Support Your Local League
A South-East Asian Football Odyssey
Published on 15. November 2018
Book
Paperback/Softback
270 pages
978-0-6481333-2-2 (ISBN)
Description
With the 2014 World Cup as a backdrop, British expat Antony Sutton takes us on a journey as he meets and learns about the people who play, coach and follow football in South East Asia.
Along the way he meets football hooligans, a member of the 1990 Cameroon World Cup squad, and numerous players and coaches, both well known and some merely just making a living.
It is a gentle, humorous, rollicking and revealing insight that is part 'boys own' travel adventure, part football life lessons, and part social and political commentary on the four heavyweight South East Asian nations of Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia.
Along the way he meets football hooligans, a member of the 1990 Cameroon World Cup squad, and numerous players and coaches, both well known and some merely just making a living.
It is a gentle, humorous, rollicking and revealing insight that is part 'boys own' travel adventure, part football life lessons, and part social and political commentary on the four heavyweight South East Asian nations of Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia.
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Australia
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Unsewn / adhesive bound
Dimensions
Height: 210 mm
Width: 148 mm
Thickness: 14 mm
Weight
356 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-6481333-2-2 (9780648133322)
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
Person
Antony doesn't remember a time when football wasn't part of his life, but he also isn't entirely sure how it all started.
His earliest memories are of being given Arsenal books and programmes in the early 1970s, listening to the BBC World Service commentary from his home in Belgium on a Saturday afternoon, mentally kicking every ball as he was doing so.
He went to his first football match a few weeks after returning to England to live in 1973, travelling on a double-decker Southdown bus to watch Brighton play Plymouth Argyle with his father and older brother. This was the Brighton of Brian Clough though he was unaware of that fact at the time. Antony says his abiding memory was of not being able to get a programme! It took more than 20 years to finally track one down but he soon learned that football was about memories.¿
From supporting his passion - Arsenal - and his home side - Aldershot - from a young age, the next logical step for Antony was to see some football overseas, a past time that began in 1984 in continental Europe and continued for more than 30 years starting with Australia - where he adopted St George as his team - to Asia where he lived for a while in Thailand, a brief return to England and Germany before settling in the Indonesian capital, Jakarta, where he started the popular blog, Jakarta Casual in 2006.
Antony says that marriage and Jakarta Casual helped give meaning to his life and reignite his love for football, and marks the second half of his 30 years of expat life which provide the sub-text to his book, Support Your Local League - A South East Asian Football Odyssey.
His earliest memories are of being given Arsenal books and programmes in the early 1970s, listening to the BBC World Service commentary from his home in Belgium on a Saturday afternoon, mentally kicking every ball as he was doing so.
He went to his first football match a few weeks after returning to England to live in 1973, travelling on a double-decker Southdown bus to watch Brighton play Plymouth Argyle with his father and older brother. This was the Brighton of Brian Clough though he was unaware of that fact at the time. Antony says his abiding memory was of not being able to get a programme! It took more than 20 years to finally track one down but he soon learned that football was about memories.¿
From supporting his passion - Arsenal - and his home side - Aldershot - from a young age, the next logical step for Antony was to see some football overseas, a past time that began in 1984 in continental Europe and continued for more than 30 years starting with Australia - where he adopted St George as his team - to Asia where he lived for a while in Thailand, a brief return to England and Germany before settling in the Indonesian capital, Jakarta, where he started the popular blog, Jakarta Casual in 2006.
Antony says that marriage and Jakarta Casual helped give meaning to his life and reignite his love for football, and marks the second half of his 30 years of expat life which provide the sub-text to his book, Support Your Local League - A South East Asian Football Odyssey.