Rock 'n' roll soccer

The North American Soccer League - at its peak in the late 1970s - was way ahead of its time. It was football as performance, played by men with a bent for flair, hair and glamour. More than just Pele and the New York Cosmos, it lured the biggest names of the world game like Cruyff, Best, Beckenbauer and the mercurial Rodney Marsh to play football as it was meant to be played - without inhibition, to please the fans. It experimented with rules and innovations that upset purists, and liberated players from the negative tactics of the muddy, hooligan-blighted grounds of Europe. Rock 'n' Roll Soccer reveals in all its glory the colour and chaos of the world's first truly international league. How it sold itself in a continent unfamiliar with soccer, and how it crashed back down to earth like a rock star's private jet, bankrupt but laughing all the way.