Living in the USA I have had to get used to the possibility of sports teams, sorry, franchises, moving from one city to another one, possibly on the other side of the country entirely. This years’ World’s Series Champions, the San Francisco Giants, were once the Giants of New York. Their rivals in Los Angeles…
Category: Sport & Politics
Transfer Window Closes, Football Eats Itself
Wednesday was the final day that European football teams could buy and sell players in 2011. The transfer window closed, only to open again for some more trading in January 2012. Four months without buying anything in these consumerist times is enough to send the newspapers and Sky Sports into a frenzy. But why does…
A European Super League is inevitable
The major leagues of European football, with the exception of the striking Italians, have all got their season underway now. La Liga in Spain played its first round of games this weekend, and once again we saw the big two, Real Madrid and Barcelona, swatting their opponents aside with ease. Madrid put 6 past Real…
Football & the Statistical Revolution
As Bill Shankly told us, ‘Football is a simple game based on the giving and taking of passes, of controlling the ball and of making yourself available to receive a pass. It is terribly simple.’ I have been wondering what the great man would make of the number-led revolution that is sweeping through football. Instead…
Realism, Idealism and Arsene Wenger
This is the fourth in a series of posts attempting to explain football through international relations theory; or international relations theory through football; or drawing tenuous links between both. The differences between Realist and Idealist international relations theory is rather misleadingly known as the first ‘Great Debate’. No actual ‘debate’ took place, and the Idealists…
Against modern football? Blame liberal economics.
This is the third in a series of posts attempting to explain football through international relations theory; or international relations theory through football; or drawing tenuous links between both. Antonio Gramsci once wrote that football is the model of individualistic society. Within a game or a team there is a place for individual expression or…
Thucydides & the transfer window
This is the second in a series of posts attempting to explain football through international relations theory; or international relations theory through football; or drawing tenuous links between both. Why Arsenal will sell Fabregas, and why Manchester United signed Phil Jones. Thinking about Thucydides and the Melian Dialogue, the most (in)famous passage in his most…
Machiavelli & Mourinho
This is the first in a series of posts attempting to explain football through international relations theory; or international relations theory through football; or drawing tenuous links between both. Jorge Valdano may have left Real Madrid but Jose Mourinho will continue to provoke his employers and opponents, and succeed. I am not so convinced that…
Why the CONCACAF Champions League is deserving of your attention
“In Latin America the border between soccer and politics is vague.” Ryszard Kapuscinski The football in the CONCACAF Champions League is like Central American food, low quality but lots of it. In comparison to Europe or South America, CONCACAF is definitely a poor relation. So why am I writing about it, and more importantly why…
In Sun and Shadow 