Reviews of Football in the Digital Age
David Conn, When Saturday Comes , May 2000:
"This is the latest impressive contribution from Professor Jonathan Michie and his colleagues at Birkbeck College to the campaign for football to be run for the benefit of those who love it, not just the few who make money out of it.....A unified programme emerges from these pages, a call for widespread supporter ownership and involvement in the running of clubs...The supporters' fightback has evolved from gut-instinct distaste of greedy Premiership chaiemen to a considered alternative manifesto. This admirable book represents another landmark in that process."
Four Four Two, May 2000
"Football in the Digital Age is refreshingly contemporary. It...will be read by concerned fans who will then set about changing the many things that ail the game."
Manchester United Magazine, May 2000:
"Football in the Digital Age...takes a serious approach to what is, after all, a serious issue: the future of our game. For students of football whose interest goes deeper than the 4-4-2 formation and the offside trap, this is as comprehensive textbook as you will ever find."
Alex Reid, Morning Star :
"The fightback to reclaim the people's game is well under way and books such as Football in the Digital Age are a great example of this. Chapters range from issues surrounding the football task force, to first-hand accounts from those at the heart of the campaign to stop the BSkyB from taking over Manchester United and an insider's report from the Monopolies and Mergers Commission on the same subject - and a whole lot more. The editors' last book, A Game of Two Halves , played a huge part in mobilising supporters into presenting their demands on the game as a united force - and received widespread acclaim as a result. This latest publication develops further the themes in the earlier book, looking at how it is possible for fans - and not just shareholders - to organise against the corporate takeover of their game and how they can influence the decision-making process at their own clubs. Football in the Digital Age is an easily accessible book, with its short but extremely informative chapters written by experts in a whole host of subjects relating to the game. Contributor after contributor rails against the monopolies and cartels which try to wield their financial muscle through every facet of the game. Yes, football is just a game, but as this book shows, it is one which has important social and cultural implications and deserves greater respect than just a glance at the results on a Saturday afternoon. So, when that history of the game is written, Birkbeck College's department of management will take a central place in the story of how football was won over as a democratic force."
From Amazon.co.uk:
A thought-provoking analysis of the future of football
It's a measure of the startling transformations that the national game has undergone in the last few years, that one of the most interesting books to be published on football this year is not the ghost-written revelations of an England striker or the bitter score-settling of an ex-manager, but rather a collection of academic essays. Forget the goals and the glory, the penalty shoot-outs and the sex scandals, "Football in the Digital Age" deals with what is really happening to the modern game. The editors have assembled a wide-range of essays dealing with the critical issues facing football in this country: how clubs are financed, European Union legislation, restrictive practices, media acquisitions and the case for independent regulation. There are more than thirty essays and while their quality varies somewhat, the overall collection is impressively comprehensive and in-depth, and manages to be continually thought-provoking and intelligent. Although essentially an academic work, there is enough here to inform and challenge anybody interested in the future of British football, from fans wishing to have more say in the running of their local club, to economists and policy-makers interested in this increasingly important sector of the economy. tom.campbell@nmkadapt.co.uk |
