This is an outline of an incredible journey – if only; in the opinion of Tony Waiters.

From Southport, Lancashire, to the Copa Cabana Beach; from Plymouth in the UK to Western Samoa in the Southern Seas; from Vancouver in beautiful British Columbia to Guangdong in China – to Nigeria, St Lucia, Australia, Russia, Tegucigalpa in Honduras, the Parthenon in Athens – the list goes on.

Waiters has been to 82 countries of the world – almost exclusively as a consequence of being involved in soccer.

This is just a synopsis of that journey.  A book is in the works about Waiters’ incredible "tour of duty", but it won't be about Tony Waiters, nor the places he has been to.  It will be about some of the great soccer characters he has had the privilege of meeting along the way – Pele, Bobby Charlton, Bill Shankly, Sir Matt Busby, Franz Beckenbauer.  The list of the great characters will be much longer than the 82 countries mentioned earlier.

As soccer in the New World gathers serious momentum, some of the stories of the good, the bad and the downright ugly will make your hair stand on end, but it will also make you laugh.

I’ve taken a circuitous route from sleepy Southport to vibrant Vancouver and have seen much, if not all, of the world in between.  “The Beautiful Game” has always been a challenge, a passion and a privilege within My World of Soccer