How Soccer Explains the World: An Unlikely Theory of Globalization

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by Franklin Foer


  My chapter on Glasgow owes a huge debt to Bill Murray, an Australian academic, who has produced the two most rigorous histories of the Celtic-Rangers rivalry: The Old Firm: Sectarianism, Sport and Society in Scotland (Edinburgh: John Donald, 1984) and The Old Firm in the New Age: Celtic and Rangers Since the Souness Revolution (Edinburgh: Mainstream Publishing, 1998).

  Some of my anecdotes in this chapter come from Stuart Cosgrove’s Hampden Babylon (Edinburgh: Canongate Books, 1991). T. M. Devine has edited a collection of essays on the sectarian divide called Scotland’s Shame?

  (Edinburgh: Mainstream, 2000).

  There’s sadly little written on the Jewish soccer renaissance. There’s John Bunzl’s Hoppauf Hakoah: Jüdischer NOTE ON SOURCES

  Sport in Österreich von den Anfängen bis in die Gegenwart (Vienna: Janus, 1987) and the Vienna’s Jewish

  Museum’s exhibition catalog Hakoah: Ein Jüdischer Sportverein in Wien, 1909–1995 (Vienna: Der Apfel, 1995). In addition, there is an important book commemorating the club’s fiftieth anniversary: Otto Bahr’s 50 Jahre Hakoah (Tel Aviv: Verlagskomitee Hakoah Tel Aviv, 1959). Hungarian soccer has received a little bit more attention. The historian, cultural critic, and MTK

  fan Tamás Krausz has a superb essay on his favorite club’s ethnic heritage that can be found online at http://eszmelet.tripod.com/angol1/krauszang1.html.

  Miklós Hadas and Viktor Karády have also published a history of MTK’s Jewishness that can found at

  http://www.replika.c3.hu/1718/hadas.htm. David Winner’s Brilliant Orange: The Neurotic Genius of Dutch Football (London: Bloosmbury, 2000) is one of the great books written about the sport. I particularly recommend his chapter on Ajax and the Jews. The same subject gets a more comprehensive treatment in Simon Kuper’s Ajax, The Dutch, The War: Football in Europe During the Second World War (London: Orion, 2003).

  Finally, there’s lots written about Max Nordau, but I leaned heavily on Michael Stanislawski’s Zionism and the Fin de Siècle: Cosmopolitanism and Nationalism for Nordau to Jabotinsky (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2001).

  Chapters from Alan Garrison’s manuscript can be found at http://www.chelsea-desktop-wallpaper.co.uk/. For an understanding of the recent transformation of the English game, I relied on David Conn’s The Football Business (Edinburgh: Mainstream, 1997). NOTE ON SOURCES

  Alex Bellos’s Futebol, the Brazilian Way (London: Bloomsbury, 2002) provided an account of corruption in the Brazilian game. I frequently found myself referring to Péle: His Life and Times (London: Robson Books, 2000).

  Much of my knowledge of Brazilian history derives from Joseph A. Page’s The Brazilians (Reading, Massachusetts: Perseus Books, 1995) and Marshall Eakin’s Brazil: The Once and Future Country (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1997).

  Tobias Jones’s The Dark Heart of Italy: Travels through Time and Space Across Italy (London: Faber and Faber, 2003) has a superb chapter on the Italian game.

  I’ve found no better survey of Italian politics than Patrick McCarthy’s The Crisis of the Italian State: From the Origins of the Cold War to the Fall of Berlusconi (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1995).

  Jimmy Burns’s Barca: A People’s Passion (London, Bloomsbury, 1998) does a marvelous job synthesizing the history of my beloved club. Phil Ball’s Morbo: The Story of Spanish Football (London: WSC Books, 2001) was also a useful source.

  For Iranian soccer, I depended on the scholarship of Houchang Chehabi. He allowed me to view an

  advanced copy of his essay “The Politics of Football in Iran.” I also relied on his essay “The Juggernaut of Globalization: Sport and Modernization in Iran,” published in volume 19 of The International Journal of the History of Sport. Christian Bromberger’s essay

  “Troisième mi-temps pour le Football Iranien” can be found online ( http://www.mondediplomatique.fr/1998/04

  /BROMBERGER/10280).

  Finally, I want to express my gratitude to Peterjon Cresswell and Simon Evans for putting together The NOTE ON SOURCES

  Rough Guide’s European Football: A Fan’s Handbook (London: Penguin Books, 1999). I followed their anthropological insights and travel tips across the continent. Depressingly, many pages from my edition slowly came unglued from their binding and ultimately floated away in a Vienna breeze. Simon Kuper’s Football Against the Enemy (London: Orion, 1994) was an inspiration for this book. A c k n o w l e d g m e n t s

  When I first tentatively mentioned the idea of this book to my agent, Rafe Sagalyn, I expected him to laugh it o¤. Instead, he told me to drop everything and write a proposal. And after I dropped everything, he never dropped me. I am so grateful for his loyalty, advice, and friendship. Tim Duggan, my editor, isn’t even a soccer fan—which makes me even more appreciative of his commitment to this book. Book editing, as a discipline, takes a lot of knocks. Editors are said to have become bean counters and tools of marketing departments. But Tim is wonderfully old school. He can structure a chapter, tease out an argument, and walk a writer back from the literary ledge. He cares about ideas.

  Gabriele Marcotti is my learned soccer guru. He doesn’t just know his football, he knows his politics, economics, and culture. I’m so grateful for the many hours he spent with me on the phone. Thanks to him, I also found a network of journalists who opened their Rolodexes and shared their considerable reportorial expertise: Ben Lyttleton, Ian McGarry, and Graham Hunter. In Italy, Gabriele connected me with Aurelio Capaldi, who generously led me by the hand through Rome.

  My cousin Marcelo Waimberg took two weeks o¤

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  his job to serve as my translator. Those were the two best weeks I spent working on this book. Even though he is an engineer, he has the mind and soul of a journalist—skeptical and inquisitive. My entire Brazilian clan continually sets new, unsurpassable benchmarks for hospitality. I spent several weeks living in Jacques and Nair Waimberg’s guest bedroom.

  On my travels, I found myself in the protective grasp of an international fraternity of journalists. A thousand thank-yous to Fiachra Gibbons, Angelique Chrisafis, Pat Kane, Andrew Jennings, Richard Wilson, Gustavo Poli, Juca Kfouri, João Carlos Assumpcão, Mario Magalhães, Raul Lores, Leonardo Pinto da Silva, Dejan Nikolic, Dejan Anastasijevic, Ivan Colovic, Kevin Mousley, John Carlin, Taras Hordiyenko, Mike Ticher, Grant Wahl, Gunnar Persson, Joan Poqui, Beppe Sev-ergnini, and Tommaso Pellizzari. I’m also grateful for the help of Andy Markovits, Aleksandar Hemon, Colin Jose, Houchang Chehabi, Amir Afkhami, Afshin

  Molavi, John Bunzl, Viktor Karády, Péter Szegedi, Sándor Laczkó, Tim Parks, Mario Sconcerti, Martin Vogel, Alex Alexiev, Eric Gordy, Walter Laqueur, Doug McGray, David Brett Wasser, and John Efron. (Efron came through with essential information about Tottenham’s Jewishness.) It pains me to know that I’m not expressing proper gratitude to dozens of others who provided boosts along the way.

  In addition to Tim Duggan, this book benefited immeasurably from the eyes and pens of several dear friends: Bryan Curtis, Jodi Kantor, David Plotz, Jay Tol-son, and Jason Zengerle. I’m embarrassed to think of how much they improved my copy. David Hirshey, a ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  fellow Arsenal fan and a member of a great soccer family, played a vital role in championing this book at HarperCollins. My editors at the New Republic—Peter Beinart, Chris Orr, and Martin Peretz—gave me eight months leave to kick-start this project.

  My family suggested the idea for this book on a vacation to Barcelona, as we sat in the upper tier of the Camp Nou. For the next two years, my parents and brothers talked me through outlines and read drafts.

  Finally, more than HarperCollins, my wife was this book’s patron. Without her encouragement and support—not to mention understanding—I would have never traveled around the world for this book. I loved the hours we spent holed up in the home oªce as she read through the manuscript—and I love her. I n d e x

  Abramovich, Roman, 94–95,

  Belfast, 57–64. See also Scottish

  110–11

 
sectarianism

  AC Milan club, 5, 170, 172–73,

  Belgrade. See Serbian violence

  177–92

  Berlusconi, Silvio, 5, 170, 172–73,

  African American gangster rap,

  177–92

  14–15

  bigotry

  Agnelli, Gianni, 170–77

  anti-Semitism (see Jewish

  Ajax club, 80–83

  soccer)

  American culture, 235–48

  English, 108–9

  anti-nationalism, 246–48

  ethnic warfare, 7–8, 15–16, 111

  anti-soccer lobby, 240–44

  religious (see Scottish sectarian-

  class issues, 238–40

  ism)

  gangster rap, 14–15

  Serbian, 19 (see also Serbian

  globalization and, 239–40,

  violence)

  244–46

  Ukrainian, 153–58, 165–66 (see

  yuppie culture, 235–38

  also Ukrainian immigrant

  Amsterdam, 80–83

  players)

  anti-Semitism. See Jewish soccer

  Bosnia, 12

  anti-soccer lobby, American,

  Brazilian style, 3

  240–44

  Brazilian top hats, 115–40

  Anyamkyegh, Edward, 141, 143,

  globalization and, 119–21,

  144–49, 152–53, 158–59,

  128–31, 134–35

  161–62

  Pelé and, 121–28, 131–34

  Arantes do Nascimento, Edson

  José Luis Portella, 139–40

  (Pelé), 121–28, 131–34

  Eurico Miranda, 115–19, 134–39

  Arkan (Zeljko Raznatovic), 8, 10,

  Budapest clubs, 85–88

  17–18, 28

  AS Roma club, 80, 170

  capitalism

  athletes, Jewish, 65–67, 70

  Brazilian, 120, 125–27, 134,

  Austria. See Hakoah club

  139–40

  English, 96–98

  Balkan Wars, 7–8, 15–16, 111

  globalization and, 4 (see also

  Barca (FC Barcelona) club,

  globalization)

  193–96. See also Spanish

  Italian anti-capitalism, 189–90

  bourgeois nationalism

  Scottish, 38–40, 46–48

  Basques, 4, 205

  Ukrainian, 142 INDEX

  cartolas. See Brazilian top hats

  ethnic warfare, 7–8, 15–16, 111.

  Catalonia, 199–201, 208–9. See

  See also bigotry

  also Spanish bourgeois

  Europe

  nationalism

  anti-Semitism, 70–71, 77–88

  catenaccio style, 169

  hooligans, 13–15

  Catholicism, Ukrainian, 165–66.

  See also Scottish sectarianism

  fans. See also English hooligans;

  Ceca, 25, 27, 30–34

  Scottish sectarianism; Ser-

  Celtic Football Club. See Scottish

  bian violence

  sectarianism

  Iranian women, 217–21

  Chelsea club fans, 14, 79, 89–94,

  Italian, 182, 185

  101, 107. See also English

  Spanish, 197–98, 211–16

  hooligans

  FC Barcelona (Barca) club,

  clubs vs. national teams, 3

  193–96. See also Spanish

  Collina, Pierluigi, 167–68

  bourgeois nationalism

  Combat 18 club, 107–8

  females, Iranian, 217–21

  corruption. See also Brazilian top

  Ferencvaros club, 85–86

  hats; Italian oligarchs

  Findlay, Donald, 52–57

  globalization and, 5

  Flamengo club, 119–20

  Serbian, 25

  football. See soccer

  Croatia, 12, 15–17, 20–24

  football revolution, Iranian,

  culture. See also American culture;

  221–23, 233–34

  Iranian Islamic culture;

  France, 3

  nationalism; Spanish bour-

  Franco regime, 4, 195, 201–7

  geois nationalism

  Friedman, Thomas, 2

  English, 97–98

  globalization and, 4–5

  Gaal, Louis van, 215–16

  Czechoslovakia, 75–77

  Gamper, Joan, 199–201

  gangsterism ethos, 14–15. See also

  Dinamo Zagreb club, 15–17, 21

  Serbian violence

  discrimination. See bigotry

  Garrison, Alan, 89–96, 102–14.

  Djindjic, Zoran, 32–33

  See also English hooligans

  Dutch soccer, 3, 80–83

  Glasgow. See Scottish sectarianism

  Dyminskyy, Petro, 143, 152–53

  globalization. See also capitalism;

  nationalism

  economics. See also capitalism;

  American culture and, 239–40,

  corruption

  244–46

  English soccer, 95–96

  Brazilian top hats and, 119–21,

  globalization and, 4–5

  134–35, 138

  violence and, 14, 38

  English hooligans and, 94–98

  elite classes, 73, 238–40

  Iranian Islamic culture and,

  English hooligans, 89–114

  223, 233–34

  death toll of, 13–14

  Italian oligarchs and, 172–73

  first, and Alan Garrison,

  Jewish soccer and, 70–71, 84–85

  89–96, 102–14

  Scottish sectarianism and,

  globalization and, 3–4, 96–98

  37–40, 46–48

  as industry, 98–102

  soccer violence and, 13–15

  semi-retired aging, 109–14

  Ukrainian immigrant players

  Tottenham fans, 77–80

  and, 141–44 INDEX

  Godwin, Samson, 150–53, 164

  in Nazi concentration camps,

  Golac, Ivan, 162–64

  75–77

  Johnston, Maurice, 46–48

  Hakoah club, 66–68, 69, 71–75.

  Juventus club, 170–77

  See also Jewish soccer

  Headhunters gang, 14, 101, 107

  Karpaty Lviv club, 143, 149–53, 161.

  Holland, 3, 80–83

  See also Ukrainian immi-

  hooligans. See English hooligans;

  grant players

  violence

  Khatami, Mohammad, 219, 231–33

  Hungarian clubs, 70, 85–88

  Khomeini, Ayatollah Ruhollah,

  218

  illiberal nationalism, 198–99

  immigrant players. See Ukrainian

  liberal nationalism. See Spanish

  immigrant players

  bourgeois nationalism

  indigenous culture. See culture

  literature, hooligan, 98–102

  Inter Milan club, 175, 187–90

  Lobanovsky, Valeri, 159–61

  Iranian Islamic culture, 217–34

  local culture. See culture

  football revolution and, 221–23,

  London. See English hooligans

  233–34

  Lviv. See Ukrainian immigrant

  history of soccer, 223–28

  players

  globalization and, 233–34

  Mohammad Khatami and,

  Manchester City club, 79–80,

  231–33

  112–13

  soccer control and, 229–31

  Manchester United club, 3, 5, 14,

  Tehran women and, 217–21

  96

  Ireland, 57–64

  masculinity, 13–14
/>   Islamic culture

  migration, 5, 130–31. See also

  bigotry and, 85, 165–66

  Ukrainian immigrant players

  Croatian, 12, 15–17, 20–24

  Milosevic, Slobodan, 13, 18–19,

  ethnic warfare and, 7–8, 15–16,

  28–29

  111

  Miranda, Eurico, 115–19, 134–39

  Iranian (see Iranian Islamic

  MTK Hungaria club, 86–88

  soccer)

  multinational corporations, 4–5,

  Israel, 81, 84, 226–27

  248

  Italian oligarchs, 167–92

  Muslims. See Islamic culture

  bribery by, 170–77

  press manipulation by, 5, 170,

  nationalism

  172–73, 177–92

  American, 246–48

  referees and Italian style, 3,

  English, 107–9

  167–71

  Hungarian, 87

  Jewish, 68–70

  Jewish soccer, 65–88

  secular, 222–23, 234

  anti-Semitism, philo-Semitism,

  Serbian, 9–10, 12, 18–19, 34

  and, 77–88, 109–11

  soccer and, 4–6

  globalization and, 70–71,

  Spanish (see Spanish bourgeois

  84–85

  nationalism)

  Hakoah club, 66–68, 71–75

  Ukrainian, 155–57

  Jewish athletes, 65–66

  violence and, 13–14

  muscular Judaism, 68–70

  national teams vs. clubs, 3 INDEX

  Nazi concentration camp soccer,

  globalization and, 37–40,

  75–77

  46–48

  Nigerian soccer, 141–42, 146–48,

  hooligans and, 40–43

  158–62. See also Ukrainian

  Protestant reformation and,

  immigrant players

  43–46

  Nordau, Max, 69

  secular nationalism, 222–23, 234

  Serbian violence, 7–34

  Obilic club, 25–34

  Arkan and, 17–25

  Old Firm game, 40, 48–52, 61

  Milosevic overthrow and, 28–30

  oligarchs, Ukrainian, 142–44. See

  Obilic club and, 25–34

  also Brazilian top hats; Italian

  Red Star match with Dinamo

  oligarchs

  Zagreb, 15–17

  Ultra Bad Boys fan club, 7–13

  Pahlavi dynasty, 223–28

  world soccer violence and, 13–15

  Partizan club, 11, 15, 19

  Slovenia, 12, 20

  Pelé (Edson Arantes do Nasci-

 

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