The Story of the World Cup

"We should have this in Five Books before the World Cup just because Brian Glanville is a very good sports writer. He is old now and a most esteemed journalist who always wears a big hat. He was born in 1931 and spent a lot of his career in Italy working for Corriere dello Sport . He first wrote this book in 1973 and it was originally called The Sunday Times History of the World Cup . It’s continually being revised and updated and it is very, very good for knowing what happened in each World Cup, at each football match. It’s the gold standard of sports writing. Sports writing is an interesting thing – Richard Ford has written two great novels about being a sports writer. There is a sort of poetry to it when it’s done well. At Euro 96 England played Germany again in another epic game that went to extra time and we lost again and I read a piece saying: ‘In extra time both teams played like they had nothing to lose, like they do in dreams.’ This book does emote and is not just a reference book. It’s got match reports and polemic and its purpose is to be a reference book, but it gives more of a perspective, more vision."