Globalisation is a popular buzzword at the moment. When you hear it, maybe you think of economic theory (you need to get out more). Maybe you think of the anti-globalisation riots that follow the G7 meetings from city to city (you need to calm down). But globalisation is not just a fancy economic theory. In […]
Brian Kerr is now two games into his first real campaign as Ireland manager. Mick McCarthy's legacy to Kerr was a poor start in the Euro 2004 qualifiers, and a rift with Ireland's captain and most influential player. Despite these disadvantages, Kerr came within a whisker of bringing Ireland to Portugal, and the Irish support […]
Over the past number of weeks, European football fans have watched in amazement as a team of bit-part players from Greece have won the second-most prestigious tournament in the world. The stars of the Premiership, La Liga and Serie A have emerged from the European Championships looking like over-hyped, underachieving conmen. People might rightly ask […]
Euro 2004 has, at last, begun, and has already thrown up a few surprises. Alex Bellos is the author of Futebol: The Brazilian Way of Life (Bloomsbury), and for five years, was the South America correspondent for The Guardian and The Observer. Mark Harkin spoke to him about the current football-fest. Since the European Championships […]
“We have to ask why we're surprised when there's violence associated with football? It's been an arena for largely ritualised patterns of expressions of aggression since time immemorial and you can go back even further: to classical history, to accounts of the circus factions of the fans of chariot racing in Rome and later on […]
