This Week Those Books is chock-full of crucial context in just five minutes — from fiction and non-fiction — to the shouty, doomscroll news cycle. Click here for a quick read
It’s all kicking off. Football and politics
Brand new book gives World Cup a red card. A bestseller on the beautiful game’s history
Image by Jannik, Unsplash
The Big Story:
The largest football World Cup in the tournament’s nearly 100-year history is more diverse than any other but also the most polarised.
- The pan-continental showpiece event is the first to be spread over three countries, the US, Canada and Mexico.
- It has expanded to 48 teams, with so-called “minnows” such as Cape Verde qualifying for the first time. Curacao is the smallest nation ever to participate. Haiti returns after last appearing in 1974.
- Nearly one in four of the 1,248 players selected for national teams were born in a different country to the one they will represent.
But, but, but…
- Ongoing US-Iran hostilities mean it’s the first time a host country is at war with a participating nation.
- Fans from more than a quarter of the countries taking part are facing travel bans, restrictions and high visa rejection rates from the US, where 75% of the matches take place. Haiti and Iran face full bans and Ivory Coast and Senegal partial restrictions.
- Exorbitantly priced tickets are dampening enthusiasm.
Jules Boykoff, a political science professor at Oregon’s Pacific University, and author of our first book, has called it a “joyless World Cup”.
This Week’s Books:
- An academic is disgusted by World Cup sportswashing.
- A comprehensive account of football and world history.
Click to read on about the books and the back story
