Outcasts! [Hardcover]

Steve Menary (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 1, 2007

Once in a while, a book comes along with an unusual subject matter that captures the imagination. Menary's Outcasts! falls into that category. A fascinating insight into all the various factors that have to be taken into account when looking to become a "football nation."

Editorial Reviews

Review

Outcasts! is a must-read for all football fans. - Sporting Life; One book that might intrigue the discerning reader this Christmas - Sunday Telegraph; Buy this - The Times; Lively, informative - The Independent on Sunday; Menary is an enthusiast with a talent for getting the best out of his interviewees and a keen eye for the encapsulating episode - Daily Telegraph; Thought provoking questions about the nature of national identity - Four Four Two; Menary is an admirably sure-footed guide ... he never loses sight of the human stories ... a gentle meditation not merely on the power of football, but also on what it means to be a country - When Saturday Comes; Once in a while a book comes along with an unusual subject matter that captures the imagination and Menary's Outcasts falls into that category - Yorkshire Post; A thoroughly absorbing and entertaining examination of the issues involved, never threatening to outstay its welcome - Isle of Man Today; A fascinating insight - Guernsey Press & Star; Outcasts is as good as it gets - Birmingham Post; Excellent! - The Scotsman.

About the Author

Steve Menary is a freelance writer and journalist. A regular contributor to World Soccer and When Saturday Comes magazines, he has also written for Sport & Society journal and spoke at the Play the Game conference in Denmark on Non-FIFA affiliated football. He lives in the New Forest with his wife and two children.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 224 pages
• Publisher: Pitch Publishing (November 1, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1905449313
• ISBN-13: 978-1905449316
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.1 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.9 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,413,166 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Outcasts!, July 10, 2009

By 

P. D. Carli (Amsterdam, The Netherlands) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Outcasts! (Hardcover)

"Outcasts! The Lands That FIFA Forgot" is a book written by Steve Menary. It's a book about the world of Unrecognised Football Nations, football nations that are not allowed by the FIFA to internationally represent themselves. It's a publication highly recommended for anybody that is interested in Unrecognised Football Nations (abbreviated to UFN from here on). But it's such a well written book that it's also understandable and interesting for people who don't know much about the world of football outside of FIFA.

"Outcasts" is a book that gets into the seemingly countless amount of inconsistencies in FIFA regulations. This is a book about football nations that want to represent themselves by playing international football matches, but are not allowed to do just that. Also in this book are stories about the NF-Board (New Federation-Board) who want to let all the people play.

You can't write a book about UFN without mentioning the NF-Board, so there's quite a lot of stories about the NF-Board here. There are stories about the good: "the NF-Board's initial provisional membership swells to 17 football federations" and the bad: "[it] should be the first game in the VIVA World Cup, but, not only are there no fans, there are no teams." The stories in the book are very honest. Steve Menary tries to describe people and events as accurate as possible and doesn't try to make things seem better than they are in reality.

NF-Board president Christian Michelis and NF-Board general secretary Jean-Luc Kit, who are very impressed with Menary's book, were actually the ones who recommended me to buy this book. And I'm quite happy for that as I've obviously enjoyed reading it.

The book has it's factual errors though. For example, The Hague is incorrectly mentioned in chapter sixteen as the capital of The Netherlands. However, The Hague is merely the seat of government and not the capital (Amsterdam is the capital) of The Netherlands. There is also an incorrect mention of Australia and New Zealand reaching the FIFA World Cup finals in 1970 and 1974 respectively, while it was actually 1974 and 1982 respectively. And I'm sure there's a few more, but you could describe these errors as minor errors and they really don't have any effect on the quality of the story.

I was happy to see an entire chapter devoted to football from the Northern Mariana Islands. To find a book about UFN is one thing, but to also find out that there's also something about football from the Northern Marianas was quite a pleasant surprise. It's a chapter that describes how the Northern Mariana Islands Football Association emerged and became a provisional member of the East Asian Football Association. It's quite an amazing story about how a man called Peter Coleman, who just wanted to let his children play football, ends up creating a national team that becomes a provisional member of the EAFF. This is a rare example where one of the UFN actually starts getting some recognition. Unfortunately, most UFN, for example Greenland who have been trying to get some recognition for many years now, are not this lucky.

It's a very enjoyable book for people interested in UFN, but it's also very interesting for football fans in general as it gives a whole different perspective of the international football than most people are accustomed to. The stories are not only about football, but also about the protection of human and cultural rights. As president of the CENF (Confederation of European New Federations), I know about what's going on with the UFN and I'm happy to see that there's now a chance for everybody to read about what's really going on in the world of international football. Rating: Excellent!