Scan barcode
p_t_b's review against another edition
4.0
a good time, quick. a little dated now but was a nice aperitif to get fired up for Euro 2012.
stevenmc19's review
5.0
Sometimes, I found it easy to forget this book was being formed and written close to three decades ago. Dramatic irony took hold during certain segments, but these instances were quelled in the postscript. Overall, the book accounts for many of the ways soccer intertwines with politics, religion, and the gravity in which the sport grabs a person emotionally; all of which, these reasons can be exploited by those who know how. Simon details examples on how some of these individuals have used soccer to further their own agendas in chilling ways.
sydsnot71's review against another edition
3.0
This is a re-read. I read this when it first came out in paperback a long time ago. It is still an interesting read. I don't think it does what Simon Kuper claims he wanted it to do, but I think inside it is the seed of a book about how football is a weapon of the oppressed against their oppressors.
Also time has affected some of its chapters more than others. This edition contains two new chapters that I don't remember being in the original. One on the 1994 World Cup and one on football in Croatia in the immediate aftermath of the war in the Balkans and the role played by football fans - some might say hooligans - in fighting that war.
It might be interesting for Kuper to re-visit some of these chapters if he could. To see how things have changed. I mean British football is no longer the terrible game Kuper seems to think in was when he wrote this - long ball and 4-4-2. I don't even think it was all like that then. But Kuper might argue that the reason for that is that the EPL doesn't have many English players or Managers in these days.
Globalization has changed football like it has changed a lot of things. Not always for the good.
I found the chapters of Argentina and Brazil the most interesting. Celtic and Rangers are just two bald men fighting over a comb.
Kuper had two questions he wanted the book to answer:
My first question, then, was how football affects the life of a country. My second was how the life of a country affects its football.
I think it does some of the first, but not enough of the second. Still it is an interesting read, even if it seems even more like a historical document now than it did when it was published.
Also time has affected some of its chapters more than others. This edition contains two new chapters that I don't remember being in the original. One on the 1994 World Cup and one on football in Croatia in the immediate aftermath of the war in the Balkans and the role played by football fans - some might say hooligans - in fighting that war.
It might be interesting for Kuper to re-visit some of these chapters if he could. To see how things have changed. I mean British football is no longer the terrible game Kuper seems to think in was when he wrote this - long ball and 4-4-2. I don't even think it was all like that then. But Kuper might argue that the reason for that is that the EPL doesn't have many English players or Managers in these days.
Globalization has changed football like it has changed a lot of things. Not always for the good.
I found the chapters of Argentina and Brazil the most interesting. Celtic and Rangers are just two bald men fighting over a comb.
Kuper had two questions he wanted the book to answer:
My first question, then, was how football affects the life of a country. My second was how the life of a country affects its football.
I think it does some of the first, but not enough of the second. Still it is an interesting read, even if it seems even more like a historical document now than it did when it was published.
gracefullypunk's review against another edition
3.0
I wish I could give this book a higher rating, as I like the premise and I enjoy Kuper's style and often witty insight. But there are two major reasons I can't.
First, the US edition could have stood for some better editing. It seems someone went through a document and did a find and replace for the word "football." The problem is, "football" refers to both the sport and the actual ball, and the editor didn't go through the tedium of re-reading to add the word ball where necessary. This results in sentences like "I nudged the soccer with the tip of my toe." In worse cases, "American football" is changed to "American soccer", making it into an entirely different sport.
Second, the addition of the Croatia section made me question the credibility of the other chapters, as it's obvious Kuper didn't have a good grasp of what was going on during the war. The breakup of Yugoslavia is complicated, yes, but he's unable to identify correctly which sides are fighting against which. As I don't know the history of the other regimes he outlines, I'm not sure of the errors there, but that also makes me less confident that what he wrote is correct.
First, the US edition could have stood for some better editing. It seems someone went through a document and did a find and replace for the word "football." The problem is, "football" refers to both the sport and the actual ball, and the editor didn't go through the tedium of re-reading to add the word ball where necessary. This results in sentences like "I nudged the soccer with the tip of my toe." In worse cases, "American football" is changed to "American soccer", making it into an entirely different sport.
Second, the addition of the Croatia section made me question the credibility of the other chapters, as it's obvious Kuper didn't have a good grasp of what was going on during the war. The breakup of Yugoslavia is complicated, yes, but he's unable to identify correctly which sides are fighting against which. As I don't know the history of the other regimes he outlines, I'm not sure of the errors there, but that also makes me less confident that what he wrote is correct.