Fever Pitch author Nick Hornby says beautiful game has lost its way

As the 20th anniversary of the publication of Fever Pitch nears, Nick Hornby worries that the cost of supporting top clubs has turned the game from a passion into a theatre-style 'treat'

• Jamie Doward
• The Observer, Sunday 4 March 2012
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Nick Hornby at Arsenal's old Highbury ground in 2005. Photograph: Richard Saker for the Observer

It was the book that changed the way many people thought about sport – and also what it meant to be a man in the late 20th century.
Fever Pitch, ostensibly the story of one man's love affair with Arsenal football club, launched the career of its author, Nick Hornby, now one of the country's most popular writers, spawned a number of imitations and was turned into a film starring Colin Firth.
But now, coming up to the 20th anniversary of its original publication, when it will be reissued as a Penguin Modern Classic, Hornby questions whether the youthful addiction he had for his club can still be found among today's supporters, largely because of the game's gentrification.
Full story at The Observer