At Any Price

• Moral sellout and outraged fans - on the glory and misery of modern football
• English sample translation by Raphael Honigstein availabe

Modern football seems to be about money more than anything. Christoph Biermann reveals how we got to this point.

1992 was the year that everything changed in football. The Champions League was founded. In England, the Premier League was created, which is now the most successful football league in the world. The golden age of modern football began. In new stadiums, super teams with super players played under the guidance of visionary super coaches for a globally growing audience. But, from the very beginning, this success story was shot through with considerable uneasiness and alienation. Everything became a commodity: clubs and leagues, players, and even the emotions of the fans. Meanwhile, athletic competition was eroding, always producing the same serial winners. After three decades, the development culminated in 2021, with the attempt to create an exclusive “Super League” and the World Cup in Qatar in the winter of 2022 has exposed the moral sellout of FIFA.

This book reveals the abysses and contradictions of the football industry and Christoph Biermann tries to point to ways out of the dilemma.