David Goldblatt is the foremost chronicler of football history of his time and this is another superb book. The scope of his narrative and the detail of his research make this a must read for fan around the globe. If I am honest I find the audio book format a difficult one to adapt to and with such an in depth piece of writing my personal preference is to be able to hold the book and refer back, but the presentation of the audio is excellent and will I am sure be a hit for anyone more used to listening in this way than me.

I really enjoyed this - this was an anthropological look at the culture of football, which I find fascinating, despite not being an avid follower of the sport outside the world cup/the olympics. It details how football so strongly permeates the culture of so many countries, and how wonderful it is, but also how corrupt the sporting bodies are. Really recommend the audiobook too!

I thought this was a really thought provoking and interesting book. One of the best books about football I've read (listened to) in a long time, not a boring moment. Very engaging throughout.

An unusual and compelling account of Football as a global sport, inextricably linked with politics, especially in emerging nations. Goldblatt, who narrates the audiobook himself, in an approachable and easy to listen to voice, attacks his subject from unexpected angles which make the reader, or listener, stop and take stock. This is not the standard history of European Football but a tour through the impact of Football, which goes far beyond the simple 'who beat who' and brings some understanding to how, and why, football is so important, for good and bad, to so many.

An absolutely fantastic, engaging and amazing book. WOW. I hung on every single word. A great guide to recent world history and how football has intersected with it. Even the stories I thought I knew, I learnt something. This enlightened me to other stories I had no idea about. An definite MUST READ if you love football, history or politics.

David Goldblatt is excellent and he doesn’t disappoint with this new book. Taking a regional approach, he looks at modern-day football and its effect upon society as a whole across the world. This includes corruption, religion, gender, gambling, politics etc. A must read for those who want to know more about football’s unbelievably wide influence. Very well-narrated by the author too.

By far the best book about world-football I have read. In-depth analysis and very thorough, this publication is a must-have for football enthusiasts.

A very interesting and thought provoking work, covering football to the present day, the book focuses on football across the World, slitting it up into regional chapters. Lots of detail and work gone into the book, full of socio-econimic and the politics of the regions and individual countries.

Sadly football is beset by corruption at all levels and the same problems exist Worldwide with misappropriation of funds, vote rigging, match fixing as well as the racist issues which unfortunately are becoming more frequent.

Sadly it shows the game and sport in its worst light but hopefully it can clean itself up in the future starting with FIFA and work its way downwards.

A very engaging read and one I would recommend to all fans of sports, not just football.

The audiobook was very well narrated by the author and a top quality production, usually in my experience books narrated by authors are not as good as ones narrated by professional narrators and voice actors, but this clearly was a labour of love and having heard a sample of The Ball Is Round by David Goldblatt, I much prefer David’s narration of this to the other narrator. It was very clear and the author's pronounciation of international clubs, players names were very good (unlike some narrators pronounciations).

I would not fail to recommend both the book (which I own) and audiobook version of this to friends and family.

I will post this review to Goodreads and Amazon, I would post it to Audible but you need to purchase the audiobook first.