Have we matched Wembley 1966 and 2022, or lost again on penalties? As a football fan in the Home Nations, there is at least one thing of which you can be sure. Even if sometimes other countries play it better than us, they'll forever have to thank Britain for the fun, the excitement, the tragedy, the triumph, the pain, the pleasure and the sheer gloriousness of the best sport in the world.

From Afghanistan to Zimbabwe, it was Britain that first spread the beautiful game across the world. Cornish miners took football skills along with their pasties to Mexico; Iraqi football legend Ammo Baba learnt the game at an RAF base; the Buenos Aires Cricket Club gave the world Argentine football; and Romanian dentist Iuliu Weiner got not one an English education but a passion for football too.

This is a book about football, yes, but it is also a book about all the countries of the world, about shared passion and shared humanity. It's how Britain brought football to the world.