More Than A Shirt - Longlisted for the 2025 William Hill Sports Book of the Year Award

Football is the world''s most popular sport, and the shirts worn by teams and their supporters are its greatest means of cultural expression. Every year clubs launch their new kits with increasingly extravagant marketing campaigns and convoluted explanations of how their designs reflect their history and local community. But football shirts are much more than just a symbol of which club we support. A seemingly innocuous combination of colours, sponsor logos and materials can all reflect the social values, financial struggles and political ideologies of the day, as geopolitical issues increasingly seep into every aspect of the game. Investigative journalist Joey D''Urso has travelled across the globe, combining on-the-ground reporting with unparalleled analysis to collate a list of the twenty football shirts that best explain the modern world. More Than A Shirt will take fans on a journey from Barnsley to Belgrade and onto Medellin and Milan, outlining how we can see the war in Ukraine in Schalke''s shirt or China''s foreign policy in West Bromwich Albion''s; how the shirts of state-owned clubs are used for sportswashing; and why the French national kit embodies worldwide migration patterns. A compelling and eye-opening exploration, More Than A Shirt is essential reading for any football fan and will change the way you think about the beautiful game''s most universal symbol.

Product details

• Authors: Joey D'Urso
• Publisher: Seven Dials
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 19.06.2025
• EAN: 9781399622813
• ISBN: 978-1-399-62281-3
• No. of pages: 384
• Dimensions: 152 mm x 234 mm x 34 mm
• Subjects: Social sciences, law, business > Social sciences (general); SPORTS & RECREATION / Soccer, SOCIAL SCIENCE / Sociology / General, POLITICAL SCIENCE / Geopolitics, Geopolitics, HISTORY / World, Comparative Politics, Sociology: sport and leisure, Association football (Soccer), SPORTS & RECREATION / Cultural & Social Aspects, Cultural studies: dress and society