The Club
How the Premier League Became the Richest, Most Disruptive Business in Sport
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The Club
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Narrated by:
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Rich Keeble
About this listen
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.
©2018 Jonathan Clegg and Joshua Robinson (P)2018 Hodder & Stoughton LimitedListeners also enjoyed...
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What listeners say about The Club
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- 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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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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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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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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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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1 person found this helpful
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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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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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- KBAdventure
- 25-01-19
Thoroughly enjoyable from start to finish.
Very well written, greatly paced and impeccably read by Rich Keeble. Picked this to later to whilst travelling on a succession of long flights... it was the perfect accompaniment.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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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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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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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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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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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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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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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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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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- David Bowden
- 08-02-19
Accessible overview of the business of football
This is an absorbing listen on audiobook. Written by two US-based audiences who assume little prior knowledge of English football, it tells the story of how the boardroom strategies of the Premier League since 1992 contain perhaps even more unpredictable twists & wild characters than on the pitch.
An excellent read for both business students interested in the global sports/entertainment industry or fans looking for more insight into soaring ticket prices
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