Little Book of Football

It's nearly a century and a half since the first rules of football were thrashed out in a London tavern. The lawmakers gathered there would hardly recognise the game as we know it now, with live television broadcasts using multiple camera angles, websites updating us on the facts and figures of our favorite clubs and personalities like Beckham, Balotelli and Rooney making it onto as many newspaper front pages as back. Yet the game retains the basic premise as set out in 1863: the winning team is still the 11 men who score the most goals. The prizes now competed for - World Cup, Premiership, Champions League, Europa League - may be new but the FA Cup, first contested in 1872, is still the most prestigious domestic knock-out competition in the world. This information-packed, fully illustrated book follows all the twists, turns and traditions that have made football the world's favorite game.