This is the ultimate reference book on the World Cup, fully updated to cover all tournaments from 1930-2002, with match-by-match articles featuring the biggest names in world football, plus results from every game played. All the statistics are here in one volume, enough to satisfy the most avid of World Cup fans, including team line-ups, goalscorers, stadiums, referees, crowd figures and exact dates, plus authoritative records and statistics section, as well as detailed reports of every game played in the finals. From the brilliant Italian team, winners in 1934, and Geoff Hurst's hat-trick for England in 1966 to the fabulous Brazilian team of Pele, Tostao and Jairzinho of 1970, and the 1998 French side of Zidane, Deschamps and Desailly - all the fabulous memories and defining moments are captured in this one book. As well as the facts and feats, this book contains archive photographs of some of the most memorable images of football's greatest tournament. And now it's fully updated to include the 2002 World Cup Finals and the fixture list for Germany 2006.

2006-05-17 The ultimate World Cup reference book

When the first edition of this book was released in 2002, I was hugely impressed with the sheer scope of this book. Fortunately, Cris Freddi has kept up his high standards with a thorough update of this reference book. This book fully lives up to its title as 'Complete book of the World Cup' as it contains every record, every team, referee, match, match report one can think of for the World Cup.

Although many World Cup reference book has much of this material, what sets this book apart from the rest are the fascinating match reports written for every single match played in the World Cup finals. The match reports are witty and offer interesting and individual analysis of the key action.Quite clearly, the book has been exhaustively researched and the material is accessible and clearly presented.

If you were to buy just one book on the World Cup, I would have no hesitation in recommending this book for you to buy. A fantastic read.