The World at Your Feet - Tim Hartley

In The World at Your Feet: One Man's Search for the Soul of the Beautiful Game, Tim Hartley takes us on a footballing world tour. We meet fans in Hong Kong who refuse to bow to China, help clear the goats off a pitch in Africa and kick off the chanting at a bizarre game in North Korea. Back home, Hartley visits all 92 Premier and Football League grounds and watches a prisoners' team desperate to play a competitive match. Using wry observation and detailed research, The World at Your Feet unfurls the good, the bad and the ugly of football. It is brutally honest, informative and often very funny. This is a rough guide with a difference. The power of football across the world is put in the balance and measured, its successes raised up, its failings laid bare. Hartley rails against the excesses of professional football but he never loses faith and through his travels he finds the soul of the game is still alive and kicking. If you want a global health check of the game we sometimes struggle to love, then you really need The World at Your Feet.