{"product_id":"this-is-our-game","title":"This is Our Game","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e\"\u003ci\u003eR\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eeminds me of why I love football - at its heart, it''s a reflection of the communities that are built around it. A special book.\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003e\" - Jamie Carragher\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eYou know when you’re in a Football City.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe murals, the billboards, the graffiti, the colours on the bars and pubs. No two football cities are the same. That cross on the club badge, commemorating a 1st century fisherman martyr (Ajax). The ‘cemetery’ of graves dedicated to the club’s league rivals (Napoli). The guttural roar of fans chanting “\u003ci\u003eAupa Athletic, aupa Euskal Herria!\u003c\/i\u003e” – a fierce declaration of Basque pride and identity, echoing through San Mamés like a battle cry (Bilbao).\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn a world of increasing corporate and homogenous sport, football cities preserve culture and exhibit the particular and the unique with glorious passion. Fandom in a football city is for everyone: for boys and girls, for elderly men and the infirm; for the fashionable, the outcasts and the hopeless: it gives their days meaning and clarity – it can unite divided cities and divide the otherwise united.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eThis is Our Game \u003c\/i\u003eis a celebration of these unique fan cultures. Part travel, part social history, giving voice to distinctive local experiences, revealing the atmospheres, attitudes, fables, fashions, tensions and triumphs of twenty-two unique places and communities across all continents. It was the Russian composer (and FC Zenit fan) Dmitri Shostakovich who said: “Football is the ballet of the masses.” This book takes us inside the dance.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57490295587189,"sku":"9781835985601","price":14.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781835985601.jpg?v=1786442182","url":"https:\/\/backstory.london\/products\/this-is-our-game","provider":"Backstory","version":"1.0","type":"link"}