Wolverhampton author writes haiku poetry guide to football league

British football terrace culture has been blended with traditional Japanese literature by a Wolverhampton writer who has launched his first book.

Matt Eccles has released his cheekily named book, Who the F*cking Hell Haiku?, which features a haiku poem for each of the 92 clubs in the English Premier and Football League.

The author started writing the three-line poems - set out in a five-seven-five syllable pattern - to give him something to do while working in the USA and also when travelling on his own.

Mr Eccles said he wanted to share his experiences as a football fan with others and decided to create a new quiz format where others can get involved.

"I've travelled a lot for work, and I've spent a lot of time in American hotels, and I thought I needed to do something," he said.

"So I just wrote a few for some friends, and it just developed into writing one for each team."

Mr Eccles said he had written poems for 91 teams, having forgotten Championship side Hull City.

He said his final poem turned out to be one of his favourites, referencing manager Phil Brown's famous half-time team talk that he gave after his team found themselves 4-0 down at half-time to Man City on Boxing Day in 2008.

"I think the book has given back to me as much as I've put into the book," he said.

"I think I wanted to share my experiences with other fans, and I think fans from their own teams will get their own haikus, but there should be four or five that are curveballs."

Mr Eccles said he wanted to "create a conversation" with the book to get people talking about their experience of the football league and sharing answers in the same way children would swap Panini stickers - which featured everything from footballers to Disney, Barbie to bands - in the playground 20 years ago.

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