posted on 15 Dec 2023

The Football School Encyclopedia by Alex Bellos and Ben Lyttleton, illustrated by Spike Gerrell

Becoming a football fan can be something like opting to go down a rabbit hole from which there might be no escape. As Alice found on her visit to Wonderland, the land of football is one in which there are lots of rules, facts, figures and players and they can seem totally confusing and overwhelming until you get to grips with the way this world within a world operates. 

Alice followed the White Rabbit down her rabbit hole but football fans usually find their way there by opting to support a particular team and finding that they must know everything they can about their chosen club. Soon, everything is seen through glasses tinted in your club’s colours and you know far more than you should about the biographical details of the players, past and present, who are foolish enough to don your team’s shirt.

Football fandom expands to become a parallel universe that can burst into the so-called ‘real world’ – those lost to football’s spell find their moods swinging backwards and forwards as the team rises or falls down the various leagues and many a Saturday night has been spoiled for the fanatic when their team is beaten. And just how bitter that defeat is when the opposing team is your local geographical rival.

The grip football can have on an individual is perhaps best understood by this now famous quotation from the rugged, working class club manager, Bill Shankley, who first took Liverpool F.C. to the peak of the footballing pyramid. In an interview about his approach to managing, he said:

“Some people believe football is a matter of life and death, I am very disappointed with that attitude. I can assure you it is much, much more important than that."

As a guidebook to this football Wonderland, The Football School Encyclopedia from Alex Bellos and Ben Lyttleton is the perfect gift for any youngster tempted to enter. Its mission is ambitious:

“At Football School we love the game and we are always looking to tell amazing true stories about it…..You will learn about famous players and the world’s top clubs, but you will also explore history and science and business and language and much, much more.”

And, boy, do they deliver! Clearly organised around key themes and fabulously set out in graphic form (wave your scarves here to the illustrator, Spike Gerrell) the Encyclopedia doesn’t skimp in terms of the territory it explores but it somehow finds the right level of detail and doesn’t drown the reader in unnecessary facts.

It’s really easy to see how the young fan will find the book totally engaging and just how easy it will be for them to tuck away a few facts and snippets of football history to impress their friends with. I suspect some of them will also moan a bit that their special club doesn’t feature enough – but that’s football fans for you and no book on football ever has enough in it about your club.

This really would make a fabulous Christmas gift for a football-mad youngster and it would pretty much guarantee parents or carers some moments of peace quite over the holiday period. Published by Walker Books, you will be able to get this from your local independent bookshop - who will be happy to order it for you if they don't have it on their sheves.

 

Terry Potter

December 2023