144 years. This was the length of time between 1848, when the first unified rules of football were drawn-up at Cambridge University, and 1992, when the Premier League was launched. These years constitute the great bulk of England's football history, and yet today they are largely disregarded by a media that appears to see 'Premier League history' as the only history of English football that counts.
144 Years is a book that attempts to redress this by taking the reader on a journey through the facts of English football from its Victorian beginnings through to the point in 1992 when it became a product for subscription TV. By then football in England had already seen it all, and this book provides ample evidence to support that claim. All of the game's major changes are covered, as are a host of incredible, and often long-forgotten, feats and failures, together with many of the strange realities and crazy happenings from football times past.
With plenty of alternative perspectives and a wealth of hard-to-find details dug out from obscurity, 144 Years is both a facts book and a history book, as well as a statement on why we should never forget the long, rich and powerful life English football had before 1992.
Paperback / softback | 440 pages | Published October 2025
