Decided to read this, in light of Qatar games starting in a couple of weeks. A lot of what I personally know of the corruption, bribery and money laundering during the Sepp Blatter years is a direct consequence of the previous president of FIFA, Joao Havelange. This book focuses on the reign of Joao Havelange and those around him.
The book itself is divided into three sections. First one laying the background on Havelange and, for some unknown reason, a game-by-game recollection of 1958, 1962, 1966 and 1970 world cup performances of the Brazilian national team. You'll get the basic idea on what kind of a person Havelange is. The second part is where the real meat of the book is. From expanding the world cup to 24 teams, shady business dealings, rampant corruption and the commercialization of the game by Havelange and Horst Dassler of Adidas. Third part covers 1990 and 1994 world cups, Havelange's son-in-law's doings as head of the Brazilian football confederation and the inevitable stepping-down of Havelange. On his own terms, of course.
The book has a weird facination with re-telling games from the previous world cups from the perspective of different teams. Except the 1994 world cup, which is inexplicably just skimmed though. All in all, its a good and very fascinating book, but it could have benefitted from some heavy handed editing. Some of the stuff Yallop covers comes out more as a conspiracy theories than actual events.