Broadcaster and Journalist Adrian Goldberg’s latest book considers how English football has transitioned from a community driven game into a globalised commodity.

Goldberg, who has plenty of experience covering football finances, going as far back as writing fanzines in the 1980s, developed the idea to write Where’s the Money Gone? “over the last 25 years”.

What finally pushed him to write the book was seeing financial mismanagement come to his own club, West Bromwich Albion, under the ownership of Lai Guochuan.

He recalls: “The defining night was a night when Albion fans started shining their lights together in protest against our owner, because he was running the club into the ground.

“At that point I thought, ‘I’ve written about these subjects, made radio documentaries about clubs in trouble and how football needs to change.’ 

“But this was the moment I had to stand up and ask how it had come home to my doorstep, to my own football club.”

The book contains numerous stories of the impact that the increasingly corporate nature of football has had on fans but also details the resilience of those who choose to fight back.

Blackpool fans’ four-year long boycott of the club in protest of then owners the Oyston Family is extensively covered, with Goldberg calling it the most moving story from writing the book.

He said: “When supporters decided that they were not going to fund the owners anymore, that’s a really big thing for football fans to do.

“I spoke to people who decided not to take family members and there was one woman who didn’t take her mum anymore and her mum had dementia.

“She’d said to me that when she took her mum to the football, that was when her mum came alive again, and she had to make the very hard decision to not take her mum to the football.”

The book is released at a critical time for English football, with the Independent Football Regulator (IFR) coming into power in December, under the Football Governance Act, which Richard Monks, chief executive of the IFR, describes as, “a new era for football governance”.

Chris Lepkowski, a freelance sports journalist who features in the book, believes that Where’s The Money Gone is an important source for those who wish to understand football finances.

He said: “It is an invaluable insight into the financial backdrop of football, especially showcasing those clubs that have been badly managed financially.

“The stories are an important reminder of how football has allowed itself to lose control of its financial parameters.”

Where’s The Money Gone is available to buy now from numerous retailers.