Football Dark Arts provides detailed knowledge about crafty, deceitful and outrageous gamesmanship that is unnecessary but sometimes helps teams win matches. From the perspective of an experienced referee, this book outlines 80 football tricks, traps and tips used by less sporting players. These 'dark arts' help give ultracompetitive managers and street-smart players an unfair competitive edge that prevents their opponents from performing at their optimal level. Masters of the dark arts know how to bend the rules, to deceive, to con and ultimately to negatively affect their opponents. This book highlights the ugly, unpleasant and unsporting aspects of the Beautiful Game so that you won't be deceived by them. Whether you are a player, coach, match official, fan, commentator, journalist or club director, this book is your defence against the dark arts!

William Lai is a university lecturer, media columnist, and referee. He has refereed in England and Australia and is a qualified referee instructor and assessor. He teaches a popular undergraduate course, "Managing Football Clubs in a Globalized World," to management students, writes editorials as "The Rational Ref" about football incidents on and off the pitch in Hong Kong's top English-language newspaper, and officiates in Hong Kong's Premier League. He loves to observe, play, officiate, and comment on the good, the bad, and the ugly sides of football. He lives in Hong Kong, China.