{"product_id":"9781472923127","title":"The Billionaires Club : The Unstoppable Rise of Football’s Super-rich Owners WINNER FOOTBALL BOOK OF THE YEAR, SPORTS BOOK AWARDS 2018","description":"\u003cstrong\u003eThe Billionaires Club\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor(s): James Montague\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003eOnce upon a time football was run by modest local businessmen. Today it is the plaything of billionaire oligarchs, staggeringly wealthy from oil and gas, from royalty, or from murkier sources. But who are these new masters of the universe? Where did all their money come from? And what do they want with our beautiful game? \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWhile almost cloaked in secrecy, the billionaire owner has to raise his head above the bunker when it comes to football ownership – a rare Achilles heel that allows access to worlds normally off limits journalists and outsiders. In the \u003ci\u003eBillionaires Club \u003c\/i\u003eJames Montague delves deeper than anyone ever dared, to tell this story for the first time. He criss-crosses the world – from Dhaka to Doha, from China to Crewe, from St Louis to London, from Bangkok to Belgium – to profile this new elite, their network of money and their influence that defies geographic boundaries.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Billionaires Club\u003c\/i\u003e is part history of club ownership, part in-depth investigation into the money and influence that connects the super-rich around the globe, and part travel book as he follows the ever-shifting trail around the globe in an attempt to reveal the real force behind modern-day football.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAt its heart \u003ci\u003eThe Billionaires Club\u003c\/i\u003e is a football book, about some of the biggest clubs in the world. But it is also about something bigger: the world around us, the global economy, where the world is headed and how football has become an essential cog in this machine.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eReview(s):\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e“The business-minded and the football crazy… will find [this book] hard to resist” —\u003ci\u003eSunday Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“\u003ci\u003eThe Billionaires Club\u003c\/i\u003e seeks to understand why the global super-rich suddenly became interested in football, and what the consequences of this trend have been” —\u003ci\u003eIrish Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“A fascinating read for the many football fans interested in the developments off pitch” —\u003ci\u003eFinancial Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Both surprising and insightful … The book does a fine job of examining just why rich men choose to plough oodles of money into football” —\u003ci\u003eFourFourTwo\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Montague… proves himself adept here at rustling up enlightening stories on the game from relatively far-flung outposts and placing them in the context of a broader global picture” —\u003ci\u003eWhen Saturday Comes\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eISBN:  9781472923127\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e ","brand":"Bloomsbury Sport","offers":[{"title":"Paperback \/ softback","offer_id":40698774421710,"sku":"9781472923127","price":16.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0600\/7029\/7806\/products\/getimage_330f557d-f2fc-4390-be66-ee570482a2c7.jpg?v=1640494744","url":"https:\/\/pickwickbookshop.com\/products\/9781472923127","provider":"Pickwick Bookshop","version":"1.0","type":"link"}