Entertainment Book of the Year

For more information about The Telegraph Sports Book Awards 2021, visit

http://sportsbookawards.com/

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Telegraph Sports Book of the Year awards

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The Telegraph Sports Book of the Year awards announced their shortlists today.

In the Football Book of the Year section, selected by us at the Football Writers’ Association and sponsored by CLOC Printing, there are six outstanding books:

  • David Tossell’s Natural, a revealing and comprehensive biography of one of England’s most loved footballers, Jimmy Greaves.
  • Tobias Jones delves into a facet of Italian football’s subculture, examining the sinister side of fandom in Ultra.
  • Daniel Fieldsend’s Locãl looks at the uniquely intertwined relationship between Liverpudlians and their city and football club.
  • Jonathan Wilson’s excellently researched assessment of how Hungarian football in the 1950s shaped the modern game, The Names Heard Long Ago.
  • Leo Moynihan’s The Three Kings, tracks the life and careers of three of the greatest ever managers, Stein, Shankly & Busby, undoubtedly all architects of the modern game.
  • Steven Scragg pays homage to the European Cup Winners’ Cup with A Tournament Frozen In Time, charting its distinct history through the unique, eccentric stories it created.

The Telegraph Sports Autobiography of the Year shortlist features a diverse group of sports people, including world heavyweight champion, Tyson Fury, World Cup- winning cricket hero Ben Stokes and England’s leading all time wicket taker James Anderson, England women’s footballing-legend Eniola Aluko, the extrovert racing driver Jason Plato, as well as former Liverpool and England footballers Michael Owen and Emile Heskey.

The Children’s Sports Book of the Year shortlist includes former England women’s football captain Casey Stoney’s, Changing the Game, as well as Matt Oldfield’s Unbelievable Football, and Alex Bellos & Ben Lyttle’s popular series, Football School Season 4.

The Pinsent Masons International Autobiography category includes Manchester United and Spanish international Juan Mata’s story in Suddenly A Footballer – My Story, and German defender Per Mertesacker’s Big Friendly German.

This year’s General Outstanding Sports Writing award shortlist includes Andy Woodward sharing his harrowing story in Position of Trust, a trust shattered at the hands of convicted sex offender Barry Bennell.

The Biography shortlist includes football too, with Lofty by Matt Clough assessing the career and influence of England footballing legend Nat Lofthouse. David Tossell reveals the trials and tribulations of another England football star in Natural, his biography of Jimmy Greaves.

The Illustrated Sports Book of the Year shortlist features An A to Z of Football Collectibles by Carl Wilkes, A life Behind the Lens by Richard Pelham, and Destination Tottenham collated by Tottenham Hotspur Football Club.

The Telegraph Sports Book Awards 2020 winners will be digitally announced on July 15th. The online announcement will replace the traditional celebration at Lord’s Cricket Ground.

The Telegraph Sports Book Awards 2020 are grateful to our sponsors and partners, including The Telegraph, Sky Sports, BBC Sport, CLOC Printing, The Football Writers’ Association, Pinsent Masons, VAARU Cycles, The Rugby Writers and Sir Tim Rice’s The Heartaches.

The Sports Book Awards official charity partner is now the excellent National Literacy Trust, who are also collaborating with the awards to help launch the inaugural Children’s Sports Book of the Year award.

For more information about The Telegraph Sports Book Awards 2020, visit

http://sportsbookawards.com/

 

Football Book of the Year longlist announced

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The 12 titles chosen by the FWA for the longlist of the Football Book of the Year award have been revealed. The FWA books committee has chosen the 12 titles below and congratulate the authors.  They will be further reduced to a shortlist for the final award, which is due to be held at Lord’s Cricket Ground in September, along with other Sports Books of the Year.

Sponsored by CLOC Printing, the Football Book of the Year is one of 10 Telegraph Sports Book Awards categories. The directors of the Telegraph Sports Book Awards have made the regrettable decision to postpone this year’s shortlist and winners events, but are pleased to announce they will take place later in the year, with a September date soon to be confirmed for the annual winners’ ceremony at Lords Cricket Ground.

Carrie Dunn’s superb deep-dive into the changing face of Women’s Football, The Pride of the Lionesses, looks beyond the headlines, reflecting on growth at grass roots level, as well as that of the professional game. Tobias Jones delves into a facet of Italian footballs subculture, examining the sinister side of footballing fandom in Ultra. Daniel Fieldsend’s Local looks at Liverpudlians uniquely intertwined relationship with both the City of Liverpool and their beloved football club.

Jonathan Wilson’s excellently researched assessment of how Hungarian football in the 1950’s shaped the modern game, The Names Heard Long Ago, is up against Michael Cox’s Zonal Marking, an insightful overview of tactical development in European football over the last three decades. Leo Moynihan’s The Three Kings tracks the life and careers of three of the greatest ever managers, Stein, Shankly & Busby, undoubtedly the central architects of the modern game. The tactical theme continues with Pep’s City, Spanish journalists Pol Ballus & Lu Martins’ behind the scenes profiling of Pep Guardiola’s success at Manchester City. David Tossell’s Natural, makes the longlist with a revealing and comprehensive biography of a past superstar, one England’s most loved footballers, Jimmy Greaves.

Steven Scragg pays homage to the European Cup Winners Cup with Frozen In Time, charting its distinct history through the unique, eccentric stories it created. Amy Raphael’s, A Game of Two Halves, pairs football’s superstars with their celebrity superfans, resulting in plenty of funny conversations and revealing some uplifting commonalities. Completing the shortlist are Stephen O’Donnell’s brutally honest account of the rise and fall of Rangers FC, Tangled Up In Blue, and John Nicolson’s Can We Have Our Football Back?, a polemic against the premier league, including a passionate pitch for an alternative future.

David Willis, Chairman of the Telegraph Sports Book Awards said: ‘We are delighted to be announcing the Football Writers’ Association Book of the Year Long List and working in partnership with CLOC Printing for the first time, and honoured to continue an excellent relationship with the highly esteemed Football Writers’ Association.’

Philippe Auclair, Chair of the Football Writers Association Books Committee, commented: “One of the most striking features of this longlist is the sheer variety of the selected titles, which shows how football writing continues broadening its horizons from year to year. In this regard, this season’s crop is probably the most diverse and the richest in the award’s history, with twelve outstanding books dealing with a huge range of interests – from biography to sociology, tactical analysis to history, polemic and politics to women’s football, to name a few. “

The winners of the 2020 Sports Book of the Year Awards will be announced at a gala awards dinner to take place at Lord’s Cricket Ground in September, with the exact date to be confirmed shortly.

Alongside CLOC Printing, The Telegraph Sports Book of the Year Awards partners include VAARU Cycles, Pinsent Masons, Sky Sports, Tim Rice’s The Heartaches & The National Literacy Trust. The final short lists for the 2020 Sports Book of the Year Awards will be announced at a reception in Pinsent Masons London Headquarters. As with the main ceremony, we have regrettably decided to postpone the original May date, and will confirm the rescheduling as soon as possible.

The Telegraph Sports Book Awards Categories 2020:

Autobiography of the Year

International Autobiography of the Year

Biography of the Year

Children’s Sports Book of the Year

Cricket Book of the Year

Football Book of the Year

Cycling Book of the Year

Illustrated Book of the Year

General Outstanding Sports Writing Award

Rugby Book of the Year

For more information about The Telegraph Sports Book Awards 2020, visit http://sportsbookawards.com/

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Football Book of the Year shortlist announced

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The shortlist for the Football Book of the Year has been announced with former winner James Montague among the six contenders for this year’s top prize in the 16th Sports Book Awards.

His probe into football’s super rich owners — The Billionaires Club — contrasts sharply with Tom van Hulsen’s book — Game Changers — on Dutchmen Arnold Muhren and Frans Thijssen, who were the outstanding stars of Bobby Robson’s Ipswich Town team three decades ago.

The shortlist, decided by the books commitee of the Football Writers Association, includes three studies of managers past and present, with biographies of Sir Matt Busby by FWA chairman Patrick Barclay, Bob Paisley by Ian Herbert and current Tottenham Hotspur boss Mauricio Pochettino by Guillem Balague.

Staying with the ‘managerial’ theme, but on a totally different playing field,  is Owen Amos’s book “From Delhi to The Den”, recounting the fascinating story of lesser known globetrotting coach Stephen Constantine.

FWA Books Committee chairman Mike Collett, at the shortlist announcement at Coutts Bank in The Strand, said; ‘We had a bumper crop of fantastic books this year, and so many others could have made the short list. In the end though, the committee were unanimous in their choice of winner and runner-up, but it was a very close run thing.”

The winner of the football book, and books in other categories which include cycling, cricket, rugby, autobiography, biography, international autobiography,  and illustrated book of the year, will be announced  at a gala dinner at Lord’s Cricket Ground on the evening of June 7.

After the individual awards are announced, an online public vote determines the overall winner of the Sports Book of the Year.

Coutts Football Book of the Year Shortlist  

The Billionaires Club James Montague (Bloomsbury)

Quiet Genius: Bob Paisley, British Football’s Greatest Manager Ian Herbert (Bloomsbury)

From Delhi to the Den: The Story of Football’s Most Travelled Manager Stephen Constantine with Owen Amos (deCoubertin Books)

Brave New World: Inside Pochettino’s Spurs Guillem Balague (Weidenfeld & Nicolson)

Game Changers – The Remarkable Story of Dutch Masters Arnold Mühren and Frans Thijssen Tom van Hulsen, translated by Jolanda van Boeijen (Portman Road Producties)

Sir Matt Busby: The Definitive Biography Paddy Barclay (Ebury)

Football Book of the Year

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Biographies of some of the most successful football managers, past and present, dominate the Football Writers’ Association Book of the Year Award Longlist for 2018.

Now sponsored by Coutts, it is one of 10 categories within the Sports Book Awards Ceremony which takes place at Lord’s Cricket Ground on June 7th.

A total of 12 books made the shortlist, selected by members of the FWA’s books committee, and eight of the authors were present at Coutts’ offices on the Strand for a the announcement on Monday March 19th.

Sir Matt Busby by FWA Chairman Patrick Barclay and Quiet Genius (Life of Bob Paisley) by Ian Herbert will compete in the football book category with David Bolchover’s The Greatest Comeback, the story of Bela Guttmann. Each are European Cup-winning managers, a feat that remains elusive to Mauricio Pochettino, the exciting young coach at Spurs and subject of Brave New World by Sky Sports La Liga pundit Guillem Balague, another FWA member.

Stephen Constantine is a lesser-known veteran coach of six different national teams in four continents. His story, written with Owen Amos, From Delhi to the Den: The Story of Football’s Most Travelled Manager continues the strong managerial theme running through the list.

Last year’s Autobiography of the Year award winner at the Sports Book Awards, Michael Calvin who co-authored Joey Barton’s life story, is longlisted again with No Hunger in Paradise, the third part in his much celebrated trilogy of football writing. James Montague is another previous winner and his book, The Billionaires Club, takes a delve into the unstoppable rise of football’s super rich owners while Martin Lipton’s White Hart Lane provides football fans with a complete history of Tottenham Hotspur’s home  before it re-opens after redevelopment next season.

Tom van Hulsen’s Game Changers – The Remarkable Story of Dutch Masters Arnold Muhren and Frans Thijssen, celebrates  two great Ipswich Town midfield maestros while Doctor Socrates by Andrew Downie chronicles the maverick, iconic captain of the greatest Brazil side never to win the World Cup. David Tossell’s Alan Ball: The Man in White Boots completes the midfield quartet for the 2018 longlist.

James Corbett’s Faith Of Our Families: Everton FC –An Oral History 1878-2018 is a book told by the people who made the great Merseyside club and completes the long list.

David Willis, Chairman of the Sports Book Awards said: ‘We are delighted to be announcing the Football Writers’ Association Book of the Year Longlist and working in partnership with Coutts for the first time and the highly esteemed Football Writers’ Association.’

Simon Hopes, Director Coutts, in response said: ‘The business of football is very important to Coutts and we are very appreciative of the opportunity to partner with The Sports Book Awards and the Football Writers’ Association for the first time in FIFA World Cup year.’

Mike Collett, Chair of the Football Writers’ Association Books Committee, commented: “We’re incredibly impressed by the quality of this year’s football writing. So much so that we’ve decided to announce this longlist for the first time. We’re thrilled with the continued association with the Sports Book Awards team and by the new sponsorship from Coutts.

“Selecting the winner of this award gets harder every year” added Mike, “It reminds me of the Goal of the Season award — what is better a 30-yard screamer or a goal scored after a mazy run through the defence. ?  The same with these awards, the subjects are so diverse, how do you pick a winner ? The interesting part is that there are certain criteria we set, and the winner invariably meets all of them.
“The standard was so high this year that for the first time, with the backing of the Sports Book Awards organisation we have held a public Long List  launch with eight of the 12 nominated authors able to discuss their work on a panel chaired by FWA Book Committee member Philippe Auclair. It was a fantastic night at Coutts Bank, and many thanks to them and their staff for making the evening such a memorable one.”

The winners of the 2018 Sports Book of the Year Awards will be announced at a gala awards dinner to take place at Lord’s Cricket Ground on the evening of June 7th.


The Sports Book of the Year Awards partners include Sky Sports, The Times, Thomson Reuters, AT Cross and Coutts. The final short lists for the 2018 Sports Book of the Year Awards will be announced at a further reception at Coutts Strand branch on May 10th 2018.

www.sportsbookawards.com

The Day Two Teams Died

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As we remember the Manchester United players and officials who perished in Munich 60 years ago, it is worth recalling the eight journalists who died in the air crash that day.

Roy Cavanagh and Carl Abbott have written a remarkable book detailing the lives of those men, called “The Day Two Teams Died”, which is available from Amazon.  We caught up with Roy to discuss what was, for a lifelong Manchester United fan, a labour of love:

“I am 70 now so I was ten years old at the time of the crash and had already been supporting United since 1954. I’ve written 20 or so books on football and cricket, but I wish I had been a sports journalist. I often speak at after-dinner events and had the pleasure of meeting the late Frank Taylor, who was the only journalist to survive the crash. He had written “The Day a Team Died” and when we spoke it seemed to be a glaring omission that the eight journalists who died that day had not been commemorated.

“I come from a generation when journalists were treated like gods, in the days before blanket coverage of sport on television and radio. You got all your information about your favourite teams and players from newspapers, and the written word was gospel. So some of these journalists were as famous as – if not more famous than – the players. Henry Rose was the most flamboyant of them and he would drive to games in his Jaguar. Only one of the United players had a car at the time, and that was a Morris Minor!

“Manchester had two papers, the Evening News and the Chronicle. Tom Jackson wrote for the former, Alf Clarke for the latter. I grew up in Salford and we would read the Daily Herald, which was the working man’s paper. George Follows was their correspondent.

“Henry Rose was such a big character that over 4000 people went to his funeral, and taxi-drivers in Manchester refused to take payment for anyone going to or from it.

“Frank Swift, the former England goalkeeper, did not really need to be on the flight because he wrote for a Sunday paper, the News of the World, but he was great mates with Matt Busby, who had done him a special favour by getting him along. The players looked up to big Frank and adored him.

“Eric Thompson of the Mail was another fine journalist, but my favourite was Donny Davies of the Guardian, who had played amateur football for England and cricket for Lancashire. He was a beautiful wordsmith, someone I loved to read.”

Frank Taylor was the only one to survive, and so Roy Cavanagh and Carl Abbott felt it appropriate to echo his book’s title in theirs.

“We drew together as much as we could find, from their earliest writing up to the last reports they filed, and what followed; the respect and tributes that were paid to them after the crash. In our minds this was always going to be a lovely tribute, and we believe it is.”

David Walker, the Mirror sports editor, FWA member and chairman of the Sports Journalists’ Association, has written the foreword, and half of the profits will go to the Journalists Charity.

This fine book can be ordered on Amazon: http://amzn.to/2E6o5Cj

 

http://amzn.to/2E6o5Cj

FWA Interview: Graham Hunter

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BARCELONA PLAYERS SEE SPEAKING TO THE PRESS AS PART OF THEIR DUTY says award-winning football writer Graham Hunter

By CHRISTOPHER DAVIES

IT WAS the proudest moment of Graham Hunter’s career as Glenn Moore, chairman of the Football Writers’ Association’s books committee, announced that his ‘Barca: The Making Of The Greatest Team In The World’ had been chosen as the football book of the year at the British Sports Book Awards 2013.

“I am shocked and delighted,” said Hunter whose book pipped Gullem Balague’s biography of Pep Guardiola for the prestigious prize. It is a sign of the times when two books about a Spanish club dominate the voting and Hunter said: “When Terry Venables went to Barcelona [in 1984] and led them to the European Cup final, losing to Steaua Bucharest on penalties, Spanish football was alien to British television.”

Sky Sports changed that perception with La Liga games shown each weekend along with the excellent Revista De La Liga magazine show where Hunter and Balague are regulars.

The awards night at Lord’s was somewhat different to Hunter’s introduction to the world of football writing in 1995 when the Daily Mail opened in Scotland. Hunter had applied for a job, but had heard nothing so decided to pay them a visit to ask why, which did not go down too well.

Hunter said: “I told them my cv was sent three weeks ago and couldn’t believe no one had answered my letter. I wanted to know what was going on.”

What was soon to be going on was the sports editor helping the young upstart to vacate the building.

“They were literally, and I mean literally, holding me by the back of the collar – well, it was sports editor Bryan Cooney – throwing me out of the door when someone came running in and shouted ‘There’s a press conference at Parkhead. It’s a new signing, we don’t know who it is.’”

It was a sliding doors moment because as luck would have it, the Mail were thin on available reporters. One had been sent to Pittodrie to doorstep Willie Miller who had been sacked by Aberdeen, others were elsewhere. In the pre-mobile phone era it was impossible to contact anyone so they stopped throwing Hunter out and instead told him to get along to Celtic.

“It was Pierre van Hooijdonk,” he said. “When I arrived at Parkhead there were two camps in the press room. A growling set of Scottish reporters who were asking ‘who’s this new kid?’ and some Dutch journalists.”

No prizes for guessing who Hunter decided to sit with. “I explained it was my first day and asked where van Hooijdonk was as he was late. They told me this was because he was playing cards with his NAC Breda team-mates until 3am to say goodbye. He had missed his flight and Celtic were pretending there was fog at Schipol Airport, which was why he had been delayed.”

Hunter thanked the Dutch contingent for the background which was not known to the growlers. One Dutch journalist asked him if he was Scottish and when Hunter confirmed yes, he was, he was asked if he could take them to a kilt shop – they wanted van Hooijdonk to wear a kilt for a photo. In return the Dutch pack gave the Scottish rookie chapter and verse on the late van Hooijdonk and to Hunter’s delight at the press conference no Scottish reporter asked why the striker was three hours late. Result.

Returning to the Mail offices with a scoop, Hunter was given a warmer reception than his initial arrival. The editor decided it was the back page lead and those who had tried to throw Hunter out were delighted with his exclusive.

So delighted that he was offered a job – as a rugby reporter. “I did this for about nine months before going over to football,” said Hunter who eventually moved down to London when Cooney became sports editor. Cooney’s approach to the job was effective if not popular with everyone and Hunter’s appointment as football correspondent raised eyebrows to new levels.

Hunter has never shirked a challenge and immersed himself into his new post. “I loved reporting on England, Manchester United, Arsenal and the top clubs…the press pack, in the majority, became people who inspired me.”

He was particularly grateful for the help of Brian Woolnough, who died last year, Steven Howard, and Nigel Clarke “who either saw someone who was young and lost or someone they liked….they took me under their wing.” Football writers never forget those who have helped them and when Hunter was injured on a trip to Luxembourg he remembers how Oliver Holt, Lee Clayton and Paul McCarthy “were brilliant.”

He said: “Our industry is full of remarkable, interesting people and I found working in London a deeply enriching part of my life. I miss the English press scene and adored what I was doing.”

In 2002 Hunter decided to realise an ambition that had started 20 years previously at the 1982 World Cup. “I promised myself I’d go back to Spain,” he said. “The moment I crossed the border from France to Spain I knew it was for me. I’d grown up adoring Spanish football even though finding out information or seeing clips in those days was difficult.

“The idea of going to the city of the club where Steve Archibald [who played for Aberdeen where Hunter was born] played and where Terry Venables had managed made me choose Barcelona.”

The bad news was that Hunter had no job to go to and couldn’t speak a word of Spanish while Louis van Gaal, not the most media friendly of coaches, had just been reappointed. In 2002/03 Barca ended the season sixth, their lowest finish in La Liga in 15 years. For the benefit of anoraks, the starting XI was: Bonano – Gabri, de Boer, Puyol, Sorin – Mendieta, Xavi, Cocu, Riquelme – Saviola, Kluivert.

Hunter said: “In the summer of 2003 Barcelona were close to not even being able to pay anyone’s wages. They were in the midst of a six-year run without a trophy.”

The appointments of Frank Rijkaard and a new president, Joan Laporta, saw a gradual change in Barca’s fortunes. The Dutch coach phased out the old guard and led the Catalan club to the title in 2005 and 2006. By then the team was: Valdes – Oleguer, Puyol, Marquez, van Bronckhorst – Edmilson, van Bommel, Deco – Larsson, Eto’o, Ronaldinho.

In 2008 Pep Guardiola succeeded Rijkaard, the remarkable Messi-inspired Barca side winning 14 trophies in four years, making him the most successful coach in the club’s history.

BY THEN Graham Hunter was fluent in Spanish while the rise and rise of what many observers call the best club team they have ever seen ensured plenty of work for the reporter whose career had started by almost being thrown out of the door.

Sir Winston Churchill said that if you have a job you love you will never do a day’s work in your life and Hunter is one of many football writers who fit that category, the bonus living in a city where the climate is superb while following a club where the working conditions for the media and the attitude towards the press are a million miles from those experienced in Britain.

Clubs here keep the media at arm’s length, dishing out bans for headlines that are not to their liking. Hunter believes the press should have been collectively stronger, standing up to such over-zealous authority that at times has bordered on bullying.

“It should make us embarrassed,” said Hunter. “For some reason, and it’s the fault of our profession, we aren’t unionised enough, we don’t complain enough. In Spain players are generally more eager to speak to the press, more accepting of their duties and see it as an integral part of their job.

“Occasionally they will be p****d off with us, occasionally they will say ‘no’, but generally they view us as people to be judged as we act, not as journalists who therefore must automatically be shunned. They don’t bring a Mastercard machine and say ‘that will be 20,000 euro.’ In my 11 years in Spain no one has ever asked me for money for an interview.

“They see it as part of their duties, it’s part of their culture because they have been educated that way. The clubs tell players they are selling their season tickets…they are promoting their sponsors…and because they have grown up speaking to the press the vast majority of players enjoy it. They respect us, even asking us our point of view.”

Up until the Eighties English-based football writers enjoyed a similar rapport with leading players and managers, but dealings with the press are far more sanitised now.

Two players gain an honourable mention from Hunter – Iker Casillas and Xavi. “Both are high achievers with an enormous amount to say. They are decent people, intelligent, interesting and funny.”

The appreciation of Hunter by his adopted home was shown by an invitation to join the players in the dressing-room after Spain won the 2010 World Cup and again following their Euro 2012 triumph – a scenario unthinkable from an English perspective.

“Their attitude was ‘you’ve put in the miles, you’ve slogged up and down the roads – come in.’ It is exactly the same as I did with England and it says everything about Spain, not me.”

THE IDEA for the book came from the publishers, BackPage Press who “twisted my arm almost to breaking point,” said Hunter. “The co-operation I was given was astonishing. Nobody said ‘no’ and nobody asked for copy approval.

“It was a pleasure to deal with the players and I thoroughly enjoyed telling the story.”

*Barca: The Making Of The Greatest Team In The World by Graham Hunter (BackPage Press, £12.99).

FOOTBALL BOOKS OF THE YEAR – THE FINAL SIX

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Each year the Football Writers’ Association selects the winner of the football category in the British Sports Book Awards. This year’s award – for 2012 – will be revealed at a dinner at Lord’s on Tuesday, May 21. Glenn Moore, chairman of the FWA’s books sub-committee, runs through the short-list (in alphabetical order).

Barca: The Making of the Greatest Team in the World by Graham Hunter (Back Page Press, £9.99)
An illuminating, comprehensive, behind-the-scenes account of the creation of the all-conquering team. The management, the players, and key matches along the way are each studied and placed into context.

Be Careful What You Wish For by Simon Jordan (Random House, £18.99)
This could be sub-titled ‘how to make a fortune in business and lose it in football’ and sent to every prospective club owner. Jordan, as ever, pulls no punches as he describes how he built up his mobile telephone company, then plunged  into the more complicated world of football as Crystal Palace owner-chairman.

Does Your Rabbi Know You’re Here? The Story of English Football’s Forgotten Tribe by Anthony Clavane (Quercus, £17.99)
Jewish children were once discouraged from becoming involved in football, more by their own community as by attitudes within the game. Plenty took no notice however and British Jewry has made a significant contribution to football in England, as Clavane uncovers.

Pep Guardiola: Another Way of Winning by Guillem Balague (Orion, £20)
Richly detailed access-all-areas breakdown of how Guardiola came to take over Barcelona, develop the best team in the world, then walk away from it. The man and his methods are fully explored.

Richer Than God: Manchester City, Modern Football and Growing Up by David Conn (Quercus, £16.99)
Part coming-of-age memoir, part dissection of the economics realities of the modern game, all told through the prism of Manchester City’s transformation from badly-run but much-loved laughing stock to the world’s richest club.

The Outsider: A History of the Goalkeeper by Jonathan Wilson (Orion, £20)
Thoroughly researched account of the singular man between the sticks, from the time when he could run with the ball to the halfway line, to sweeper-keepers and the modern giants. Told via analysis of keepers such as Lev Yashin and Peter Shilton, Fatty Foulke and Rene Higueta.

Book Reviews

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By CHRISTOPHER DAVIES

The Football Writers’ Association Books Panel are in the processing of finalising their short list of football books of the year for 2011. While reading some outstanding books published last year is hugely enjoyable, it is fair to assume there will be heated debate when it comes to selecting the top six. The standard, as always, is high.

There are books you would probably overlook in normal circumstances but which can prove to be hidden gems. From 2010 there was Scouting For Moyes by Les Padfield, a hilarious account of his days as a scout. Any book with the line: “One of the advantages of being female is that there is less chance of dropping your mobile phone down the lavatory” can’t be all bad.

Padfield was once sent to rule the rule over an Egyptian player called Mohamed only to discover seven players of that name were playing. Having written up his reports on Team Mohamed he was told sorry, it wasn’t Mohamed it was Ahmed. Thankfully there were only five Ahmeds in the squad.

Books by Barclays Premier League superstars will inevitably sell well though reading a book about a player whose name rings only the faintest of bells can prove to be more entertaining than a big hitter’s. A case in point is The Smell Of Football by Mick Rathbone, a self-confessed no-nonsense defender with Birmingham City, Blackburn Rovers, Preston North End and Halifax Town between 1975 and 1995.

Football writers are aware that the one thing that is guaranteed to bring retribution from a player is the match ratings. Rathbone became paranoid, and that’s putting it mildly, at the ratings in the Sunday People. “There was a table,” he writes. “It described what each mark meant. Ten was ‘out of this world,’ and five, the lowest mark, meant ‘poor performance.’

“During that time [with Birmingham] I must have held the record for consecutive fives. What I wouldn’t have given for a six. There was no escaping the stigma of a five. It meant even people who never went to the game knew you were ****.

“I used to lie awake the night following a match waiting for the newspaper to arrive – the footsteps on the gravel, the bark of the dog and the thump of the letterbox. Please be a six. Just this once. I did two good passes.

“I would nervously pick up the newspaper and flick through the sports pages until I found our report and sure enough, week-in, week-out it was, as expected ‘Rathbone: 5’. At least once I had got my five I could go to bed and try to get a few hours’ sleep.

“Once I got up at about 3am and drove to New Street Station to meet the early morning train up from London. I purchased the paper from the railway platform and flicked through the pages in the murky pre-dawn light and there it was – 5.

“For a short period I stopped buying the paper. Simple enough? Afraid not. Some ******* would always still go out of his way to let me know I got a five.”

Probably the most different book I’ve read recently is Got, Not Got by Derek Hammond and Gary Silke. It is an exhaustively researched collection of football programmes, stickers, badges and memorabilia, a coffee table book you can dip in and out of at any time. Some of the advertisements from old programmes are classics – “Bovril – hot favourite for the cup!” Or culinary advice to players: “Full English – eat up your fried bread now, it’s full of energy.” Eat your heart out Arsene Wenger.

32 Programmes by Dave Roberts is a book all football fans can relate to. He had collected 1,134 match-day programmes in 44 years but when he and his wife decided to move to the United States she said – well, ordered – that only 32 could be taken. How Roberts went about selecting the 32 that would fit into a Tupperware container is fascinating and heart-warming.

Two of Fleet Street’s finest, Joe Lovejoy and Ian Ridley, have written comprehensive bookson the first 20 years of the Premier League. Lovejoy’s contains some in-depth interviews with Rick Parry, Teddy Sheringham and Ryan Giggs while Ridley goes behind the scenes of clubs like Blackpool and Portsmouth. His chapter Pompey Chimes is topical and explains the reasons begin the famous club’s present problems.

Paul Merson’s autobiography, How Not To Be A Professional Footballer, is a brutally honest account of his life and career. Of his addictions cocaine and gambling were the worst and most expensive and while there are moments of hilarity Merson does not seek to glamorise his excesses. It is amazing that he managed to play through his habits before finally seeing Arsenal managing director Ken Friar.

“I’m struggling here,” Merson told him. “I need help. I owe thousands and thousands of pounds in gambling debts. I’m in serious trouble.” There was more: “I’m also addicted to drugs. Cocaine.”

Now a regular member of Sky Sports’ Soccer Saturday team, Merson has put his devils behind him though reading his confessions it was a close call whether he would survive.

Paul Lake’s I’m Not Really Here tells of how he recovered from severe depression caused by enforced retirement, the death of his father and the breakdown of his marriage. Now an Ambassador for Manchester City in the Community, Lake’s story is beautifully written and takes us behind the good, bad and ugly of what professional football occasionally has to offer.

Ronald Reng’s biography of Robert Enke, A Life Too Short, is powerful and painful reading. Enke, the Germany goalkeeper, took his life two years ago and Reng details his friend’s downfall and his ultimately losing battle against the demons of depression.

The Smell Of Football by Mick Rathbone (Vision Sports Publishing); Got, Not Got by Derek Hammon and Gary Silke (Pitch Publishing); 32 Programmes by Dave Roberts (Bantam
Books); Glory, Goals & Gr££d by Joe Lovejoy (Mainstream Publishing); There’s A Golden Sky – Ian Ridley (Bloomsbury); How Not To Be A Professional Footballer by Paul Merson
(HarperSport); I’m Not Really Here by Paul Lake (Century); A Life Too Short by Robert Reng (Yellow Jersey Press); Scouting For Moyes by Les Padfield (SportsBooks Ltd).