255:. Lanchester wrote that "It would not be true to say that our libel laws were designed to prevent journalists from telling the truth; but that is how they often function in practice, and Bower has performed an astonishing job of investigation...The result is a remorseless book...But it is more the result of the desperately depressing world it evokes, one that seems at times to be unrelieved by competence or straightforwardness. ...What this adds up to is an indictment of the entire culture of British football...British football is greedy, incompetently administered, and mindlessly in thrall to the cult of celebrity. Those charges are all true. The harder question is whether contemporary Britain has the national game it deserves." Lanchester was critical of Bower's prose, and wrote that it "veers between the ugly-functional and the quasi-literate." In a review for
261:, Harry Pearson wrote that "...It would be nice to think that a few years from now something will occur to vindicate Tom Bower. His book about the shady finances of our national game...has certainly been greeted by football with a rare and intense silence." Bower was praised by Pearson for his writing in "great clarity and concision about murky business dealings" but Pearson also felt that "Broken Dreams does not make happy reading. It conjures up a world in which greed, arrogance, stupidity, egomania and profligacy meet with stunning force." In
221:. Holden wrote that "All fans should read this expose of football's financial secrets," describing the book as "dense but devastating." Holden described Bower as having "done football an important service by exposing its unseemly underbelly". Reviewing the book for
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wrote that "...even allowing for author Tom Bower's predilections for unrelievedly seeing the worst of human nature, his recent book on football, Broken Dreams, is a tour de force. The cumulative impact of the evidence he assembles is devastating".
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as having 'laid bare to an unsuspecting public the scale of the venality and profligacy of some managers, the incompetence and lack of financial probity of some chairmen and administrators and the greed of agents'.
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it was felt that Bower's revelations might lead to resignations, dismissals and possibly arrests. Though the book reportedly left people in football 'underwhelmed', the book was regarded by
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who wrote "Is there corruption in football? I don't doubt it. But it will need a better book than this to uncover it". Samuel was also critical of Bower's characterization of
184:'s attempts to reform football with their Football Task Force. Television rights and transfer dealings in English football are also discussed.
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Nick
Szczepanik. "Bower hits jackpot as tale of corruption in football wins bookie prize." The Times London, 25 November 2003: pg 34.
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said that "In minute and mounting detail it chronicles the avarice and megalomania that characterise our species at its worst".
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said that it was a "...devastating book, an indictment of football that all fans should read and understand...No one who reads
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can end it in any doubt that the practices it details are widespread" Ros Leckie, reviewing the paperback edition for
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The book is divided into 13 chapters with an introduction, and football personalities focused on in the book include
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is a 2003 non-fiction book by the
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was a "powerful weapon" in "the battle for the moral high ground of football".
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for 2003; Bower received a cheque for £15,000 and a free bet. The journalist
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136:. The book was well received critically and was the recipient of the
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Broken Dreams: Vanity, Greed and the
Souring of British Football
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Broken Dreams: Vanity, Greed and the
Souring of British Football
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Broken Dreams: Vanity, Greed and the
Souring of British Football
371:. "Beautiful Game, for All that." Times, London, March 19, 2003
176:'s 'compliance officer' and also discusses the attempts of
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599:William Hill Sports Book of the Year winning works
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302:bestseller list in February 2003.
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486:"Football pays the penalty"
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574:2003 non-fiction books
308:was the winner of the
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58:Simon & Schuster
589:Football in England
461:When Saturday Comes
435:The Daily Telegraph
403:The Daily Telegraph
258:When Saturday Comes
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369:Daniel Finkelstein
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484:(16 March 2003).
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108:(hardcover)
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482:Will Hutton
314:Danny Kelly
269:Will Hutton
170:Graham Bean
117:(softcover)
568:Categories
543:Bower, Tom
324:References
182:Tony Blair
166:David Dein
140:for 2003.
514:The Times
382:The Times
285:The Times
235:The Times
223:The Times
202:The Times
198:The Times
188:Reception
154:Ken Bates
130:Tom Bower
54:Publisher
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545:(2003).
247:by both
46:Language
495:7 March
466:5 March
440:5 March
408:5 March
144:Content
85:Various
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164:, and
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36:Author
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69:2003
283:in
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Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. Additional terms may apply.
