Red Card

WINNER OF THE TELEGRAPH SPORTS AWARD FOOTBALL BOOK OF THE YEAR 2019

'Spellbinding. A gripping account of how the beautiful game got grotesquely ugly. Highly recommended.' Gary Lineker

'Gripping...Bensinger's impeccably sourced account serves as a sharp reminder of the gargantuan levels of largesse and excess during Fifa's bad, bad days - as well as a warning that not enough has been done to prevent them returning.' Sean Ingle, Guardian

'Bensinger deftly deploys novelistic devices to turn it into a real-life detective thriller...[it] resembles John Grisham' Private Eye

The story of FIFA's fall from grace has it all: power, betrayal, revenge, sports stars, hustlers, corruption, sex and phenomenal quantities of money, all set against exotic locales stretching from Caribbean beaches to the formal staterooms of the Kremlin and the sun-blasted streets of Doha, Qatar.

In Red Card, investigative journalist Ken Bensinger takes a journey to FIFA's dark heart. He introduces the flamboyant villains of the piece - the FIFA kingpins who flaunted their wealth in private jets and New York's grandest skyscrapers - and the dogged team of American FBI and IRS agents, headed by Attorney General Loretta Lynch, who finally brought them to book. Providing fresh insights on a scandal which has gripped the world, he shows how greed and arrogance brought down the most powerful institution in sporting history.

A wild, gritty, gripping, and at times blackly comic story, Red Card combines world-class journalism with the pace of a thriller.

Red Card (filmed as Houses of Deceit) will be a major film, produced by Pearl Street Films, the production company owned by Matt Damon and Ben Affleck.