Football is Life by Shaun Duffy
£10.95 / On Sale
Football is Life is a first hand, up close and personal pictorial travel memoir written from within the eye of the storm of extreme fandom. It’s a book about hardcore fans whose unwavering devotion takes the art of supporting a team to the highest level of dedication. Nothing compares to the experience of a fierce rivalry match, especially a cross-town derby, the most eagerly anticipated game on the fixture list.
The author's travels took him to the less celebrated footballing hotbeds of Bosnia, France, Holland, Hungary, Poland, Portugal, Romania and Serbia. Although not entirely free of the modern football virus, the more active European fan scene refuses to surrender its heritage to the faceless men in suits with blank cheques, who have no real love for the game, just a desire to corrupt it beyond repair in pursuit of uber sized profit margins.
Starting with a day in the life of the Soprano like Grobari (1970) boys, custodians of Partizan Belgrade’s Cathedral of Death, the first chapter gives a compelling and detailed insight into the activities of one of the world’s most notorious fan movements.
A pre-match drink with Steaua hooligans ended with a pre-arranged bloody street fight as rival thugs fought running battles on the crowded streets of Bucharest before the derby with eternal rivals Dinamo.
The book chronicles the corruption, fan violence and off the scale, overt racism that has hijacked the game. But despite the sinister underbelly that quite obviously exists, in the face of repression and adversity, the fans ULTRA-fication of their stadiums brings about a unique crowd dynamic like no other sport in the world. The devoted ultra fan scene ensures an explosion of noise and colour that is sadly missing from our own modern game. Their ingenious terrace choreography and the hostile environment they create is a sight every true football supporter should witness at some point in their life. The many photographs included in this book pay homage to their devotion and adds credence to the books title.
With the English game terminally infected by the ‘corporate mafia,’ our stadiums sanitised by the ‘prawn sandwich brigade’ and a modern fan scene that has alienated many old school supporters, the author had to travel away from the inhibited ‘library like’ English grounds in search of the rivalries that really justify the hype.
***The book is paperback and is comprised of 266 pages, approximately 160 photographs and retails at £10.95 + postage and packaging, which can vary dependent upon postage location***