EN / A football book against the time

It is every author’s dream to write a book on contemporary affairs that will still have a sensation of freshness in twenty years’ time. This task becomes even more challenging when the story is composed with evasive bits that can change their meaning and importance with one kick of the ball.

Or, perhaps, the role of football does not actually depend on one kick, whether shot into the roof of the net or wide into the row Z, and, instead, it is much deeper than that? Maybe football and its social legacy can defend itself regardless of an outcome of a 90-minutes match?

First published in 1994, Simon Kuper’s “Football Against the Enemy” looks into the relations between the beautiful game, politics and culture shortly after the Cold War. The world was at its turning point – not to mention a widely acclaimed concept of the end of the history around that time. In dynamically shifting environments, Kuper recognised football as a point of reference. “It’s just a game,” some may say, but for the Dutch author it was also a means of understanding new cultures as well as comparing them with those more familiar to him.

Yet, despite being a fascinating read, it took me a good half a year to finish it. The reason? Extremely engaging chapters unfortunately lacked continuity between each other. No doubt, the theme is always there but not necessarily a story. It is by no means a criticism of the book but a common problem in some of Kuper’s other writings – an issue that many broadsheet journalists-cum-writers suffer from.

It is rather hard to disagree with a statement: “If you like football – read it; if you don’t like football – read it,” as quoted from the Times’ review on the front cover. A timeless book on the role of football in describing the world in the post-Cold War era is an achievement per se. Most of these stories are still very much so up-to-date or at least can help to understand what role the beautiful game has played in shaping the political and cultural reality of today. Whether it is Buenos Aires, Glasgow, Kiev, Berlin or Gaborone, football has left its mark.