About this item

Soccer FAQ is a fast, furious, and opinionated guide to the worlds most popular game, an all-encompassing history that introduces readers to the biggest clubs, the greatest games, the finest players, and the fiercest rivalries. From Sunderland to Seattle, from Berlin to Buenos Aires, Soccer FAQ delves into every aspect of the sport, tracing its development from a victorious Anglo-Saxon army kicking the heads of their fallen enemies around a field, to the multibillion-dollar industry of todayand every stop in between. Record breakers and giant killers alike file through the pages, illustrating the beautiful game as it is played at every level, from the World Cup Final to the village green, with fully updated commentary on all the worlds major competitions, including the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.



About the Author

Dave Thompson

English author Dave Thompson has spent his entire working life writing biographies of other people, but is notoriously reluctant to write one for himself. Unlike the subjects of some of his best known books, he was neither raised by ferrets nor stolen from gypsies. He has never appeared on reality TV (although he did reach the semi finals of a UK pop quiz when he was sixteen) , plays no musical instruments and he can't dance, either. However, he has written well over one hundred books in a career that is almost as old as U2's ... whom he saw in a club when they first moved to London, and memorably described as "okay, but they'll never get any place. " Similar pronouncements published on the future prospects of Simply Red, Pearl Jam and Wang Chung (oh, and Curiosity Killed The Cat as well) probably explain why he has never been anointed a Pop Culture Nostradamus. Although the fact that he was around to pronounce gloomily on them in the first place might determine why he was recently described as "a veteran music journalist. "Raised on rock, powered by punk, and still convinced that "American Pie" was written by Fanny Farmer and is best played with Meatloaf, Thompson lists his five favorite artists as old and obscure; his favorite album is whispered quietly and he would like to see Richard and Linda Thompson's "I Want To See The Bright Lights Tonight" installed as the go-to song for the sad, sappy ending for every medical drama on TV. Kurt Cobain, Phil Collins, Alice Cooper, Joan Jett, David Bowie, John Travolta, Eric Clapton, Jackson Browne, Bob Marley, Roger Waters and the guy who sang that song in the jelly commercial are numbered among the myriad artists about whom Thompson has written books; he has contributed to the magazines Rolling Stone, Alternative Press, Mojo and Melody Maker; and he makes regular guest appearances on WXPN's Highs in the Seventies show.



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