“Rugby is a game for barbarians played by gentlemen. Football is a game for gentlemen played by barbarians.”  Oscar Wilde

 “Five days shalt thou labour, as the Bible says. The seventh day is the Lord thy God’s. The sixth day is for football.” Anthony Burgess

“Winning isn’t everything. There should be no conceit in victory and no despair in defeat.” Matt Busby

“The fans are the heart of football.” John Charles

“If God had meant football to be played in the air he would have put grass in the sky” Brian Clough

“Football is a game you play with your brain” Johan Cruyff

“It’s all very simple: if you score one more than your opponent, you win.” Johan Cruyff

“Beyond the touchline there is nothing.” Jacques Derrida

“Somebody compared him to Billy McNeil, but I don’t remember Billy being crap.” Tommy Docherty on Lorenzo Amoruso

 “Football at it’s best is a game of beauty and intelligence.” Ron Greenwood

 “The point about football in Britain is that it is not just a sport people take to, like cricket or tennis. It is built into the urban psyche, as much a common experience to our children as are uncles and school. It is not a phenomenon : it is an everyday matter.” Arthur Hopcraft

“I fell in love with football as I was later to fall in love with women. Suddenly, uncritically, giving no thought to the pain it would bring.” Nick Hornby

“Football is a game of tomorrows.” Geoff Hurst

 “There is such a thing as everyday, ordinary, vulgar ecstasy; the ecstasy of anger, the ecstasy of speed at the wheel, the ecstasy of ear-splitting noise, ecstasy in the soccer stadium.” Milan Kundera

“Football fanaticism and high intellect seldom go together.” Hugh McDiarmid

“To be a footballer means being a privileged interpreter of the feelings and dreams of thousands of people.” Cesar Luis Menotti

“Our football belongs to the working class and has the size, nobility and generosity to allow everyone to enjoy it as a spectacle.” Cesar Luis Menotti

” If you never concede a goal, you’re going to win more games than you lose.” Bobby Moore

“Football, a game in which everyone gets hurt and every nation has its own style of play which seems unfair to foreigners.” George Orwell

“Football has nothing to do with fair play. It is bound up with hatred, jealousy, boastfulness, disegard of all rules and sadistic pleasure in witnessing violence: in other words it is war minus the shooting.” George Orwell

“It’s not about the long ball or the short ball, it’s about the right ball.” Bob Paisley

” Football is the last sacred ritual of our time.” Pier Paolo Pasoloni

“Football is like a religion to me. I worship the ball, and I treat it like a god. Too many players think of a football as something to kick. They should be taught to caress it and to treat it like a precious gem.” Pele

“Amongst all unimportant subjects, football is by far the most important.” Pope John Paul II

“In football everything is complicated by the presence of the opposite team.” Jean-Paul Sartre

“In football you sometimes have beauty and cruelty together.” Peter Schmeichel

Some people think football is a matter of life and death. It is much more important than that.”  Bill Shankly

“If a player is not interfering with play or seeking to gain advantage, then he should be.”  Bill Shankly

“Football is a simple game made complicated by people who should know better.” Bill Shankly

“Football is only a game. That is the most outrageous nonsense of the lot. Football is a science, it’s an art, it is war, ballet, drama, terror and joy all rolled into one.”  Tom Utley

“Football is all right as a game for rough girls but is hardly suitable for delicate boys.” Oscar Wilde