Fit and Proper?: Conflicts and Conscience in an English Football Club - Softcover

Bell, Matthew; Armstrong, Gary

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1907219110 ISBN 13: 9781907219115

Publisher: Peakpublish, 2010

Synopsis

This is the story of a football club that, in the 1990s, harboured the UK's biggest white-collar fraudster. This same club was almost bought by someone who couldn't decide whether to be a man or a woman. It also had as chairman a man subject to an international arrest warrant, then another chairman who remains to this day a fugitive from the law, who in turn was succeeded by a man with connections to Libyan arms dealers. To this ensemble make space for the Gurkha Regiment, Interpol, the 'Rat Pack', the Charing Cross Gender Identity Clinic, protein-rich algae, a collection of classic motor vehicles, 29,000 piles of dog excrement, a huge Indian city and a tiny Scottish village. Based on years of research by its two authors, Fit and Proper? details the history of the boardroom of Sheffield United Football Club, focusing particularly on the foibles of the men who over three decades from 1980 tried, and largely failed, to turn the 'Blades' into a profitable business and a successful club. Instead, the city that gave the game to the world is home to a club that has now become the footballing arm of an international property development company. Sometimes truth is stranger than fiction.

About this title

About the Author

Matthew Bell is a mechanical engineer by trade but spends every spare moment writing about Sheffield United. He has edited the United fanzine, 'Flashing Blade' for over twenty years and has written a weekly column in the Green 'Un since 1993. He was co-editor of the imaginatively titled books, 'Blades Tales' and 'Blades Tales 2' and has written articles for 4-4-2 magazine and the 2003 Sheffield United v Arsenal FA Cup semi-final programme. Despite all this, he says that United's results are less important than the quality of his pre-match pint. Dr. Gary Armstrong is a Reader in the School of Sport and Education, Brunel University, London. He previously lectured in Criminology at the University of Westminster and the University of Reading. His research into sports-related matters has produced various publications including: Football Hooligans: Knowing the Score, Blade Runners: Lives in Football, and Sheffield United FC: The Biography.

Edition details

• Publisher: Peakpublish
• Publication date: 2010
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1907219110
• ISBN 13: 9781907219115
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 454