States of Play - by Miguel Delaney (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

THE INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER

SHORTLISTED FOR FOOTBALL BOOK OF THE YEAR & BEST SPORTS WRITING AWARD AT THE 2025 SPORTS BOOK AWARDS

A TIMES SPORTS BOOK OF THE YEAR
A TELEGRAPH BOOK OF THE YEAR
AN IRISH TIMES BOOK OF THE YEAR
AN IRISH INDEPENDENT BOOK OF THE YEAR

Fully updated to cover Saudi Arabia's 2034 World Cup bid, the Manchester City charges case and the events of the 2024/25 season.

'Important, perfectly timed and hugely necessary.' The Guardian
'Football needs this book. A monumental piece of investigative journalism.' Irish Times
'A must-read on how modern football works.' Ian Wright
'Brave, forensic and utterly gripping.' Tom Holland

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The definitive account of how capitalism and the world's elite corrupted modern football.

As the 2022 World Cup in Qatar drew to a close, there was a bitter undercurrent to Argentina's triumph. Throughout the tournament, numerous allegations of sportswashing and financial misconduct had been made against the state of Qatar, moving what had previously been a smaller conversation into the worldwide spotlight.

The question had been asked, who really owns and runs football?

Journeying from Abu Dhabi to Newcastle, and onto London, Paris, Moscow and New York, journalist Miguel Delaney investigates the allegations of sportswashing and misconduct in the beautiful game. The result is a gripping account of how football has been taken over by the world's wealthiest businessmen, state-backed corporations, media tycoons and oil-rich oligarchs.

From Neymar's £198 million transfer to Paris Saint-Germain and Abu Dhabi's construction empire in Manchester to failed Financial Fair Play constraints and the dawn of the European Super League, Miguel draws on exclusive interviews and unprecedented access to key stakeholders to produce an all-encompassing exposé of modern footballs highest echelons.

Authoritative, riveting and eye-opening, States of Play reveals how football has become a tool for the world's elite.
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'The moral compass that the game needs.'Andy Brassell

'In this excellent investigation, Delaney reveals the ugly side of the beautiful game.'Oliver Bullough

'The most important football book of its generation.'Jack Pitt-Brooke

'Tackles the major issues affecting football today with fearlessness and forensic scrutiny. An important investigation for our times.'Laurie Whitwell

'A majestic book. The essential guide to how the people's game has become the plaything of the very rich and powerful.'Jonathan Wilson

Miguel Delaney's STATES OF PLAY was ranked in the Irish Times bestsellers list the weeks of 11th-18th November & 9th December 2024.

Review Quotes

A tightly written history, polemic and analysis.--James Corbett, Senior Correspondent for Off The Pitch

A vital read for anyone who wants to understand the journey from beautiful game to bountiful game... He writes as a genuine fan who also understands and cares about issues of global economic and political power... an essential guide to what football has become and a reminder of its true value.--Martin Cloake in The Football Fan

Detailed, balanced and absolutely necessary. This is without doubt the soccer book of the year. Everyone involved with the game at any level should read it now.--Ian Plenderleith, Soccer America, America's Oldest Soccer Magazine

I cannot think of a better guide than Miguel to show us just how the world's most popular sport has been captured and manipulated by some of the world's most powerful economic and political forces. This is an important book.--Tariq Panja, Global Sports Correspondent at the New York Times & co-Author of FOOTBALL'S SECRET TRAD

Magnificent.... some of the details [Delaney] reveals are eye-popping... an important and well-researched book... [with] penetrating insights and flashes of wit and humour.--David Winner, Award-Winning Author of BRILLIANT ORANGE, in Irish Independent

The most important book written this century about the forces controlling football.--Simon Hughes, Staff Writer at The Athletic and Author of Several Books on Liverpool FC including CHA

States of Play is an eye-opening and essential investigation into the forces shaping the world's most popular sport. Miguel Delaney has shown that the most important battles in football aren't the ones happening on the pitch.--Joshua Robinson and Jonathan Clegg, New York Times Bestselling co-Authors of THE CLUB and THE FORMUL

A brilliant and necessary book. So much has been written about sportwashing. I've never seen it so expertly analysed in one place. This book will age well, unlike the reputations of some of those who feature in it.--Joey D'Urso, Author of MORE THAN A SHIRT & Senior Data Journalist at The Times

A must-read on how modern football works, from the journalist who has led the way on this subject.--Ian Wright, Former Professional Footballer and TV Pundit

A necessary and fearless examination of what has happened to football and who it has been sold to. The most important football book of its generation.--Jack Pitt-Brooke, Football Writer at The Athletic

A scorching account of how football's very popularity threatens to destroy it - a brave, forensic and utterly gripping book.--Tom Holland, Sunday Times Bestselling Author of PAX, DOMINION & RUBICON, and the co-host of The Rest

A majestic book that through thorough research and trenchant argument makes clear how football has been hijacked by private equity and sovereign states; it's the essential guideto how the people's game has become the plaything of the very rich and powerful, with any sense of innocence lost.--Jonathan Wilson, Award-Winning Author of INVERTING THE PYRAMID

Delaney delivers a compulsive, compelling account of how the beautiful game has been bought and sold - and how the corrupt and the kleptocratic have profited while fans have been left far behind. Urgentreading.--Peter Geoghegan, Sunday Times Bestselling Author of DEMOCRACY FOR SALE: Dark Money and Dirty Politic

If you want to understand 21st century football - really understand it - then you'll want to read States of Play.--Phil Hay, Sunday Times Bestselling Author of AND IT WAS BEAUTIFUL & Football Correspondent for The A

In an age where many feel football is losing its way, Delaney's diligence and determination to hold authorities to account is the moral compass that the game needs.--Andy Brassell, Author of WE PLAY ON and the co-Host of the Football Ramble podcast

In an era when football has become captured by networks of political and economic power, Miguel Delaney's States of Play is the essential guide to how and why this happened; an impressive piece of truly transnational history that exposes power at work.--David Goldlbatt, Award-Winning Author of THE BALL IS ROUND

In this excellent investigation, Delaney reveals the ugly side of the beautiful game. His book isn't just about football; it's much, much moreimportant than that.'--Oliver Bullough, Sunday Times Bestselling Author of MONEYLAND & BUTLER TO THE WORLD

Miguel Delaney's sobering States of Play dug into the power-brokers and sports-washers who have turned the "people's game" into a casino for oligarchs.--Declan Ryan in the Telegraph's List of "The Best Sports Books of 2024"

Miguel Delaney's new book about the mega-politics of modern football, is an important, perfectly timed and hugely necessary attempt to transcribe and make sense of the world scrolling past the window in real time... It is a detailed, boisterous, big-hearted tale that reads like a rollercoaster colour match report.--Barney Ronay, Award-Winning Chief Sports Writer, in The Guardian

States of Play is a seminal work on 21st century football, which has been transformed in a way few of us can have ever imagined back in 2000. Delaney plots both how we got here but also ponders whether there is a way out of this maze. Along the way, there are jaw dropping anecdotes and revelations. It's one of the most important football books written in recent times.--Rob Draper, the award-winning football journalist, author and co-host of The Overlap's It Was What I

States of Play is one of the finest and most ambitious achievements any Irish sports journalist has pulled off in book form because of just how global and far-reaching its subject is.--Kieran Shannon, Irish Examiner

States of Play is an admirably thorough survey of [football's] depressing developments. Its core thesis - that soccer's Faustian bargain with big moneyed interests is undermining both its sporting competitiveness and its moral integrity - is persuasively argued.--Houman Barekat in The Irish Times

This book tackles the major issue affecting football today with fearlessness and forensic scrutiny. Miguel cares deeply for the game and its fans and that affection directs his moral compass to challenging authority in the strongest way. An important investigation for our times.--Laurie Whitwell, Manchester United Correspondent at The Athletic

This is a hugely important book for anyone who wants to understand the mess that football finds itself in. States of Play is the definitive account of how the world's game has been used and abused to further the goals of people who care nothing for it.--Martin Calladine, Author of NO QUESTIONS ASKED: How Football Joined the Crypto Con & FIT AND PROPER

Those who truly care about football can see beyond the pitch, and direct the same critical focus to the political and economic forces that are reshaping the game and taking it ever further from its roots. With this critically important and meticulously detailed book, Miguel Delaney firmly establishes his voice as one of the most important in modern football.--Nicholas McGeehan, co-Founder of Fair Square and Gulf Researcher for Human Rights Watch

About the Author

Miguel Delaney is the chief football writer at the Independent and has been nominated for several awards, including the Football Supporters' Association Writer of the Year, British Journalism Awards Sports Journalist of the Year and SJA Sports Writer of the Year. He is one of football's leading journalists and has covered 14 consecutive Champions League finals, 4 World Cups, and 5 European Championships, amongst others.

Twitter/X: @MiguelDelaney