Una de las revistas de futbol más leidas en Chile es la revista El Gráfico. Esta publicación mensual relata lo ocurrido durante el mes previo en el futbol Chileno e internacional. La revista da énfasis a los temas mas importantes del mes: es típico ver articulos y entrevistas sobre, por ejemplo, la Liga de Campeones,… Read More »
Our Diego, who is on the pitches, Hallowed be thy left hand, bring us your magic. Make your goals remembered on earth as in heaven, Give us some magic every day, forgive the English, as we have forgiven the Napolitan Mafia, Don’t let yourself get caught offside and free us from Havelange and Pelé. Diego… Read More »
After the conclusion of the World Cup, a new cycle of FIFA World Rankings begins. Every month, FIFA releases an updated list ranking every national football team — #1 to #207. For most fans, myself included, these rankings seem arbitrary. What does it matter that Croatia is ranked #10 and USA is #13? What does… Read More »
The Football Scholars forum, organized by Alex Galarza at Michigan State University, recently hosted a discussion with Chris Gaffney about his marvelous book on stadia in Latin America. You can read about the event and request access to the audio recording here. Later in the semester look for discussions with David Goldblatt on his magisterial… Read More »
Presidential interest in national soccer is nothing new to us. With so much popular will and attention fixated on national teams, national soccer has long been mixed with executive politicking. The recent World Cup has illustrated this phenomenon more clearly than ever, with notable presidential “arbitrations” occurring in the French, Nigerian, and North Korean football… Read More »
I’m here in South Africa, and last night went to the see the Argentina-Mexico game at Soccer City. I’ll warn you that a portion of this post will sound a bit like FIFA propaganda, so if you can’t stand that please stop reading now. But the feeling here in electric and ebullient, and I really… Read More »
Perhaps cribbing the title of George Orwell’s famous 1938 account of the Spanish Civil War is a little much. But, seventy years on, with the question of the what status Catalonia has and should have within Spain still a serious issue, football has become an important battlefield in its own way. Yesterday’s victory of the… Read More »
Do citizens have a right to watch football? The Argentinian government has recently proposed that they do. The Washington Post — which as the previous post on this blog attests has recently been providing interesting coverage of the politics of football in Latin America — reports in an article published today that President Cristina Fernández… Read More »
That Kusturica’s documentary Maradona, chronicling perhaps world football’s biggest personality, begins with shots of the director playing his guitar at a concert, is telling. Introduced by his band as “the Maradona of the guitar,” it is clear, in retrospect, that what comes after is as much a defense of Kusturica as much as it is about the greatness of Maradona.
Here is an interesting take on the ’78 World Cup in Argentina that took place under a violent military dictatorship. It highlights how FIFA can be used for political means – what should FIFA’s response be in situations like this? [kml_flashembed movie=”http://www.youtube.com/v/n89H2cyccX8″ width=”425″ height=”350″ wmode=”transparent” /]
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