This is Our Game: Inside the World’s Greatest Football Cities by Joel Rookwood & Daniel Fieldsend

So I’m surprised that a book like this hasn’t already been published. It covers all of the major Association Football cities and demonstrates how the game affects the city socially and politically, and how the city’s history affects the football clubs. Each chapter covers one city and is written by different authors, so the writing style varies from poetic to plain old fact heavy. In every case though, it is truly enlightening and, speaking as a football fan who has followed the ‘Beautiful Game’ for over fifty years, I still learned a lot. Slightly surprised that Liverpool is the only English city included, although it’s understandable.

The power and influence of football is quite scary in some places, such as the Argentinian and Italian cities. However, the one that surprised me the most is Dortmund, in Germany. Without football there would be nothing, especially now that the iron and steel production has gone. What a sight that industry night-glow must have been. Not that I am biased of course, but my favourite chapter is the  article about LIverpool. The writing is very engaging and it manages to capture the whole feeling that football brings to the people who live there. Not sure about the influences that created the unique Scouse accent, but that’s another story.

History, players, fans, great games and geography are all included, with some authors using interviews to highlight their points. Informative and fun, this is a book I’m pleased to put on my shelf. For the football fan who cares about football culture, this is a gem of a book.