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. The United Nations only recognises 193. But the extraordinary profit of bringing England's ageing industrial towns to a compulsive global attention has come at a cost. Drawing on dozens of exclusive and revelatory interviews from the boardrooms, this is the definitive account of how the Premier League product took over the world.