In the last two decades football in Britain has made the transition from a peripheral dying sport to the very centre of our popular culture, from an economic basket-case to a booming entertainment industry. What does it mean when football becomes so central to our private & political lives? Has it enriched us or impoverished us? In this sparkling book David Goldblatt argues that no social phenomenon tracks the momentous economic, social & political changes of the post-Thatcherite era in a more illuminating manner than football, & no cultural practice sheds more light on the aspirations & attitudes of our long boom & subsequent bust.