"Reminds me of why I love football - at its heart, it's a reflection of the communities that are built around it. A special book." - Jamie Carragher
You know when you're in a Football City.
The murals, the billboards, the graffiti, the colours on the bars and pubs. No two football cities are the same. That cross on the club badge, commemorating a 1st century fisherman martyr (Ajax). The 'cemetery' of graves dedicated to the club's league rivals (Napoli). The guttural roar of fans chanting "Aupa Athletic, aupa Euskal Herria!" - a fierce declaration of Basque pride and identity, echoing through San Mamés like a battle cry (Bilbao).
In a world of increasing corporate and homogenous sport, football cities preserve culture and exhibit the particular and the unique with glorious passion. Fandom in a football city is for everyone: for boys and girls, for elderly men and the infirm; for the fashionable, the outcasts and the hopeless: it gives their days meaning and clarity - it can unite divided cities and divide the otherwise united.
This is Our Game is a celebration of these unique fan cultures. Part travel, part social history, giving voice to distinctive local experiences, revealing the atmospheres, attitudes, fables, fashions, tensions and triumphs of twenty-two unique places and communities across all continents. It was the Russian composer (and FC Zenit fan) Dmitri Shostakovich who said: "Football is the ballet of the masses." This book takes us inside the dance.
| ISBN: | 9781835985601 |
| Publication date: | 28th May 2026 |
| Author: | Joel Rookwood, Daniel Fieldsend |
| Publisher: | August Books an imprint of Canelo |
| Format: | Paperback |
| Pagination: | 288 pages |
| Genres: |
Association football (Soccer) Social and cultural anthropology Travel writing |
"Reminds me of why I love football - at its heart, it's a reflection of the communities that are built around it. A special book." - Jamie Carragher
You know when you're in a Football City.
The murals, the billboards, the graffiti, the colours on the bars and pubs. No two football cities are the same. That cross on the club badge, commemorating a 1st century fisherman martyr (Ajax). The 'cemetery' of graves dedicated to the club's league rivals (Napoli). The guttural roar of fans chanting "Aupa Athletic, aupa Euskal Herria!" - a fierce declaration of Basque pride and identity, echoing through San Mamés like a battle cry (Bilbao).
In a world of increasing corporate and homogenous sport, football cities preserve culture and exhibit the particular and the unique with glorious passion. Fandom in a football city is for everyone: for boys and girls, for elderly men and the infirm; for the fashionable, the outcasts and the hopeless: it gives their days meaning and clarity - it can unite divided cities and divide the otherwise united.
This is Our Game is a celebration of these unique fan cultures. Part travel, part social history, giving voice to distinctive local experiences, revealing the atmospheres, attitudes, fables, fashions, tensions and triumphs of twenty-two unique places and communities across all continents. It was the Russian composer (and FC Zenit fan) Dmitri Shostakovich who said: "Football is the ballet of the masses." This book takes us inside the dance.
This Is Our Game features in the following genres: Association football (Soccer), Social and cultural anthropology, Travel writing
This Is Our Game is available in Paperback
This Is Our Game was written by Joel Rookwood, Daniel Fieldsend and published by August Books an imprint of Canelo
This Is Our Game has 288 pages
£13.49