2022 World Cup

Amazing & Extraordinary Facts: Football explores some of the most bizarre football events throughout history, from its birth during the Industrial Revolution, to the major tournaments of the Beautiful Game in the 21st century. From the player sold for £10 and a box of kippers, to unusual injuries on the pitch, this book gathers some of the most curious moments of footballing history, a game that continues to be both an amazing entertainment spectacle and extraordinarily accessible to people everywhere.

Brief, accessible and entertaining pieces on a wide variety of subjects makes it the perfect book to dip in to. The amazing and extraordinary facts series presents interesting, surprising and little-known facts and stories about a wide range of topics which are guaranteed to inform, absorb and entertain in equal measure.

After the first ever intercontinental rally – the London-Sydney in 1968 – there was widespread enthusiasm for an even more difficult test. With the Football World Cup being held in Mexico in 1970, it was the perfect opportunity to hold a parallel, much tougher challenge – the World Cup Rally.
Organisers John Sprinzel and John Brown secured sponsorship from the Daily Mirror and planned a unique high-speed event, lasting six weeks and covering 16,000 miles from London to Mexico City via some of the most varying, tortuous and difficult terrain on three continents.
Serious works teams such as Ford and British Leyland spent tremendous amounts choosing and developing new cars, completing months-long route surveys, and analysing every detail of diets, oxygen provision, and the number of crew members. Despite all this planning, out of an entry of more than 100, only 23 cars made it to the finish. It was then, and remains now, the toughest rally of all time.
This book, now reprinted in paperback, tells the complete story.