Author: Paul Brown
Black & White Army (Newcastle United)
OVER the past few years, no other set of football fans has ridden such an emotional roller-coaster as Newcastle United's ever-faithful Toon Army. Ten years ago the club teetered on the brink of possible extinction, hanging just one game away from a crippling relegation to the Third Division. Yet today the Magpies compete at the top of the Premiership, challenge football's best in the Champions League, and are well established among football's elite.
The 2002-03 season was typically nailbiting and unpredictable. Newcastle were involved in a thrilling Premiership campaign, and made an historic charge into the last 16 of the Champions League. Yet they were eliminated from both the FA and Worthington Cups at the first hurdle. Through it all the Toon Army remained hopelessly optimistic, defiantly witty and fiercely loyal.
Black & White Army follows these supporters of Newcastle United throughout that season and reveals the agony and the absurdity of being a 21st-century football fan. Travelling with the Toon Army through domestic and European competitions via Barcelona and Bolton, Milan and Manchester, Sarajevo and Sunderland, the book offers a cliff-hanging narrative, backed by an eye-opening analysis of why football fans are as they are. In addition to chronicling the author's own obsession, uniquely, the book contains the opinions of hundreds of Newcastle fans from across the world, collected via a specially-created website. Funny and true, they reveal the extent of the obsession of the football fan, and leave the reader in no doubt that football in not 'only a game' - because no mere game matters enough to break your heart.
