The Club

How did English football - once known for its stale pies, bad book-keeping and hooligans - become a commercial powerhouse and the world's premium popular entertainment? This was a business empire built in only twenty-five years on ambition, experimentation and gambler's luck. Lead by a motley cast of executives, Russian oligarchs, Arab Sheikhs, Asian Titans, American Tycoons, battle- hardened managers, ruthless agents, and the Murdoch media, the Premier League has been carved up, rebranded and exported to phenomenal 185 countries. But the extraordinary profit of bringing England's aging industrial towns to compulsive global attention has come at a cost. Today, as players are sold for hundreds of millions and clubs are valued in the billions, local fans are being priced out…