A movie about one of the most celebrated and controversial masterminds of the world’s most popular sport is bound to be studied six ways from Sunday for inconsistencies and adherence to fact.

“The Damned United” has already received that kind of scrutiny across the pond. And depending on who you talk to, this book-based biopic of English football manager (that’s a soccer coach, to we Americans) Brian Clough is either smartly imagined fan fiction or an affront to the late Clough’s good name sprinkled with too much Movie Magic.

THE DAMNED UNITED

Three stars (out of four)

STARRING: Michael Sheen, Colm Meaney, Timothy Spall, Jim Broadbent

DIRECTOR: Tom Hooper

RUNNING TIME: 98 minutes

RATING: R for language

THE LOWDOWN: A biopic on celebrated Leeds United soccer manager Brian Clough.

With his assistant Peter Taylor’s (Timothy Spall) eye for talent, Clough (Michael Sheen) turned perennial cellar dwellers into plucky league champions during the 1960s and ’70s.

First he gave lowly Derby County and then Nottingham Forest his Midas touch. But between these triumphs was a dismal 44-day reign at powerhouse Leeds United, where Clough’s deep-seeded personal rivalry with his predecessor at Leeds — Don Revie (Irish film fixture Colm Meaney) — shows how destructive an all-consuming competition can be.

Clough’s main flaw was he had trouble turning the other cheek to perceived slights. When Leeds, under Revie, visited Clough’s Derby team and Revie failed to shake Clough’s hand, Clough never forgot it. Peter Morgan’s script portrays Clough as a great motivator but an even better grudge holder.

Sheen gives Clough the same mix of youthful charisma and cheeky arrogance he gave Prime Minister Tony Blair in “The Queen” and journalist David Frost in “Frost/Nixon.” He hires and fires at his own discretion and talks down to higher-ups.

“Just who do you think you are?” asks an exasperated Leeds director who has had enough of Clough’s recalcitrance. “Brian Clough,” he wheels around and answers matter-of-factly with an impish tone. Then for added emphasis, “Brian Howard Clough.”

The movie will appeal to a soccer-ambivalent U. S. audience. Even those who can’t tell the difference between a pitch and a header will understand and enjoy it. The film’s quick pace means it doesn’t dwell on the on-field action, which is shot so stunningly it is clear why even a sport played by muddied and mulleted men in short shorts is nicknamed “the beautiful game.”

Soccer-mad English audiences will nitpick, but this slice of the legendary manager’s career makes a riveting and darkly humorous story. Like the real Brian Clough, “The Damned United” never fails to entertain.