More Than Just a Game. Football V. Apartheid. The Most Important Football Story Ever Told.

London England: Collins. Hardback. More Than Just a Game. 'This story adds a compelling dimension to our understanding of the struggle against apartheid' (Desmond M. Tutu, Archbishop Emeritus). This is the true story of how the political prisoners of South Africa's infamous Robben Island turned football into an active force in their struggle for freedom. Despite torture, regular beatings and backbreaking labour, these extraordinary men defied all odds and played organized league football in one of the ugliest and most brutal hellholes on earth. Even more astonishingly, they played the game for nearly 20 years with strict adherence to FIFA rules. Told through the eyes of former prisoners, this factual account chronicles their arrival on the island, their years of ceseless campaigning to be allowed to play on an abandoned patch of land, the creation and success of the Makana Football Association and their triumph over the prison authorities every time their right to play the beautiful game was threatened. But as the football league grew in popularity, so did the challenges, forcing the prisoners to not only wrestle with the apartheid establishment, but also to manage themselves. This incredible story celebrates bravery and heroism and shows how sport has the power to unite and overcome adversity. Illustrated. 317 pp. (We carry a wide selection of titles in The Arts, Theology, History, Politics, Social and Physical Sciences. academic and scholarly books and Modern First Editions, Reference books ,and all types of Academic Literature.) . Near Fine. Cloth. First Thus. 2008.