The Sports Bookshelf

The World Cup that begins in Brazil today has triggered a run of new World Cup books and the re-release of a few classics.  Here is the Sports Bookshelf's choice of titles worth a look. And Gazza Misses the Final, by Rob Smyth and Scott Murray (Constable) £8.99 This is a history of memorable World Cup matches, but revisited and recorded from an entirely new perspective, faithfully reported in the style of the modern internet phenomenon: the minute-by-minute online report. Minute-by-minute is increasingly becoming a staple of football websites with large enough resources to have a man on the ground (or in front of a TV monitor) for the matches that matter, and of the websites run by the traditional news sources - local and national newspapers. In a way it is a throwback to the ball-by-ball reports that newspapers carried in the pre-internet days when apart from Sports Report on BBC radio they were the only source of real detail when it came to what happened on the field.

England might not find the subject too palatable right now but once the disappointment of failing to land the right to host the 2018 World Cup has worn off there will be an inevitable thirst for knowledge about football in the nation that did emerge from the FIFA vote as the winner, Russia. There is probably nowhere better to start than the highly regarded Football Dynamo: Modern Russia and the People’s Game , written by the English-born, Moscow-based journalist Marc Bennetts. It does not paint an edifying picture. Published in 2008, Football Dynamo makes no attempt to romanticise football in Russia, even though Bennetts finds much to admire about it. There is a strong focus on the problems that beset the game in Russia, with stories of corruption, political interference, violence, racism and financial shenanigans.  We learn that corruption is so widespread as to be seen as “just another factor, like home advantage and recent form” in deciding games. Bennetts argues that there

England’s dreadful performance at the World Cup has persuaded Joe Cole to delay the publication of his autobiography by at least a year in the hope that a good first season at Liverpool will provide the story with a happy ending. The midfielder’s deal with Simon & Schuster had been geared towards an August 19th release date and the inside story of England’s calamitous South Africa campaign was to have been a key selling point. But Cole, who signed for Roy Hodgson at Liverpool last week, has sensibly reasoned that England fans who have already had their summer spoiled may not be keen to relive their Bloemfontein blues in the run-up to Christmas. He has also been clever enough -- or, at least, his publicists have -- to realise that his new following among Merseyside fans may not be too interested in his final days at Stamford Bridge. Simon & Schuster say that the deadline for publication in time for this year's Christmas trading period was missed, in any event, while

No World Cup victory for Spain should be allowed to pass without a new recommendation for the acclaimed study of Spanish football, Morbo: The Story of Spanish Football . Originally published in 2001 and updated in 2003, its examination of why the brilliance of Spain’s La Liga sides has not translated into success for the national team has been superseded by events but there is still much about the book that stands the test of time. Morbo -- a Spanish word which defies precise translation but represents the mutually shared antagonism and hostility between clubs -- is particularly strong on how regionalism, history, language and politics underpin support for clubs all over the country. The reader learns how the fierce enmity between Barcelona and Real Madrid is only one of many deeply entrenched rivalries, some of which make Liverpool’s differences with Everton, or Tottenham’s feelings towards Arsenal look almost friendly by comparison. The book, published in 2001, marked the b

If the outcome of England’s World Cup match against Germany in Bloemfontein is to be determined by whichever set of players is the strongest mentally, it is to be hoped that the English players do not share the thought processes of the average English supporter. England’s last competitive encounter with the Germans resulted in a 5-1 victory in the Olympic Stadium in Munich in September 2001 in qualification for the 2002 World Cup finals. Yet how much have we dwelt on that result compared with the semi-finals at Italia ‘90 and Euro ‘96, both of which England lost on penalties, or even the quarter-final in the Mexico World Cup in 1970, when England led 2-0 but wound up beaten 3-2 by Gerd Muller’s extra-time winner? Between the 1966 World Cup final and the 2000 European Championship finals in Holland and Belgium, England did not win a single competitive match against Germany and even the victory in Charleroi in 2000 was a hollow affair, given that neither side qualified for the kno

Sports book sales have not been immune in a generally sluggish year for non-fiction sales but interest generated by the World Cup has seen some sharp increases in figures. According to Nielsen BookScan -- as reported on www.thebookseller.com -- some football titles have enjoyed spectacular surges. For example, Torres: El Niño: My Story , the autobiography of Liverpool and Spain striker Fernando Torres, published by HarperSport, has become the top-selling football memoir, with sales up to more than 1,200 copies per week, an increase of a massive 7,450 per cent on pre-World Cup figures. The bestselling new World Cup book -- Keir Radnedge's 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa Official Book (Carlton) -- has been jumping off the shelves at a rate of around 3,000 copies per week, some 55 per cent better than a month ago. Meanwhile, sales of Radnedge's FIFA World Football Records 2010 (Carlton), published in September 2009, leapt from just 47 copies sold during the week ending Ma

It goes without saying that defeat for England against the United States when their World Cup campaign kicks off in Rustenburg tomorrow would come as a surprise, although not, of course, on anything like the scale of the 1-0 loss in Belo Horizonte during the 1950 finals in Brazil. Today, no shock is ever ruled out, but a win for USA then was regarded as not so much unlikely as out of the question.  No photographer captured the winning goal, for example, because all of the snappers sent to cover the contest were positioned behind the American net, expecting a deluge of scoring from the England team. In the press box, meanwhile, there was only one American journalist, Dent McSkimming from the St Louis Despatch, who funded the trip to Brazil himself after the newspaper declined to pay his passage.  His report was the only one to appear in any major American newspaper. The match kicked off at 9pm London time and communication was primitive to say the least. When first notification o

It is probably no surprise that much of the best writing about England's history in the World Cup has been focused on the personalities of the 1966 finals.  The Sports Bookshelf has picked out five titles as recommended reading -- three autobiographies and three independent studies. Naturally, autobiographies tend to be written from a subjective viewpoint but a couple from members of the victorious 1966 England team are worthwhile reads. Geoff Hurst's 1966 and All That  published in hardback in 2005 with a paperback released the following spring, delivers an engaging account of how it felt to be a forward with only seven international caps, chosen ahead of the prolific Jimmy Greaves, who suddenly found himself a national hero. Forthright in his views, particularly about manager Alf Ramsey, Hurst is also strong on period detail, recreating the atmosphere of Britain in the 1960s. Nobby Stiles also offers something more than rose-tinted memories in his 2004 memoir After

Cristiano Ronaldo Portugal have the misfortune to be in the toughest group of all in the World Cup finals.   While North Korea ought to be no barrier to their progress into the second stage, their place in the round of 16 will have to be obtained at the expense of either Brazil or the Ivory Coast, the nation of Didier Drogba, who will have Sven Goran Eriksson at the helm. Yet in Cristiano Ronaldo they have one player whose absence would certainly be to the detriment of the later stages in South Africa. There were plenty of Manchester United supporters who would not have been disappointed to see Ronaldo's star on the wane after his £80 million transfer to Real Madrid last summer. But he has transferred his prodigious talents from the red of United to the white of Madrid without even a hint of a stumble. He set a club record when he scored in his first four appearances in La Liga and chalked off another personal ambition only last week when he scored his first hat-trick for

Of all the new books adding to the wealth of words written about the World Cup since the planet's greatest football tournament began, none seems quite so intriguing as Graham McColl's, published this week. On the face of it, How to Win the World Cup  looks like a title that Messrs Capello, Lippi, Del Bosque, Low, Dunga, Domenech and company might form a queue to get their hands on, since every one of the 32 national coaches preparing to lock horns in South Africa will wonder whether he knows the answer. But this is not a book of theory. It is not a coaching manual, detailing training methods, diet plans or tactical strategies. Instead, it is an examination of the facts from the 18 tournaments held so far, analysing in forensic detail the circumstances in which each team won, not only looking at form on the pitch but at all the peripheral issues, such as media attitudes, public expectation, the political climate, even the weather. Did Italy's two victories in the 19

Fernando Torres Liverpool striker Fernando Torres faces a race against time to be fit for the 2010 World Cup finals after undergoing more surgery on his right knee. If his projected recovery time is accurate, he should be able to join his Spain colleagues in South Africa -- but whether he can start the tournament at anything close to match sharpness must be in doubt. He has already been ruled out for the remainder of Liverpool's failing season, further cutting their chances of finishing in the top four of the Premier League and meaning that he will miss the opportunity to face his old club, Atletico Madrid, in the Europa League. Given the uncertainties over the future at Anfield, he may even have played his last match for Liverpool.  By the time he returns to fitness, Rafa Benitez may have gone and with the manager who signed him no longer around, Torres may be disinclined to stay on Merseyside, particularly in a team that is less equipped to challenge the elite of Europe t

Commercial radio station talkSPORT reckons its 2.5 million weekly listeners are among the biggest buyers of sports books in the country. Now they plan to satisfy their audience's appetite for the written word after signing a five-year book deal with publishers Simon & Schuster. At least three titles will be published this year. The first, The talkSPORT Book of World Cup Banter, edited by journalist and author Bill Borrows, is due out on April 29th. A talkSPORT Book of British Sporting Legends is due to follow in the autumn. Adam Bullock, commercial director of talkSPORT, told The Bookseller: "Our core audience of 2.5 million talkSPORT listeners every week are the country’s biggest sport fans – and the biggest buyers of sports books in the UK. "The station has had great success in developing its magazine and music publishing. Now, with our book publishing partner at Simon & Schuster, we are going to be producing a series of books that will be the ultimate

It will take something special to stand out from the crowd among the plethora of books celebrating the 2010 World Cup. However, artist German Aczel has managed to give the tournament a unique perspective, producing a wonderful history in caricature. Aczel, born in Argentina but now resident in Munich, where he works for Bravo Sport magazine, has taken many of the iconic photographs from the 18 tournaments so far staged and created brilliant drawings that capture vividly the character of the individuals and the drama of the event. The famous image of Bobby Moore (above, left), the Jules Rimet Trophy proudly held aloft, being borne on the shoulders of teammates at Wembley '66 will be popular with England fans, certainly more so than the illustration of Diego Maradona's 'Hand of God' moment in Mexico 20 years later. With pencils and watercolours, Aczel also brings new life to some of the tournaments never-to-be-forgotten moments, such as Marco Tardelli's manic

Lionel Messi The best is almost certainly still to come so far as Lionel Messi: The Book is concerned. Luca Caioli must be feeling pleased with his publishers, inasmuch as the release here of his biography on the Argentine maestro, which appeared in the shops in January, may have come at just the right moment after Messi reinforced his reputation as the world's best player with that magnificent performance against Arsenal. Messi: The Inside Story of the Boy Who Became a Legend (Corinthian) can expect a good run between now and the World Cup finals as Argentina prepare for a tournament in which they will carry great expectations despite a bumpy qualification. But at 22 Messi has most of his career still ahead of him and he will be fighting off suitors when he decides the time is right to tell his own version of the story. Caioli, an Italian journalist based in Spain who has written similar life stories of Fernando Torres and Ronaldinho, tracks Messi's life back to R

Can Joe Cole make a late run into Fabio Capello's plans for the World Cup finals? With an autobiography due out in August, a good World Cup would certainly do wonders for his book sales. Apparently written off by the Italian before being left out of the England squad for the friendly against Egypt, the Chelsea midfielder seems at last to be showing signs of a return to his most effective form. His fine goal against Manchester United last Saturday set up the Old Trafford victory that gave Chelsea a two-point lead in the race for the Premier League title. It was only the second time he has found the target all season, having struggled to convince Chelsea boss Carlo Ancelotti he should be a regular starter while trying desperately to get back to his best after nine months out through injury. Capello said in February that Cole "was not like the player I remember", casting huge doubt on the 28-year-old's chances of going to his third World Cup finals. But th

Nothing stirs a football writer's typing fingers quite like a World Cup and with 73 days to go before the 2010 finals kick off in Johannesburg if one thing is certain it is that the trees felled to supply the paper required by the publishing industry would cover many more football pitches than will be needed to play the month-long tournament. Quantity, therefore, is guaranteed. Quality, of course, is another matter. The Sports Bookshelf will attempt to provide some guidance as to which books might have a shelf life beyond the final on July 11th. At least half a dozen titles will hit the book shops on April 1st, including the  2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa Official Book , edited by the former World Soccer magazine editor, Keir Radnedge. Gabrielle Marcotti's authoritative study of England's head coach, first published as Capello: Portrait of a Winner, is repackaged by Bantam Books as Capello: The Man Behind England's World Cup Dream And Brian Glanville's