Superlatives should be used carefully; they wear out quickly. Yet, it is safe to say that Brian Glanville was the best football writer in the English language. He was often copied yet no one reached his level. Additionally, he was the first English writer to take European football seriously. It is bewildering, however, that no one took notice ealier! The length of his career is another superlative: he covered football for various publications among them The Sunday Times for which he covered football for 30 years and World Soccer for 50! Also, he penned numerous obituaries for The Guardian and The Observer. Besides his soccer writings, he also wrote several novels; a writing life. He started writing at the age of 17.

His best known work is titled “The Story of the World Cup”, which is slightly misleading as each edition contains a short summary of each World Cup from 1950 until the latest edition, 2018.

Throughout his writing career he was critical of England’s national football team and their governors. He attributed “wanton insularity, stupidity and short-sightedness” as the reasons for England’s defeat against Hungary at Wembley in 1953. England, as self-declared inventors and masters of the game were overtaken by their students, as is often the case, however, England “were complicit in their own downfall.”

“Football has its non-events, too.”

Glanville on W.-Germany’s first ever win in 1968

He was a fan of attacking football, thus England post-1966 was not to his liking. In 1970 he wrote that the World Cup “was gloriously won by Brazil … raising new hope for attacking football”. His hopes were destroyed, especially in the 1980s.

Besides reporting on soccer, he was also concerned with the perception of football writing in his native England where he saw a dichotomy between the tabloid and quality press. Journalists writing for the former had to undertake mental gymnastics to avoid to express their views, while those working for quality papers were free to write in their style, though never had a large audience. Football writing in England is aimed at a little educated audience – at least in the eyes of the press barons. Brian Glanville added a literary quality to football writing and he was not alone; there were Henry Rose, Don Davies and Geoffrey Green who helped football reach a wider audience during its post-war heyday.

He was a great football writer and his writing will continue to stand out for its quality and insight.

Good writing does not come by chance, so consider a little tip: