Football and Power: Dictatorships, Democracies, Propaganda, and Resistance Around a Ball
M. Muñoz
M. Muñoz · AI-narrated by Martin (from Google)
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4 hr 2 min
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Football and Power traces one of the least examined relationships in modern history: how governments of radically different ideologies, fascist, military, communist, apartheid-era, and today's wealthy monarchies, have each tried to use the world's most popular sport to build a legitimacy, unity, or international respect they could not otherwise command. Moving from Mussolini's staged 1930s World Cups, through the dictatorship that hosted Argentina 1978, Cold War rivalries behind the Iron Curtain, to Qatar's 2022 tournament and the sovereign wealth funds now buying European clubs, the book follows a consistent method: distinguishing documented propaganda from stories added after the fact, and never claiming a trophy was fixed without evidence. It also tells the other half of the story, Brazilian players who built an internal democracy inside Corinthians under a dictatorship, South Africans who turned football's absence into diplomatic pressure against apartheid, and fan movements from Cairo to Istanbul who have repeatedly reclaimed the stands that power sought to control. Written for readers who love football and those who have never watched a match, this is a book about how authority seeks legitimacy in an emotion it can never fully own.
Football and Power traces one of the least examined relationships in modern history: how governments of radically different ideologies, fascist, military, communist, apartheid-era, and today's wealthy monarchies, have each tried to use the world's most popular sport to build a legitimacy, unity, ...
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