Football’s Golden Decades
Barry McLoughlin

Football’s Golden Decades
Four of Wembley finest finals

Decades before England’s Euro 2020 success, there was another gilded era for English football… massive crowds packed stadiums as fans regained their hunger for professional soccer after the war. From the sensational Cup Final of 1939 to England’s World Cup triumph twenty-seven years later, football was still in its Age of Innocence, before superstardom and eye-watering wages. Players were part of the same community as those who watched them – and, thanks to the maximum wage, didn’t earn much more than them either. The business of playing and watching football has been transformed beyond recognition since then. Grounds are safer and more comfortable, players are faster and fitter. Tactically, too, football is much more sophisticated than when players used to line up in a rigid 2–3–5 formation. Yet, as the game has become a multi-billion pound industry, fuelled at the top end by lucrative TV contracts, has soccer lost its soul?
Published:Oct 2021
Paperback:119 pages
Colour images:50
Size:6 x 9 ins
Price:£9.99
ISBN:9-781913-425982

£9.99 (+ £3.50 postage)
Number of copies:

In a blend of personal reminiscence and reportage, Barry McLoughlin – the son of an FA Cup-winning England international – looks back to four of the most famous Wembley finals, and examines the social and cultural background of the era through a study of grounds and football programmes. Packed with colour and black and white illustrations, it’s an essential guide to a pivotal period in British football.