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And, following on from Jimmy Burns' account of perhaps the world's most famous club (Barca - A People's Passion), Phil Ball adopts a broader outlook in his entertaining new book, Morbo - The Story of Spanish Football.

Part-traveller, part-historian, part-football writer, Ball has an excellent grasp of the multitude of nations that make up 'Spain' as he explores the morbo (loosely defined as 'rivlary') upon which the Spanish game is built and, indeed, depends for its lifeblood.

Naturally we are given a healthy dose of the mutual suspicion and cultural differences that have stoked the bitter feuding of the big two, Real Madrid and Barcelona, as well as the more extreme regionalism that shapes Athletic Bilbao and its supporters in the Basque Country.

A lesser-chronicled aspect, the dispute over the actual birthplace of soccer in Spain (the now-lowly club of Huelva) also provides a great example of the civic rivalry and oneupmanship that dominate life there.

Ball's often empirical approach also coughs some amusing historical footballing tales. Emilio Guruceta, the referee at the centre of the 1984 Anderlecht-Nottingham Forest bribery scandal, already has notoriety for English fans.

But that, in the 1920s, the English Athletic Bilbao coach Freddie Pentland popularised the short-passing game in Spanish football will be an irony not lost on most readers.

However, the book's suggestion that footballing morbo is more than merely a symptom of life in Spain, something that at times has been as influential as say, religion, language or class, is stretching the point a bit far. Once out of the fertile territory of Madrid, Barcelona or Bilbao, the author struggles to convince.

A series of exchanges with barmen and taxi drivers in Seville fails to create any impression of genuine morbo between Sevilla and Real Betis fans, while Ball himself concedes that the national team's historical under-achievement has nothing to do with regional differences among players.

That aside, for any fan interested in a rich footballing world that includes much more than Barca and Real Madrid would be well advised to pick up a copy. Atletico Madrid, Valencia and Espanyol are among the lesser lights given a fair crack of the whip - such that Morbo can justifiably call itself a must-read for the visiting supporter.

Reviewed by Andy Hooper