World Cup! History, Politics, and Art of the Beautiful Game [Hardback]

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World Cup! History, Politics, and Art of the Beautiful Game

Daniel Noemi Voionmaa (Ed.)

by Joel Sronce (University of North Carolina), Maria D. Mitchell Franklin (Marshall College), Ali Emrah Tokatlioğlu (Canakkala Onsekiz Mart University), Domagoj Krpan (Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University in Rijeka, Croatia), Antonio J. Pinto Tortosa (Universidad de Málaga, Spain), Emmanouil (Manos) Karousos (University of Peloponnese, Greece), Sayandeb Chowdhury (Krea University, Sri City, India), Rajendran Narayanan (Azim Premji University, Bangalore, India), Roxane Coche (University of Florida), Amit Gupta (Forum of Federations, Ottawa, Canada), Tzachi Cohen (Bar-Ilan University, Israel), David Webber (UCFB Manchester)

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A highly engaging anthology that offers an interdisciplinary and global perspective on the history of the FIFA World Cup, spanning from the inaugural tournament in 1930 in Uruguay to the politically charged 1978 tournament in Argentina and culminating with the most recent and controversial World Cup held in Qatar in 2022. The essays included in this collection not only examine European and Latin American nations, such as England and Argentina, traditionally associated with football, but also explore countries like Israel and India, where football does not necessarily occupy the status of a national sport. This volume invites both scholars and football enthusiasts to critically engage with the political, social, and economic dimensions of the sport, often referred to as the most important of the unimportant things.

Dr. Resul Karaca
Fakultät für Kulturwissenschaften
Institut für Romanistik
Universität Paderborn, Germany

This book depicts a colorful mosaic of the political, artistic, and economic intricacies of some famous (and not-so-famous) historical football episodes that allow us to track how the sport became a global phenomenon. Each chapter dives into a part of the history of soccer to give the reader a new distorted image of an impossible journey that has produced millions of fans despite its profound contradictions. If football helps us understand “who we are,” as Noemi cleverly quotes Camus, this collection of essays reflects how the ‘beautiful sport’ is deeply embedded in our society, to the point that it cannot be detached from the history of capitalism and the formation of many national identities.

Professor Federico Pous
Elon University

This collection of essays provides a multidimensional, interdisciplinary, creative, and colorful view on the meanings and possibilities of thinking football—'the beautiful game'—and its paramount event: the World Cup. It is intended to appeal to academics as well as to everyday experts, those for whom football is more than a sport. But it also wants to be a source that stirs the interest of those who see football just as a curious experience; those who may have heard, in passing, that a new World Cup will be played in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico in 2026.
This book has, like a football team, eleven chapters. The approaches, styles, and perspectives differ considerably: From how football is a center piece in politics to its representations in poetry, from gender issues to nationalism, from fictitious wars to real ones provoked by a football match, and from exile to the neo-liberalization of the sport, the authors provide us a multicolor and global fresco of football and the World Cup. Likewise, the selection provides a global perspective on football and the World Cup: views from powerhouses such as England or Argentina, as well as from countries with a very incipient football tradition, such as India and Israel.
'World Cup! History, Politics, and Art of the Beautiful Game' is an invitation to continue to understand and think about one of the most important cultural manifestations of our times; a book that, particularly in the context of the next World Cup in 2026, will appeal to a broad readership, all around the world.

Foreword
Patrick Thomas Ridge
Virginia Tech
Introduction
Daniel Noemi Voionmaa
Northeastern University, Boston
Chapter One
Poets and Scoundrels of the Beautiful Game
Joel Sronce
Independent Scholar
Chapter Two
The “Tragedy of Seville:” Sport, Popular Culture, and Franco-German Postwar Reconciliation
Maria D. Mitchell
Franklin and Marshall College, Lancaster, PA
Chapter Three
Nationalism and Football: The Football War between El Salvador and Honduras
Ali Emrah Tokatlioglu
Çanakkale Onsekiz Mart University
Chapter Four
Croatian National Football Team: Connecting Homeland and Diaspora
Domagoj Krpan
University of Rijeka
Chapter Five
Anti-Patriotic or Anti-Governmental? Supporters’ Critical Attitude Toward National Teams in Times of Political Polarization
Antonio J. Pinto Tortosa
University of MalagaChapter Six
Soccer as a Political Instrument: The Case of Argentina
Emmanouil (Manos) Karousos
University of Peloponnese
Chapter Seven
Fragmented Fraternity and Football Fanship in India: The Uneasy Fame of a Colonial Game
Sayandeb Chowdhury and Rajendran Narayanan
Krea University, Sri City
Chapter Eight
Football, Gender, Politics and Social Media: International Politicians’ Online Posts about the 2018 and 2019 World Cup
Roxane Coche
University of Florida
Chapter Nine
The World Cup and Sportswashing: Propaganda, Soft Power, or Power Shift?
Amit Gupta
Forum of Federations, Ottawa
Chapter Ten
Roars and Feelings in Stoppage-Time: Symbolic Aspects of Football in Hebrew Poetry
Dr. Tzachi Cohen
Ono Academic College, Jerusalem
Chapter Eleven
“We ain’t no hooligans, this ain’t a football song…”: Italia ‘90 and the Trasformismo of English Football
David Webber
UCFB (Manchester)
About the Authors
Index

Daniel Noemi Voionmaa is a cultural critic, chronicler, football fan, and scholar of Latin America. His research and teaching focus on the intersection of critical theory and literature, and on visual arts, film, football, and politics. His last book '¿Quién es Chile?' tells the stories of two Eastern European football coaches in Chile. He is currently working on a book about the World Cups held in Latin America and on a peculiar history of Latin America literature.

He has attended six Football World Cups (witnessed Zidane's headbutt and celebrated every Matildas' win) and writes for El desconcierto.cl.

He teaches Latin American literatures and cultures at Northeastern University in Boston.

World Cup, Football/Soccer & Politics & Arts, History of Football/Soccer, FIFA