*WINNER of the Sunday Times Children's Sports Book Prize 2023 * SHORTLISTED for Laugh Out Loud Book Awards 2024: Non-Fiction *

"Every page is guaranteed to grab the imagination and it's the perfect thing for dipping into at half time." Love Reading 4 Kids

A hilarious fact and fiction hybrid from bestselling author and stand-up comic James Campbell, who has visited over 3,000 primary schools to tell stories and encourage children to write their own.

Want to know why OCTOPUSES can't play football? And how to play the game across multiple DIMENSIONS? How about learning the REAL RULES of how football is played, why Henry VIII banned it, plus where it came from and who the greatest players of ALL TIME are?

Whether you love a game of TABLE FOOTBALL, can't get enough of BACK-GARDEN BALL, only enjoy the game from your SOFA or would sooner swim with sharks than play it, if you LOVE to LAUGH - then this is the book for you!

But be warned - this is NOT a normal book. You can read it forwards, backwards, sideways and in approximately 861,000 different ways in between. From comedian extraordinaire James Campbell, get ready to laugh your BUTT off to a silly book filled with funny stories, partly-true facts and hilarious pictures that will make you think twice about the game everyone thinks they know so well.

Soon after discovering he could not be a duck, award-winning author James Campbell decided to make children laugh for a living. He now travels around primary schools and literary festivals, telling funny stories and encouraging children to write their own stuff. James has been on the BBC1 show, Child of Our Time, and CBBC's Blue Peter, where he taught children how to craft their own jokes. Kids love him so much that he has his own Comedy4Kids show called The Funny Thing About. where he talks about his hilarious books!

Rob Jones is an extremely funny illustrator. In May 2015, his first book 'Bernard' won The People's Book Prize. When he's not drawing, he makes toys and puppets (mostly characters from his books). He is also the illustrator of The Funny Life of Pets, Sharks and Teachers.