English writer Phil Ball has put the history of Spanish football into the context of the epomymous Morbo. Hard to pin down in translation (though the author manfully spends a chapter trying to explain the term in its fullest sense), "morbo" encapsulates the fierce rivalry across a club scene fragmented by history, language and politics. The bitter feeling between Barcelona and Real Madrid has, of course, been well-documented elsewhere. Here that famous rivalry is only one component of a landscape of antagonism. In particular, the Basque country in the north-west and Seville in the south both provide breeding grounds for a healthy portion of "morbo", and receive Ball's attention accordingly. The narrative captures the essence of that feeling perfectly, without failing to inform on a historical basis. A splendid chapter traces the ancestry of football in Spain back to the labourers in the English-owned copper mines in Huelva, Andalucia. While Spanish club football has always had its stars, from Di Stefano to Cruyff and Butragueno through to Raul and Luis Figo today, Ball shows that there is a greater force running in its lifeblood. Yet still there remains a paradox; he analyses the historical under-achievement of the Spanish national side in major international tournaments.

The new millennium has seen excellent books focusing on football culture in Holland and France--namely Brilliant Orange and Le Foot. At a time when the stock of Spanish club football has perhaps not been higher since the heyday of Real Madrid in the late 50s and early 60s, Morbo, a triumph in the same vein, thankfully allows us to add Spain to the list. --Trevor Crowe

2008-07-17 Slightly off the Ball ....

1st off - if the stars above had decimal points I'd award `Morbo' 3.5 or possibly 3.75. The work is probably better than the 3 stars I've given it but certainly not worth 4. The reason? That simple word `morbo'. Let me explain.

Phil Ball spends 21 pages setting the scene trying to explain exactly what morbo is (mix and match any 4 of the following and you'll have some idea - aggravation, antagonism, hatred, one-upmanship, antipathy, resentment, hostility, political and regional enmity). He then goes on to say that the book will revolve around the concept of morbo and what it means to Spanish football. However, in truth, only 3 of the book's chapters really focus 100% on morbo. These chapters are those on the Basque country, Barcelona and Madrid and are easily the best sections of the book. Chapter 6, on Seville and its 2 clubs, Sevilla and Betis, has a sprinkling of morbo but it's here that the book begins to lose its focus. The chapters on Galicia, Valencia, Spanish club culture and the national side are all good but not really connected with morbo.

`Morbo' kicks off the story of Spanish football in SW Spain in Huelva and briefly traces the origin of the game - brought over from Britain by those exploiting the Rio Tinto copper mines in the late 19th century.

After this follows 3 superb chapters on the Basque country, Barcelona and Madrid, the latter 2 being especially absorbing and interesting. Ball is certainly not shy of expressing his opinions in these chapters either. He questions the myth of Barca's `Dream Team' - 3 of their 4 titles were won on the last day of the season - and also pours scorn on the notion that Barca and the Camp Nou supporters were expressing their independence and resistance to Franco's regime. In fact he goes on to claim that "Barca's so-called threat to the regime was really not very threatening at all" and that it was only ETA's appearance in the early `70s who killed off any chance of the Franco years being extended beyond his death.

The chapter on Madrid focuses on Real's ruthless pursuit of winning and explains how Franco benefited from them. The stylish swagger with which they won European Cup after European Cup was seen to reflect Spain as a whole. Whereas the reality was that the country was on its knees - left out of the Marshall Plan after WW2, the economy in ruins and the rural population living in desperate poverty.

The chapter on Sevilla and Real Betis suffers from being immediately after those on Barcelona and Madrid and Ball asks at the end of the chapter "have I been trying desperately to unearth a rich vein of morbo where maybe only a smallish one exists"? And it seems, rather disappointingly, that he has.

One good thing about the book is that any sentences or phrases in Spanish, Catalan or Basque are fully translated so there is none of this snobbery that expects the reader to be able to understand anything not written in English. However, to counterbalance this good point I'm sure I won't be the only reader to tire of Ball's continual use of the annoying journalistic phrase "of course" (take those 2 words out of any sentence and the sentence will still make sense!).

Don't get me wrong, `Morbo' is a very good book, obviously well researched and lovingly and painstakingly written with some great stories, anecdotes and colourfully described club histories. However, you can't build a book up and say it will concentrate on morbo and then only dedicate half your book to the concept. If only Ball had put less emphasis on the morbo stance then instead of describing this book as very good I would have been using adjectives such as superb, brilliant, excellent, superlative .........