From England dressing room to FA boardrooom, David Davies has enjoyed access all areas in football. He has known everyone from David Beckham to Wayne Rooney, from Sir Alex Ferguson to Sven-Göran Eriksson, as well as legends like Sir Matt Busby, Bill Shankly and George Best. He has lived through all English football's triumphs, tragedies, farces and scandals of modern times. Now, with the national sport perceived by many to be in crisis, no one is better placed to shed light on what has happened and why.

His is a tale of fake sheikhs, fickle secretaries and beauty queens, and of how a boy from the Euston Road fell in love with football, and how he came to run one of the most high-profile organisations in the land.