“We ain’t no hooligans, this ain’t a football song…”: Italia ‘90 and the trasformismo of English football

By David Webber

Abstract

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.