“‘Soccer is popular,’ Jorge Luis Borges observed, ‘because stupidity is popular.’ At first glance, the Argentine writer’s animus toward ‘the beautiful game’ seems to reflect the attitude of today’s typical soccer hater, whose lazy gibes have almost become a refrain by now: Soccer is boring. There are too many tie scores. I can’t stand the fake injuries. And it’s true: Borges did call soccer ‘aesthetically ugly.’ He did say, ‘Soccer is one of England’s biggest crimes.’ And apparently, he even scheduled one of his lectures so that it would intentionally conflict with Argentina’s first game of the 1978 World Cup. But Borges’ distaste for the sport stemmed from something far more troubling than aesthetics.” New Republic