Yes, the European Cup of 2012 is still 21 months away, and the fact that the qualifying games are already underway seems slightly obscene: I’ve barely recovered from the drama of the World Cup, and now I’m supposed to start thinking, and, hoping about this tournament? But no matter: I’m awake. Today’s match between France… Read More »
We had an interesting discussion here last Wednesday on this topic. You can link to the audio of the presentations at itunes-u here: The first two (by me and Achille Mbembe) focus on football in Europe and Africa, and I highly recommend Achille’s intervention, starting at about 15 minutes. He thinks and talks about football… Read More »
World Cup 2010: Raymond Domenech fails to take blame for France fiasco | Football | guardian.co.uk This article from the Guardian highlights the extent to which the French football crisis is becoming one of international proportions, now being taken up at the highest levels of the French government. At first glance, one might think: why… Read More »
Picture this, if you will, for a moment: a five-year-old boy named Gelson Fernandes arrives with his parents from the Cape Verde islands in the town of Sion, in Switzerland. From an Atlantic island of the coast of Africa, the family has moved to a beautiful but snowy town perched under glaciers in the French… Read More »
There is a phenomenon in Spain, one that is on the lips of commentators of the Primera División all over the world, one that tinges any match involving Spain’s two biggest teams, Real Madrid and Barcelona: villarato. When I hear the word uttered on GolTv, on ESPN, even on the Fox Sport family of networks,… Read More »
The British media was reporting on Sunday (here, and here for example) that fans will be paying less to watch their games at home next season. The news comes after Ofcom, the regulatory body of the British government, announced measures forcing the TV giant Sky to lower prices perceived as threatening competition. Sky hold a… Read More »
The major Spanish Copa del Rey upset of Villarreal by Celta de Vigo carries with it some telling anecdotes about the state of the game.
John Turnbull, editor of The Global Game, shared with me some fascinating information about “three-sided football.” In early November, as part of the Bienniale d’art contemporain de Lyon, a tournament showcasing this unique sport was held in Venissieux, a banlieue of Lyon. The game was invented in the 1960s by a Danish Situationist artist, Asger… 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 »
With the furor surrounding the France-Ireland game, and Thierry Henry’s decisive handball, dying down a little, it may be time to think through what just happened, and what it illuminates for us about the sport of football. After receiving a barrage of criticism, a not inconsiderable amount of it openly racist, Henry redeemed himself in… Read More »
