"Football is now the most lucrative and popular sport in the world." "Its annual turnover is a staggering [pound]250 billion worldwide. Football has become a vast global business whose employees are multi-millionaires with celebrity status. Yet, little more than a decade ago, British football was in a state of terminal decline. What has happened to change football so drastically?" "The Only Game is the first book of its kind, surveying in one narrative sweep both the tale of the game itself plus its broader historical setting. In colourful detail, it charts the changing face of football against the background of changes to England as a whole."--BOOK JACKET.