'A real knock-out' DAILY TELEGRAPH

Random occurences that shaped the history of football - an alternative history of the game from loveable broadcaster Colin Murray.

Nowadays a top Premiership football club can spend GBP50 million on a Portuguese pin-up or a legendary Italian goalkeeper, but you cannot take into account the effects of a dodgy takeaway meal, a dropped bottle of aftershave on a goalkeeper's toe, or the fact that your most creative player has to leave town because of a chance drunken encounter with another player's wife. It is these random moments that have shaped football as much as the headline-grabbing Cantona kung fu kick and that Russian linesman in 1966. In this witty alternative history of football you will learn:

* Different sizes of football were used in each half of the inaugural World Cup Final of 1930.
* Sheffield United almost signed Diego Maradona.
* Saddam Hussein changed the result of an Iraq versus Chelsea match.
* Bury FC's Robbie the Bobby tops the league of worst-behaved mascots.

From the height of international football to the scandal of the Conference league Christmas party that cost far more than a bar-bill, Colin Murray tries his best to make you believe, once more, in football's unpredictability.