Football Against the Enemy
Football Against the Enemy
Author: Simon Kuper (Usually dispatched within 24 hours)
Well RoundedThis book’s laudability stems from primarily:
1) It’s sweeping through the globe with football as the prime theme.
2) Outlining the impact the greatest game in the universe has on different cultures.
Quite honestly, this is as much a social sciences text as it is a football book as it focuses tremendously on societal intruiges and deficiencies unknow to Western culture. I particularly found Kuper’s account on the machinations at Dynamo Kiev and the contrasting styles of Carlos Bilardo and Cesar Menotti in Argentina fascinating. Putting it bluntly, this is a must read for any die hard fans who care about the game beyond the British Isles, and who desire a basic account football has on a global scale- which is suffice to say, gargantuan. KUDOS to FOOTBALL! KUDOS to Kuper!
Football, the way of the world.
Simon Kuper astonishes me by the experience he gained traveling the world and viewing it through football. The stories of East Germany and Russia are right out of the spy world and secret football mafia. I will never think of the word “Dynamo” the same again. The story of Herrera and Italy was a unique insight into how the world’s game changed on one man’s tactics. This book goes right into the world of con men, dictatorship, tyranny, and business and shares how football is used as a vehicle to fulfill the agendas of corrupt men. I am still fuming at the injustice of the 1978 World Cup in Argentina and cannot believe that FIFA are not blameless in conspiring to further the evils of the world at large. I only wish they could make movies this good. I immediately thought, after reading this book, that they need to do more documantaries on the type of material covered here. It is eye-opening.
Conspiracies,politics, the underworld….and football.
From football related conspiracies such as how Herrera stole the credit for re-inventing defensive football to how Argentina`s brutal miltary junta stole the game, from the religious bigotry of the Old Firm game to the quaint diversions of how Paul Gascoingne became forever know as Gazza, the sheer scope of “Football Against the Enemy” is quite impressive.
Cris Freddi travelled to all 4 corners of the globe to examine and try to measure the ways in which football infiltrates every stream of life.
This book is solid evidence that football really is more than just a game and that much as we might like to deny it, it does mix with politics.
A fascinating read even if you can`t stand football - you may even begin to feel sorry for the game after reading how it has been manipulated as a political tool.
All budding politicians should study this book.