Premiership : The Uncut History of the Fa Premier League by Chris Horrie

Chris Horrie gets right to the heart of the football business, with the same insight and perception that he employed in his bestselling exposes of the media, Stick it up your Punter! and Live TV. 'If one day I should return to soccer, it would mean it has changed. I left it because it was no longer similar to my vision of the game. Because of all the financial interests at stake, the sport is turning into a mafia.' Eric Cantona, February 2001 One weekend in mid-August 1992 the world of football changed for ever. On the Saturday the first Premiership games took place; on the Sunday Nottingham Forest beat Liverpool in the first match to be broadcast live by Sky TV. Together, these developments signalled the most significant shift in the game since professionalism was introduced. Although the shift is primarily about money - rich clubs getting richer, players' wages rising astronomically, the battle for TV rights becoming ever more bitter and hard-fought - the changes introduced by the transformation of the old First Division ten years ago have had other effects and influences as much to do with society and business as the world of sport. Premiership is acclaimed journalist Chris Horrie's brilliantly perceptive and entertaining survey of the first ten years of British football's top flight, examining the motives and money, bungs and brilliance of the key players both on and off the field.