
Foul Play
The Dark Arts of Cheating in Sport
Mike Rowbottom(Author)
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Published on 17. July 2014
Book
Paperback/Softback
256 pages
978-1-4088-4344-4 (ISBN)
Description
There is cheating. And then there is cheating. But where does one end and the other start?
Doping. Fixing. Sledging. Intimidating. Time-wasting. Diving. Ever since sporting contests began there have been rules, and for many competitors those rules have been there to be broken. Or maybe just bent a little...
Foul Play offers an inside track on the dark arts employed in sport to gain an unfair advantage - on the football or rugby field, on the tennis or squash court, on the athletics track and the golf course, even on the bowling green or the Subbuteo table.
Some cheating in sport is considered virtually par for the course, while other forms are completely unacceptable. But who, ultimately, makes that judgement? From ball-tampering and bribery in cricket to rugby union's 'Bloodgate' scandal; from Diego Maradona's Hand of God to Alex Ferguson's managerial mind games; from the dodgy dealing of the ancient Greeks and the wily cunning of W.G. Grace to the doping scandals engulfing Marion Jones and Lance Armstrong, it's all here. Foul Play - sometimes funny, sometimes shocking - provides all the evidence you'll ever need that the sporting world is often anything but.
Doping. Fixing. Sledging. Intimidating. Time-wasting. Diving. Ever since sporting contests began there have been rules, and for many competitors those rules have been there to be broken. Or maybe just bent a little...
Foul Play offers an inside track on the dark arts employed in sport to gain an unfair advantage - on the football or rugby field, on the tennis or squash court, on the athletics track and the golf course, even on the bowling green or the Subbuteo table.
Some cheating in sport is considered virtually par for the course, while other forms are completely unacceptable. But who, ultimately, makes that judgement? From ball-tampering and bribery in cricket to rugby union's 'Bloodgate' scandal; from Diego Maradona's Hand of God to Alex Ferguson's managerial mind games; from the dodgy dealing of the ancient Greeks and the wily cunning of W.G. Grace to the doping scandals engulfing Marion Jones and Lance Armstrong, it's all here. Foul Play - sometimes funny, sometimes shocking - provides all the evidence you'll ever need that the sporting world is often anything but.
Reviews / Votes
The book contains so many tales of skulduggery that many are sure to be new to you. **** * Rugby World * A timely book ... This is an illuminating, entertaining excursion into sport's moral maze. Fair play to the author * Independent on Sunday, Book of the Week * His excursion into the grey areas of sport's moral maze is illuminating and entertaining -- Simon Redfern * Independent on Sunday *More details
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Dimensions
Height: 198 mm
Width: 129 mm
Weight
184 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-4088-4344-4 (9781408843444)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

E-Book
07/2013
1st Edition
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
€8.49
Available for download
Person
Mike Rowbottom has written about sport for The Times, the Guardian, the Observer and the Independent for more than two decades and is now chief features writer for insidethegames.biz. He has covered the last six summer Olympics and four winter Olympics, as well as many other sports. He co-wrote Olympic athlete Roger Black's autobiography How Long's The Course? and is the author of Usain Bolt: Fast as Lightning.