Daily Archives: May 1, 2024

How Football Made the Working Class


8th April 1950: Boys playing football in a residential street in London.
“… In A People’s History of Football, French climate journalist and Le Monde diplomatique correspondent Mickaël Correia argues that things have not always been this way — or at least not to such a grotesquely indefensible extent. The world’s most popular sport has an alternative, ‘antiestablishment’ history, which Correia seeks to uncover and defend. Though he dwells on the ‘subversive aspect’ of football, Correia is hardly a romantic. ‘Globalized football,’ he reminds us in the very opening of the book, ‘has become . . . the very embodiment of unbridled capitalism’s worst excesses.’ …”
Jacobin
amazon: A People’s History of Soccer

The French clubs being bought – and distorted – by Premier League teams


“The message from the Tribune Ouest, home of the self-styled Ultra Boys 90, is loud and clear. Half an hour into Racing Strasbourg’s home game against OGC Nice, a huge banner is unfurled: ‘Non a la multipropriete”’(‘No to multi-ownership’). One of the Ultra Boys, Strasbourg’s most vocal supporters, grabs a megaphone and issues an impassioned diatribe against multi-club ownership — his message reverberating all over the Stade de la Meinau as the match is going on. …”
The Athletic (Video)