The Club: How the English Premier League Became the Wildest, Richest, Most Disruptive Force in Sports

Journalists Robinson and Clegg, both of the Wall Street Journal, expertly explore the creation and expansion of the English Premier League, club soccer’s preeminent sports organization, in this investigative chronicle of sports, business, and global culture. The league was formed in 1992 when England’s top soccer teams broke with the country’s football league, in which they had been “bound to every other club in the country by a four-tiered structure” since the 19th century. By creating their own top-tier league, team representatives capitalized on new revenue streams, including a £304 million TV contract from Rupert Murdoch’s Sky TV. Enthralled by the intense competition and an influx of cash, billionaire owners from the U.S., Russia, and the Middle East bought up the likes of Manchester United, Liverpool, Chelsea, and Manchester City and began playing in state-of-the-art stadiums, selling merchandise internationally, and paying the world’s best players exorbitant salaries. Using their investigative journalism skills and mixing facts into a solidly entertaining narrative that melds boom-and-bust business with athletic competition at the highest level, the authors perfectly capture the rise of one of the world’s best-known sports organizations. (Dec.)