Icon bags 100-year history of Leeds United

Icon Books has bagged a book from Leeds United fanzine co-editor Daniel Chapman marking the football club’s 100-history.

Sports editor Michael Sells acquired world rights direct from the author for 100 Years of Leeds United. It will be published on 8th August with a launch event at Belgrave Music Hall in Leeds, in association with Chapman’s fanzine The Square Ball.

The book traces the origins of Leeds City to 1889 and includes new details of the “Leeds City Scandal” that led to the formation of Leeds United. It takes in the highs of the Don Revie years, the 1990s revival, the club’s spectacular later demise and comes right up to date with Marcelo Bielsa’s stalled campaign to get the club back in the top tier.

Chapman has co-edited The Square Ball since 2011, taking it through its 25th anniversary, and seven nominations for the Football Supporters’ Federation Fanzine of the Year award, winning twice.

Leeds will place extracts from the book in every home game programme of next season starting in August, in a partnership which will see the book advertised in print and online throughout the club’s centenary year.

Sells said: “Daniel's meticulous research and flair for storytelling breathes new life in to the Leeds United story, uncovering the tales of the club's predecessors and correcting a number of misconceptions about United's first century.”