BOOKS BY DAVID ROSS

My books are available at these locations - with full descriptions and extracts in all formats.

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CROWDED HOUSES NOW AVAILABLE

My new book 'CROWDED HOUSES' is now available.  Paperback edition and  e-book
Excerpts are available for both.

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What can you expect from it? Well, there are several excerpts in blog posts from this year but I'll let the book's introduction speak for itself.

It’s a perennial post-match topic. Along with scepticism over refereeing decisions, doubts about penalty kicks, uncertainty of offside calls and animated expressions of delight/disgust at the game in general, debate over attendances invariably pops up. “What do you think the crowd was?” is part of the football fan’s staple conversation.

I first began to take a wider interest in attendances in the 1980s when I noticed that press reports of English matches usually contained an exact crowd figure while those of Scottish games were more likely to be estimates ending in two or three zeroes. So began my personal odyssey to discover the truth or otherwise behind the estimates. Like Odysseus but fortunately minus Calypso, Cyclops, Sirens or Lotus-Eaters, it was a voyage that took many years to complete. Ultimately, it came to fruition in my book ‘The ROAR of the Crowd.’ Its generally favourable reception motivated me to expand my interest. I decided that one day I would return to the topic but this time would look at Europe as a whole. Since then research has become easier thanks to the increasing availability of source material online. The days of long journeys to cold libraries to pore for hours over decaying microfiches are thankfully long gone. Yet just like ‘ROAR’ this book has been many years in the making.

The aim is to look at the rises and falls in crowd figures, to see what factors are at play, what similarities or differences prompt movement in one direction or the other, to compare countries of equal size and to disseminate more widely information otherwise unknown. I’ve endeavoured to cover every country in UEFA, even those with no or little information available. I’ve looked at domestic leagues and European club competitions. I’ve sought to accord appropriate coverage to each country. I’ve also tried to delve down as deeply as I can into the lower levels of the game, to the fifth and subsequent tiers. England and Scotland are the most prominent but Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Russia and others also feature heavily and no nation is omitted.

The biggest problem was knowing when to stop. The football season has no natural concluding point these days. For example, the 2015-16 Champions and Europa Leagues qualifiers kicked off less than 48 hours after the conclusion of the 2014-15 season in Spain. There are also several countries whose seasons run from March-November each year. So a cut-off date has to be arbitrary and December 31^st 2016 is that date here (though a few important events in early 2017 have managed to squeeze themselves in).

Information on some countries is scant and in one or two cases almost non-existent, while others present a bewildering array of often contradictory figures. Wherever possible I have used official figures issued by leagues and national associations. Where these aren’t available I have looked at numbers as provided on official club websites and after that reputable media outlets.

Occasionally this results in a conflict and in such instances I have opted to go for the figure more commonly used so where, for instance, I have found three sources citing a figure of 20,000 and two of 15,000 I have accepted the one with the most sources.

Inevitably there will be differences between some of the numbers here and what the reader may have seen elsewhere. Alas, there is no universally agreed format for determining exactly what constitutes an attendance. Is it all those present in the ground? Or simply those who PAID to gain admission? Does it include those who paid for admission but didn’t turn up? Are complimentary tickets to be included? Visiting officials and staff? Police and stewards taking a sneaky look at the action? Catering stall workers craning their necks over their customers’ heads to catch a glimpse of the game? The press and TV crews?

At first glance some of these suggestions may seem strange, but consider this: the record attendance for any match ever played in Europe was the Scotland v England international in May 1937. Two figures are often mentioned in the record books – 149,415 and 149,547. How can the discrepancy of 132 between the two figures be explained? Well, there were exactly 132 places in the Hampden Park press box.

At any rate I hope this illustrates the problems that can arise when assessing the accuracy of the crowd numbers or at least explain why you will often see two or more different attendances claimed for the same match. But while I can’t claim 100% accuracy for the content herein and fully accept any errors are mine and mine alone (for which please accept humble advance apologies), I am confident that the information contained is as accurate as is possible and that the general conclusions regarding totals, averages, occupancy rate and rankings are correct and any minor discrepancies would have no impact on them.

I mentioned previously the difficulty in finding a suitable cut-off point for inclusion. The same applies to introductions. Thanks for buying.

MY LOVE OF NON-LEAGUE FOOTBALL

Tony Incenzo of talkSPORT Radio shares his passion for the lower levels of the game.

MY LOVE OF NON-LEAGUE FOOTBALL

IN THE BEGINNING

I’ve been watching Non-League football on a regular basis since I was 10 years old. What I like most is that the players, club officials and supporters are there for the love of the game. The true spirit of football exists at Non-League level.

I grew up in North-West London and I was taken by my family to see my local club QPR as a child in the 1970’s.

I’ve always supported the R’s, but when they were playing away from home I started going to see my local Non-League clubs – Hendon primarily, but also Finchley, Barnet and Edgware Town.

GROUNDHOPPER

From there, I decided to visit every Non-League club in London as my groundhopping bug began. By the time I was 17, I had visited all 92 Football League grounds and I visited all the Scottish League grounds whilst still a teenager.

Since then, I’ve continued travelling all around the country to visit Non-League clubs. Last season, I chalked up my 2,000th ground at FC United of Manchester.

WORLD RECORD

One of the best groundhops was being part of a world record in March 2004. I joined 250 other groundhoppers to watch five matches at five different football grounds in one day in the Central Midlands League.

This is listed in the Guinness Book of Records and we received certificates confirming the world record at the end of the fifth game.

INSIDE PRISON!

In December 2011, I set about watching a match inside Feltham Prison in Middlesex.

This featured a team called Phoenix FC, who had to play all their fixtures at home (for obvious reasons!) as inmates of the Young Offender Institution at Feltham.

I received special permission by email to attend a fixture, but I was told not to bring a phone or a camera with me. I was instructed to arrive in the main car park along with the match referee and the visiting players from Hanworth Villa Vets.

We were met by members of the prison staff who escorted us all in together…via an airport-style metal detector, a body search, numerous locked gates and along a path to the changing rooms.

This process took 45 minutes. After the players and ref got changed, we were then accompanied through more locked gates out to the playing area.

A high mesh fence with barbed wire on top surrounded the football pitch. There were dug-outs along one touchline and I watched the match from there as the only spectator.

THE FUTURE

I have now been to 2,117 football grounds and have completed visits to the all the grounds in the top 16 divisions of English football down to Non-League step 4. Then at step 5 I need 23 grounds and another 71 at step 6.

There are endless possibilities at step 7 and below. Also, I’ve been to 35 European countries plus the USA for football – so it would be nice to visit more countries.

Follow Tony Incenzo on Twitter @TonyIncenzo