deCoubertin Books

Italia 90 was, in a sense, the first and the last World Cup. It was also the best and worst World Cup. It was football stood at a junction. It was the World Cup of Gazza's tears and Nessun Dorma, a grand spectacle of colour and drama that made football suddenly fashionable again - at least among the wider English public (and salivating television executives). Yet it was also a World Cup low on goals and high on fouls which led to the re-writing of football's rulebook.

Green Shoots is the engrossing account of the inside stories, dramas and dreams of the game in Ireland. Above all it is the definitive history of a footballing nation and its many paradoxes.