Full Description
Scotland's greatest ever player refuses to go pro and leave his burgeoning village team. A multi-billionaire returns home to raze a housing state and re-construct the ground where he scored freely as a teenager. An ex-BBC commentator signed by commercial radio keeps 'forgetting' to mention the programme's fast food sponsors. A Premier League fan's life is transformed when a clip of him screaming at a linesman goes viral. An ex-amateur with dementia calls on his former team-mate every day to re-live the game that mirrored their fractious bond. A Sunday League pub team is unnerved by the strange couple who follow them every week.
In his second volume of eleven short stories inspired by the amorality, the greed, and the somehow still irresistible allure of the modern game, Ian Plenderleith tackles the themes that dog and drive 21st century football, where misplaced idealists engage with the struggle to stem corruption, cheating and avarice. These fast-moving tales are scored with dark humour and probing questions. What if we were offered a fat envelope full of cash just to fix the semi-final draw of the Cup? Would you work for a company set to shaft the team you've followed all your life? How much impurity and compromise can we tolerate before we have to declare - we've lost the game.
