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The Club
- How the Premier League Became the Richest, Most Disruptive Business in Sport
- Narrated by: Rich Keeble
- Length: 11 hrs and 24 mins
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Summary
The never-before-told inside story of how the Premier League became the wildest, richest, most popular entertainment business on the planet.
How did English football - once known for its stale pies, bad bookkeeping and hooligans - become a commercial powerhouse and the world's premium popular entertainment?
This was a business empire built in only 25 years on ambition, experimentation and gambler's luck. Led by a motley cast of executives, Russian oligarchs, Arab sheikhs, Asian titans, American tycoons, battle-hardened managers, ruthless agents and the Murdoch media, the Premier League has been carved up, rebranded and exported to a phenomenal 185 countries.
The United Nations recognises only 193.
But the extraordinary profit of bringing England's ageing industrial towns to a compulsive global attention has come at a cost. Today, as players are sold for hundreds of millions and clubs are valued in the billions, local fans are being priced out - and the clubs' local identities are fading. The Premier League has become the classic business fable for our globalised world.
Drawing on dozens of exclusive and revelatory interviews from the boardrooms - including Liverpool's John W. Henry, Tottenham's Daniel Levy, Martin Edwards and David Gill at Manchester United, Arsène Wenger and Stan Kroenke at Arsenal, Manchester City's sporting director Txiki Begiristain, and executives at Chelsea, West Ham, Leicester City and Aston Villa - this is the definitive bust and boom account of how the Premier League product took over the world.
Featured article: Best football audiobooks
Whether you belong to a football club, are a Premier League fan, or simply just interested in learning more about the football world, our list of the best football audiobooks captures what draws so many people to makes ‘the beautiful game’. Here’s our list of the best football audiobooks to hit play on, brought to you by your favourite sportswriters and international football superstars....
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- mjp1970
- 15-08-19
Very Insightful
Thoroughly enjoyable listen from start to finish, with many great insights along the way. Highly recommend this book.
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- Honest Tooth
- 02-07-22
Interesting listen
Informative and interesting listen. Was especially good on the history of the PL and the roles that the principal characters played e.g. David Dein, Irving Scholar etc. was also good on the impact that Chelsea and City had and how the new money impacted the league as a whole. Towards the end it started to feel a bit repetitive and the latter part of the book felt too Man City focussed. The characterisation of Raheem Sterling essentially as a mercenary in the epilogue also felt a bit unfair to me.
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- Andrea
- 24-11-20
An enjoyable history of the rise of Premier League
I enjoyed learning how the Premier League developed its power over the last 28 years.
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- Amazon Customer
- 21-08-20
Really enjoyed
Really enjoyed this in the end. Quite scathing of the whole industry which was surprising.
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- "mundanethreat"
- 06-07-20
Exciting account of business
a thoroughly engaging account of what could have been a very dry subject. The world of business smartly written like a match report of a decade of increasingly global greed. Great for anyone interested in sports business, less so for those looking for "a football book".
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- Bo Last
- 06-07-20
The narrator makes the story
As a football fan I wouldn’t known this story and on downloading the book I thought would I even enjoy it. But the way the story is told is amazing and totally grips you in
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- Amazon Customer
- 06-10-19
LOVE. THIS. BOOK.
Hearing about the business side of the game, and how that has influenced it on the pitch is fascinating. The colloquial nature of this book is great too; married with Rich Keeble's narration makes this a must-listen.
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- L. Taylor
- 30-09-19
superb
Excellent writing here, they kept it very simple, and developed a very clear narrative which won't be apparent in most people's minds through all the noise of football things over the years. Was good to hear about things I missed, or review events I witnessed and knew about.
Particularly interesting conclusions, leaves you really rather convinced at the inevitability of a super League. The book does a fine job of demonstrating that change is constant in football, everything changes, football and football leagues are no exception.
Shout out to the narrator, he did a stellar job of reading this, wouldn't have been the same without him.
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- martin
- 23-09-19
SUPRISING!
Ok I took a punt on this figuring I'd stop listening and maybe return it in the not to distant future. Instead I finished it in 3 days because it was genuinely fascinating. You really don't have to be a massive football fan to be riveted to this book. Sometimes fact really is more interesting than fiction!
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- Anonymous User
- 11-09-19
some good stories but not a gripping listen
to be honest if you follow football closely then you will learn little from this book although it will remind you of some interesting events you'd half forgotten. There are some juicy anecdotes around transfers and the league's financial dealings
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