Creates a good sense of how football fans relate to the Soviet past and how their identities are shaped and have changed over time. This intense focus on football fan culture, gleaned from years of scrupulous archival work and in-depth interviewing makes this book an extremely valuable and original contribution to research on the history and culture of Soviet sport after Stalin.

Slavonic and East European Review

A ground-breaking account of football spectatorship in the post-Stalinist Soviet Union. Zeller tackles a range of topics with insight and originality, superbly capturing the everyday experiences of fandom at multiple levels. Rarely has a work of football scholarship shown such sophisticated analysis of mediated spectatorship. This is an outstanding piece of football history and an excellent contribution to the cultural and social history of the late Soviet Union.

Alan McDougall, Professor of History, University of Guelph, Canada

Zeller skilfully weaves together interviews, archival documents, and the sporting press to present a rich tapestry of football fandom in the years after Stalin's death. In doing so, this gripping account reveals the complexities and evolving dynamics of a game with mass appeal. This is a highly original study in many respects.

Richard Mills, author of The Politics of Football in Yugoslavia (IB Tauris, 2018)

In an outstanding piece of scholarship, Manfred Zeller combines oral history interviews of Soviet football officials and fans with archival documents and press coverage to analyze popular "football fever" in the Soviet Union. This is a must read for anyone interested in late Soviet sport, culture and society.

Jenifer Parks, Associate Professor of History, Rocky Mountain College, USA