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Quoted at the opening of the podcast to introduce the topic of football as a sport of the masses, referencing Orwell's description of how 'films, football, beer, and above all, gambling filled up the horizon of their minds.'

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Dominic references this book which 'came out last year' and quotes from it about sport being 'a major subject' and 'one of England's great civil cultures' to justify football as a worthy subject for historical study.

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Jonathan Wilson cites this book to support the point that 'football now is the most universal cultural mode there has ever been' and that it is everywhere in the world.

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Referenced as 'the great epic of Argentinian literature' published in two volumes in the 1870s, discussed in relation to Gaucho culture and Argentine national identity in football.

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Mentioned as one of 'three canonical works of football literature' that helped persuade publishers that football was something 'the reading classes want to read about.'

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Mentioned as one of 'three canonical works of football literature' that helped establish football as a legitimate literary subject.

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Mentioned as one of 'three canonical works of football literature' that helped legitimize football writing for mainstream publishers.