More Than Just a Game: Soccer vs. Apartheid: The Most Important Soccer Story Ever Told (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9780312607166)

Timed perfectly for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, Chuck Korr and Marvin Close's More Than Just a Game tells the timeless true story of how political prisoners under apartheid found hope and dignity through soccer.

In the hell that was Robben Island, inmates united courageously in an act of protest. Beginning in 1964, they requested the right to play soccer during their exercise periods. Denied repeatedly, they risked beatings and food deprivation by repeating their request for three years. Finally granted this right, the prisoners banded together to form a multi-tiered, pro-level league that ran for more than two decades and served as an impassioned symbol of resistance against apartheid.

Former Robben Island inmate Nelson Mandela noted in the documentary FIFA: 90 Minutes for Mandela, Soccer is more than just a game.... The energy, passion, and dedication this game created made us feel alive and triumphant despite the situation we found ourselves in.

Author: Chuck Korr, Marvin Close
ISBN-10: 0312607164
ISBN-13: 9780312607166
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Language: English
Published: 11/22/2011
Pages: 336
Format: Paperback
Weight: 0.95lbs
Size: 8.40h x 5.50w x 0.90d