“Gibraltar and the road to Wembley”
“Gibraltar and the road to Wembley”
A seminar as part of the Sport Business Centre Seminar Series
Given by: Steve Menary
B35 Lecture Theatre
Main Building
Birkbeck College, University of London
Torrington Square
London WC1E 7HX
Thursday 18th April 2013 at 6pm
This event will operate under “Chatham House Rules” – no external reporting without the permission of the speakers
Synopsis
As the Gibraltar Football Association (GFA) prepare for their long-running application to join the international game to go to a vote at the UEFA Congress in London on May 24 2013, author and journalist Steve Menary provides an update on the fortunes of the British colony and the other teams that featured in his critically well-received book Outcasts: The Lands That FIFA Forgot.
He looks at what has happened to those teams that he spent two years chronicling in the original edition of Outcasts, which was shortlisted for the 2008 football book of the year award. Why could Gibraltar finally be on the break-through? Why is Greenland the epitome of the footballing Outcast? Why are Kosovo barred from even playing international friendlies despite recognition from well over half of FIFA’s 209 members?
Outcasts, which has just come out as a new edition on Kindle, is a story of how footballing nationality, or the need to establish a national identity through sport, continues be used and distorted for political means, and how the footballing authorities keep some ‘countries’ kicking their heels on the side-lines.
Reviews of Outcast
- Book of the week. The Independent (December 2007) http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/news-and-comment/book-of-the-week-outcasts-the-lands-that-fifa-forgot-by-steve-menary-766972.html
- “Menary is an enthusiast with a talent for getting the best out of his interviewees and a keen eye for the encapsulating episode” – The Telegraph (January 2008) http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/international/2289210/Sportsbooks-The-little-guys-that-Fifa-forgot.html
- “Astonishing stories are in regular supply”. WalesOnlie (February 2008) http://www.walesonline.co.uk/whats-on/entertainment-reviews/book-reviews/2008/02/02/outcasts-the-lands-that-fifa-forgot-by-steve-menary-91466-20429526/
- “Where is the soul of football? I think it’s in this book” – Adrian Chiles. Preface to Outcasts.
- “For readers who want to know their writers have given them 100%, there will be no doubts here … an absorbing, engaging and thought provoking account of the miracle which is football itself” – David Conn. Introduction to Outcasts.
Reading
- Menary. S (2007). Outcasts: The Lands That FIFA Forgot. 2nd edition (Pitch Publications 2012). http://www.amazon.co.uk/Outcasts-Lands-That-Forgot-ebook/dp/B00AIQUT3O/ref=sr_1_4_bnp_1_kin?ie=UTF8&qid=1360689954&sr=8-4
- http://outcasts-book.blogspot.com/
- ‘When is a National team not a National Team’ Sport in Society Volume 10 Number 2 March 2007
- ‘Football and the Cyprus conflict’ Soccer and Society Volume 11 Number 3 May 2010
- World Soccer magazine – http://www.worldsoccer.com/
- When Saturday Comes magazine – http://www.wsc.co.uk/
- www.PlayTheGame.org – Steve Menary
Biography
Steve Menary trained as a chef but since 1996 has worked as a journalist. He was a city reporter at The Scotsman before becoming a freelance writer and author in 2001. He writes mostly about business and sport and is a regular contributor to World Soccer and When Saturday Comes magazines. He also contributes to PlayTheGame.org and the World Football show on BBC World Service. He has been saddled with supporting AFC Bournemouth for as long as he can remember.
Contact details
For further details on this seminar series contact:
Sean Hamil
Department of Management
Birkbeck College
Malet Street
London
WC1E 7HX
Tel: 020-7631 6763
Email: s.hamil@bbk.ac.uk
