This scrupulously researched and sharply written book reads like a mash-up of Ted Lasso and Billion Dollar Whale. Journalist Ben Robinson tells the wild story of how his beloved local football club was dazzled, dominated and ultimately defrauded by a cast of shady characters, stretching from the sandy shores of Jersey to the concrete dystopia of North Korea. Generally, I have zero interest in football, but this book had me gasping and - finally - cheering from the sidelines. * Geoff White, investigative journalist and author of The Lazarus Heist * Ben has left no stone unturned, no question left unasked, and what is left is a story so dramatic, and at times so ludicrous, that you'll cancel your plans to finish it. * Alice Levine * Robinson skilfully untangles a global web of corruption from Pyongyang to Nottingham, using masterful investigative techniques and lashings of wry humour. This is pure Theatre of the Absurd. From the golden inner sanctums of Arab Sheikhs, via palm-fringed secrecy jurisdictions and glamourous car racing circuits, Robinson takes us on a barely believable journey to a lowly English football club where the monster fraud finally begins to unravel.
You don't have to be interested in football or, indeed corruption, to read this book, you just need to love good writing. * Paul Kenyon, investigative journalist and author of Dictatorland *
