Cutting the Mustard with Robin Ireland

Robin Ireland presents the story of how fans became consumers, told through five rollercoaster decades of Norwich City from Division One to the Premier League, the UEFA Cup and beyond.About the speaker
Dr Robin Ireland is an academic, football fan and the author of Sport, Sponsorship and Public Health (Routledge, 2023). An Honorary Research Fellow in the School of Health and Wellbeing at the University of Glasgow, he first arrived in Norwich in 1972 to study for his A-Levels. It was the year that Norwich City kicked off their first ever season in the top flight of English football and began for Ireland what some might call a lifelong obsession.In Cutting the Mustard, Ireland explores how the commercialisation and commodification of the nations favourite game actually goes back much further. A fascinating insight into how football has been directly affected by the wider economic and social changes of the last half century.Telling the story of the provincial clubs, using Irelands team Norwich City as the prism through which we can truly understand footballs rollercoaster journey. Richly illustrated with images and memorabilia from the author, Cutting the Mustard is a timely evocation of how money has changed football over a 50-year period.