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Why football politics matters - even when you only came for the football

Most fans only want to watch the football. That's entirely fair.

JF Tanda, J Weinreich, A Jennings, J Oliver

'The Enterprise'—10 years since its unveiling

It's been ten years since the football world was alternately delighted or shocked with the dawn raid orchestrated by the FBI on the luxury Baur au Lac Hotel in downtown Zurich, on some unsuspecting, sleeping members of the FIFA Congress.

Follow @fairplaybooks on Instagram

📖 OUR MOST RECENT RELEASE: RIPPA II: Young Pilgrim by @p_j_laverty

Meet a young Aussie footballer shipped off to England in the late '80s, before Bosnich, Kewell and Bresciano made it cool. He'd honestly rather be surfing. He's not very good at that. He's very good at football.

Author P.J. Laverty says he wants this one to be a gateway back to reading for young people, especially boys, the way Nick Hornby's Fever Pitch was for him.

Available now via Fair Play Publishing (link in bio). 📚⚽

#RIPPAII #YoungPilgrim #PJLaverty #FairPlayPublishing #footballbooks #ReadingMatters #YA #Socceroos

50 Years of Deadly. 🖤💛❤️

This NAIDOC Week, we're celebrating Emeritus Professor John Maynard, Worimi historian, lifelong football fan, and one of the finest storytellers on our list.

His book The Aboriginal Soccer Tribe honours the First Nations players who've shaped the game in this country, a story of pride, skill and belonging.

Also on the shelf: Golf Dreaming and the two-volume Socceroos: A World Cup Odyssey.

📚 Tap the link in our bio to explore John Maynard's books.

#NAIDOC2026 #NAIDOCWeek #50YearsOfDeadly #AboriginalSoccerTribe #FirstNations #Deadly #FairPlayPublishing #AustralianBooks #FootballHistory #Socceroos

FIFA corruption. You've heard about it before.

And now the Folarin Balogun decision at the intervention of Donald Trump directly compromises the integrity of the competition the whole world holds in its heart. Not behind closed doors, but in plain sight.

Want to know more about FIFA's track record? We've got some great - if sobering - reading on it.

Find them on our website.

#FIFAcorruption #WorldCup2026 #Infantino #USMNT

Behind the cover… 🌊📚⚽

Sometimes inspiration arrives when you least expect it.

While walking along Coolum Beach, we stopped to admire this surfers' code sign, shaped like a surfboard against the morning sky.

A few months later, that simple, striking shape found its way into the cover design of 'RIPPA II! Young Pilgrim' by@p_j_laverty.

The surfboard became a football. The beach became the backdrop for a new adventure. Very fitting for the story and the life of Joey Rippa. But the idea started right here.

It's a reminder that stories - and great cover ideas - are often hiding in plain sight.
Have you spotted the inspiration?

#RIPPA #FootballFiction #BookDesign #CoverDesign #AustralianBooks #MiddleGradeBooks #FairPlayPublishing #CoolumBeach

What is your favourite football moment? The first time in 1974? Making it in 2005? Those first World Cup goals in 2006? The vuvuzela of 2010? The Cahill goal vs NED in 2014? The 2015 Asian Cup? Surviving in 2018? The 'Grey Wiggle' in 2022? Or something on a much smaller stage, involving you or your local club or A-League team? Tell us in 25 words or fewer, and you could win lunch with Louis Philippe (Philippe Auclair) in Sydney or Melbourne in October. Competition ends on the final whistle of this year's #WorldCup.

(P.S. If you're not from Sydney or Melbourne, but elsewhere in Australia, we'll fly you there too!).

HURRY! https://gleam.io/Z5SeC/world-cup-reading-room

📕 Out now: RIPPA II! Young Pilgrim by @p_j_laverty.

Joey Rippa: gifted, Australian, playing in England, called up for the Socceroos… and he'd rather be surfing. ⚽🏄

This week the Reading Room is all Football Fiction, for the youngest fans and the grown ones:

🟢 The RIPPA series + The Gaffer
🟡 Anna Black - This Girl Can Play
🟢 The Jarrod Black series
🟡 Lucy Zeezou's Goal & Glamour Game
🟢 Abebi, Game, The Yawning Giant

26% off through to the end of the tournament (not just EOFY). 🔗 In bio.

#WorldCup #FootballFiction #FootballBooks #YoungReaders #RIPPA

We loved lissing to @annadombkinsauthor on ABC's Conversations earlier this week, talking of adoption, family, mountains we're all climbing, and the inspiration behind the charity she co-founded, @foreverprojects to help keep mothers and children together. There's even more in her book, 'Home, Forever'.

https://www.abc.net.au/listen/programs/conversations/anna-dombkins-adoption-faith-family-tanzania/106822078

📕 Radicalised by FIFA — Professor Jean Williams.

A farm in Leicestershire. A career in academia. The corrupt underbelly of world football. One remarkable book ties them together.

Part memoir, part cultural critique. The story of how loving the game, and raging at its injustices, became a lifelong fight for equality on and off the pitch. Sharp humour, real political bite.

📚 In our Women in Football shelf this week. Link in bio.

#WorldCup #womeninfootball⚽️ #FootballBooks #Feminism #FootballHistory

By women. About women. Worth everyone's time.

🟢 Dedicated Lives: the pioneers of women's football in Australia
🟡 The First Matildas: the team history nearly forgot
🟢 Hear Us Roar: the next generation of women football writers
🟡 Woman Offside: a year reforming football from the top
🟢 Radicalised by FIFA: football, history & feminism

And so much more!

26% off through to the end of the World Cup.

https://www.fairplaypublishing.com.au/pages/world-cup-reading-room-2026

2-0 down, but if there’s one thing The Goals That Changed Australia teaches you, it’s that everything can change with a single moment. Plenty of football left. C’mon you Socceroos. 🇦🇺⚽ #WorldCup2026 #Socceroos #USAAUS

⚽ One win down. Next up: the co-hosts.

Tomorrow morning the Socceroos face the USA, the two teams top of Group D, both unbeaten. After that win over Türkiye, the whole country's watching.

And here's the thing: this campaign is becoming history as it happens. 'Socceroos: A World Cup Odyssey' by John Maynard tells the full story of Australia at the World Cup - every campaign, every heartbreak, every glorious night, and every political backstabbing.

So we're updating it. New editions of 'A World Cup Odyssey' and our marquee book, the 'Encyclopedia of Socceroos' land later this year capturing exactly this campaign, this team, these nights. If you haven't already, join our e-news to be first to hear when they're out. 👇

#GoSocceroos! 🇦🇺 #WorldCup #Socceroos #footballbooks

What a week to be a Socceroos supporter. ⚽

This week the Reading Room belongs to football's Great Characters: the geniuses, the rogues, the unforgettable.

🟢 George Best, adrift and brilliant Down Under

🟡 Andy Bernal - Beckham's minder, and the wildest life on our list (yes, even wilder than Georgie)

🟢 Con Jones - from betting scandal to a Hall of Fame

🟡 Steve Darby - a coaching life lived all over the world.

And more!

26% off the end of the 2026 Party. 📚https://www.fairplaypublishing.com.au/pages/world-cup-reading-room-2026

#WorldCup #Socceroos #FootballBooks #GreatCharacters #AustralianFootball

Did you know, as we watch the #Socceroos in #WorldCup2026, that an Australian was one of the pioneers of #soccer or #football in BC in #Canada? He is in their Hall of Fame & had a stadium named after him. We have a book about him!

https://www.fairplaypublishing.com.au/collections/latest-releases-1/products/big-con-australias-unknown-soccer-pioneer

A thoughtful read in @josimarfotball from Mel Brennan, asking the question what is #football really for? 👉🏼 https://josimarfootball.com/2026/06/09/what-is-football-really-for/

Mel's book 'Fixing Football' (or 'Saving Soccer' in North America) was released this week ahead of the 2026 #WorldCup. It's a fascinating, funny, and sobering read as we are reminded again, how little #FIFA has changed.

📕 Out now: Fixing Football by Mel Brennan

A clear-eyed account of what really went on in CONCACAF Headquarters in Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue, New York, when Jack Warner and Chuck Blazer reigned supreme.

Long before the May 2015 arrests in Zurich, Mel had had enough and teamed up with the one-and-only, indefatigable Andrew Jennings - the man some in this country and their friends called a "discredited moron". (We remember who you are, by the way). This is Mel's story.

Mel also takes a long, hard look at the governance of world football today and what putting it right would actually take.

It is available from us, good bookstores, internationally and online for $34.99 as a paperback, and $15.99 as an e-book. In North America, it is published as Saving Soccer).

#newreleases #worldcup2026🇺🇸🇨🇦🇲🇽 #fixingfootball #savingsoccer #footballbooks #soccerbooks #MelBrennan

The World Cup Reading Room is open. ⚽📚

For five and a half weeks, the world plays football - and we'll be reading it.

Here's what's waiting for you: 🟢 A new themed shelf every Monday 🟡 26% off all World Cup titles (26% for 2026 🙂) 📦 Mystery boxes of football books 🏆 And the big one? Win lunch with acclaimed football writer Philippe Auclair, in Sydney or Melbourne

This week: The Socceroos Story - the Australians who took the green and gold to the world.

Pull up a chair. Kick-off's not far away.

🔗 Everything's on our website - competition, this week's books, and the whole Reading Room.

#WorldCup #Socceroos #FootballBooks #Matildas #AustralianFootball #ReadingRoom

What's On This Week: A literary dinner in beautiful surroundings with Sue Woolfe & Candida Baker at Pilu at Freshwater. Good conversation, good food, good books. Friday 29th at 6pm.

Book now via the links from our website or directly at Pilu.

🍷📚🌊🍝

We love seeing out authors meet their published book for the first time! Here's 98-year-old Natalie Scott holding her latest work, the historical fiction 'The Rim of the Sky' set in Russia in the 1880s.

Available now.

#historicalfiction #nonagenarianauthors #creativitydoesnotexpire #latestreleases

https://www.fairplaypublishing.com.au/products/the-rim-of-the-sky

Creativity does not come with an expiry date.

That thought has been very much on our minds lately, and it is the reason we begin this newsletter with Natalie Scott.

Natalie has written novels, short stories, non-fiction, books for children and audiobooks. She has been a columnist for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Australian, contributed to The Griffith Review, Southerly, Westerly and Meanjin, and taught creative writing at the University of New South Wales and Macquarie University. She has been writing, in one form or another, for most of her long life.

She completed her latest novel at the age of 97.

#historicalfiction #newrelease #booklaunch #BerkelouwBooks #Russianhistoricalfiction

Her latest book, 'The Rim of the Sky', is launched at Berkelouw Balgowlah on Thursday 21st May, and is released next week.

Set against the darkening world of Tsarist Russia in 1881, The Rim of the Sky follows Elizaveta Georgievna Barvoskaya, a young noblewoman who abandons the comfort and certainty of her privileged world to join the revolutionary underground, and finds herself moving inexorably toward one of history's most seismic moments.

It is ambitious historical fiction written with deep feeling and a fascination for people caught in the sweep of history. Natalie's curiosity, imagination and commitment to storytelling are extraordinary. The Rim of the Sky is the kind of novel that reminds you what the form is capable of.

We are enormously proud to publish it.

At 98, Natalie Scott is still writing.

Over a lifetime she has written fiction, non-fiction and children’s books. This week we launch her latest novel, 'The Rim of the Sky', historical fiction set in Tsarist Russia.

And this week, we also celebrate Natalie turning 98.

Publishing this book has been a privilege.

Please join us in wishing her a happy birthday. @berkelouwbooksbalgowlah on Thursday at 5.30pm.

http://berkelouw.com.au/events/book-launch-the-rim-of-the-sky-by-natalie-scott

#HistoricalFiction #Russia #AustralianAuthors #Books #IndiePublishing

Always good to see feedback from readers. Here's a great take on @garrygjack1's 'Jumping Jack'.

Get the book from us or really good bookstores.

https://startsat60.com/media/lifestyle/sport/rugby-league/from-cardiac-arrest-to-celebrating-65-garry-jacks-remarkable-second-chance-at-life

#rugbyleaguebooks #sportsbooks #sportingautobiographies #stateoforigin #rugbyleague #weststigers #balmain

Some books arrive with a story behind them as remarkable as the story within them.

'The Rim of the Sky' is a novel by Natalie Scott, completed at 97 years of age, and set in the dying days of Imperial Russia. It follows Elizaveta, a young noblewoman who abandons privilege to join the revolutionary underground and finds herself moving inexorably toward one of history’s most seismic moments.

It is a story worth every year of its waiting.

Join us next Thursday, 21st May, at Berkelouw Balgowlah for the launch of 'The Rim of the Sky', and also join us in wishing Natalie (who has just turned 98), a very happy birthday!

Register via @berkelouwbooksbalgowlah.

#booklaunch #ImperialRussia #historicalfiction #balgowlahvillage #healthyageing

Chilling between bookish commitments. A cosy bar in the inner west.

Join @suewoolfe & @candidabaker1 at @pilurestaurant at the end of this month for the first of Pilu's 'In Conversation' event for 2026.

Two remarkable Australian writers for an evening exploring memory, family, creativity and the stories that shape us. From historical scandal and inherited silence to trauma transformed into art, Light and Shadow and The Girl Who Climbed on Rooves are two deeply moving works that speak to one another in unexpected ways.

DATE: Friday 29th May
TIME: 6PM, Pilu Pavilion
COST: $75pp
MENU: Two courses, glass of Prosecco on arrival

Bookings: Follow the links from Pilu/What's On or Fair Play Publishing/Events.

Natalie Scott is 98 in four days time. We are delighted to publisher her historical fiction, 'The Rim of the Sky' this month set in Tsarist Russia in the 1880s. The book will be launched at Berkelouw Balgowlah on 21st May. Join us! (And sing happy birthday too!).

Head to Berkelouw Balgowlah online or in-person to RSVP to attend the launch.

#booklaunch #historicalfiction #healthyageing #Russia

Another opportunity to catch up with @Garry Jack this Saturday at #Gwynneville. Dare we say, a great #MothersDay gift? Truly. If your mum is into #footy, she'll enjoy this gritty, honest, thoughtful & funny read.

The inside story of how Australia hosted t#brisbane2032

'Hosting the World' by James Johnson, CEO of Football Australia during the 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup, is the definitive account of what it takes to pull off a tournament that broke records, changed the game, and put Australian sport and women's sport on the world map.

Essential reading for those who work sport, major events, government, diplomacy, corporate partnerships, or the tourism and events industry, and essential for sports management and public policy students who want to understand how global events are actually delivered. Essential context, too, for everything Australia is building toward Brisbane 2032.

Publishing November 2026 | Pre-orders open.

🔗 Link in bio.

#HostingTheWorld #FIFAWWC2023 #Matildas #SportsBusiness #MajorEvents #AustralianSport #FairPlayPublishing #Brisbane2032 #olympics2032 #JamesJohnson

Our authors are stepping off the page and into the room - festivals, launches, and conversations across NSW and QLD.

Featuring:
• @amycoomer (Rosemary Boy)
• @@garrygjack1 (Jumping Jack)
• @suewoolfe (The Girl Who Climbed on Rooves)
• @candidabaker1 (Light and Shadow)
• Natalie Scott (The Rim of the Sky)

Head to our website to see where to find them, or tap through to them.

#booklaunches #writersfestival #literaryevents #writers #fiction #nonfiction #weststigers

✨ Want to write for young adults,or for the screen?

Join @amycoomer (YA author, actor & screenwriter) for a candid conversation about what it really takes: persistence, submissions, and breaking into a competitive industry.

🎤 Ask Amy Anything
📍 Maleny Showgrounds
🗓 Sun 3 May | 2.30–3.30pm
💸 Only $15

All ages welcome. Limited spots.

👉 Book now: @schwritersfestival

We’re delighted to be publishing a new book by @suewoolfe , out later this month.

To mark the release, we’ll be launching the book at @gleebooks on 13 May, with Bob Carr doing the honours.

Sue Woolfe is one of Australia’s most thoughtful and original literary voices, and this new work is no exception.

If you’re in Sydney, we’d love you to join us.

Tickets via link on our website under #Events or via Gleebooks.

#SueWoolfe #NewBook #BookLaunch #Gleebooks #SydneyWriters
#AustralianLiterature #AusLit #WritersOfInstagram #ReadersOfInstagram #BookstagramAustralia #LiteraryEvents #thegirlwhoclimbedonrooves

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"Dictatorships are one-way streets. Democracy boasts two-way traffic.”"

ALBERT MORAVIA

Latest books from Fair Play Publishing

This easy-to-read guide by Amy Schembri is a fabulous read for young players aspiring to be a professional footballer, and their parents or carers who sometimes have to help pick up the pieces of disappointment. Amy speaks with players at different points of their journey as well as an elite sports psychologist.

Goals that Changed Australia, The - David Weiner.jpg

A short history of the goals and games played by the Matildas and the Socceroos, from John Aloisi's penalty in November 2005 that took us to the 2006 World Cup, through to Cortnee Vine's penalty at the 2023 World Cup in Australia. A great read for young readers and all football fans by David Weiner.

Agent and lawyer, Peter Paleologos, talks to 29 player agents and gets behind the headlines. What do agents do? How often do the 'big breaks' happen? How do they help? And just how essential are they to the contemporary football 'ecosystem'? Great read for any fan of the game.

Learn more

About

I am the founder and publisher at Fair Play Publishing and founder of the Manly Writers' Festival and the Football Writers Festival. This is my personal website containing my writings over the past decade or more on a range of topics (although not fully up-to-date yet).

Learn more

Line of Thought

Bonita Mersiades

Latest

Why football politics matters - even when you only came for the football

'The Enterprise'—10 years since its unveiling

"Dictatorships are one-way streets. Democracy boasts two-way traffic.”"

Latest books from Fair Play Publishing

About

Line of Thought

Bonita Mersiades

Latest

Why football politics matters - even when you only came for the football

'The Enterprise'—10 years since its unveiling

​

"Dictatorships are one-way streets. Democracy boasts two-way traffic.”"

Latest books from Fair Play Publishing

About

Line of Thought

Bonita Mersiades