In 1998, Steve Haines had been looking around for a book that would guide him comprehensively through the forthcoming World Cup Finals in France, but all he could find was a lot of gloss with very little substance. So he and Tim Parnham decided that the only solution was to write the definitive guide themselves. This book is the result - everything you need to know about the World Cup. This book, about the infamous "bag of wind" and the demented beggars that try to get it between the two sticks, covers a history of the development of football from ancient times to the founding of the English football league in 1888. It gives a history of international football from the first internationals between England and Scotland through to the inception of the World Cup in 1928 and charts the history of each World Cup tournament from 1930 to 1998. Each World Cup has its own section which includes a general historical background, the story of that World Cup, full reports on all the best games, biographical sketches of the stars of each tournament, and all those little but interesting stories that happen around the World Cup that make it the tournament that it is today. It also looks at the build up to Korea/Japan 2002, including the teams taking part, the characters to look out for, the qualifying tournament and the politics that surround the media frenzy that is the World Cup. Contributions from Archie Gemmil, the late Bryon Buttler, Alan Green, Kevin Keegan, Brian Labone, Sammy McIllroy, John Inverdale and Marvin Andrews are included. Finally, there is a full statistical section for each tournament that covers both the qualifying competition and the finals.