Football Against The Enemy

Saw the Beard reading this on Ted Lasso. Great read for those who want to understand more about real football.

This is a really fine book, very difficult to put down. All of the chapters were interesting. As a Celtic fan, I enjoyed the chapter on the Old Firm and his non-involved, outsider's perspective was both amusing and illuminating (after all, for those of us who support one or the other, it's difficult to "step back" and examine things). Because the book is now quite a few years old, there are some political realities that have changed considerably, but it doesn't detract from how well Kuper captures the times and places he documents. I think even someone with only the faintest notion of the game itself would find this book enjoyable to read, as its focus is primarily cultural, social and political. A terrific read. Highly recommended.

Kuper definitely does his homework in writing this book, probably the first of its kind when written in the early 90's. I is hard to not appreciate all the traveling and risks he took in getting some of these interviews, but then again he is sometimes self serving about how hard the journey's were. Anyhow, he picks his topics well and focuses on one aspect of a particular area or rivalry that gives us a glimpse into the whole.Some drawbacks were already apparent in the first chapter where you could clearly read into a bit of bias, but it only hurts it minimally. Overall, a great read into the world of 90's soccer with the history to back it up. Definitely reads differently than if it was written today as the politics of football have faded to make way for the business of football, but only 20 or so years ago it was quite different, great to appreciate the difference.

Gave as a gift for my dad and he loved it

The wearing of the Orange takes. N a whole new meaning when considering soccer as a agent against an enemy.

recomended by a friend, great read, very interesting and informative on the inner workings of soccer in parts of the world....

Wonderful writing. The anecdotes really help drive home why football is the world's most popular pastime and how it as culture influences those who follow it.

Young journalist Kuper traveled around the world like a madman to gather the stories of soccer's relationship to politics and culture collected in the book's twenty chapters. The result is a book that will delight anyone with an interest in the world's most popular sport, and will intrigue those interested in the world beyond their boundaries. The book's sole flaw is a certain choppiness, which is partially due to the haphazard nature of his travels, and partly due to Kuper's perhaps overambitious goal of examining how soccer "affects the life of a country" and "how the life of a country affects its football." Concentrating on one or the other would have given the book the focus it lacks-but that doesn't detract from its power.Kuper uses soccer as a lens to look at the most central issues of the modern world race (South Africa), religion (Ireland and Scotland), culture (Brazil), totalitarianism (Argentina & East Germany), corruption (Ukraine), poverty (Africa), and especially nationalism (Holland, Slovakia, Catalonia, Serbia). Even those who dismiss sport as an "opiate of the masses" and don't care for soccer will be forced to acknowledge the sport's popularity and centrality, especially in less-developed nations. Each chapter is a stand-alone piece, with lengths varying from 5-25 pages or so, perfect for reading on the bus or just before bed. The only other caveat on the book is that it does often seem rather dated, and one keeps wishing it was a bit fresher. Still, this is a great bit of journalism and one every soccer fan should read.

Ok book. If you follow football from years, reading books, magazines you can know some stories. Well written. For me I found few things I didnt know ex. rivalry between Germany - Netherlands (funny stories about few players behaviours I didn't know)

I found this book a real mixed bag - some insightful commentary on the relationship between politics and football cut with interviews which were too often overlong and with people who often had no meaningful credentials other than being where Kuper happened to be at the time. This might be unfair - the media flurry around football in the past decades has probably blinded me to how interesting this may have been at the time - but I found myself flicking pages at times bored of the same drab talk.The real value in this book now is the ability to look back at a snapshot in time. FATE was written in 1994, at a real transition point for politics in many places around the world (the Eastern European chapters were particularly interesting for me, having visited most of the places involved in more recent years) and football (the capitalist revolution fuelled by the Premier League's inception in 1992 was just getting going). I found it fascinating to see the world and football as it was then, to see Kuper's expectations for the future with the benefit of hindsight as to how things really worked out.Well worth a go.

The title of the book doesn't cover the contents as well as the title of my short review does. Kuper has traveled to many countries in Europe (East and West), Africa, and America (North and South) and written a series of reports about the people he met there (occasionally they seem to be rather random characters) and discussed football and politics with. It has an interesting time-capsule element, reading it 20 years after it was written (i.e., it is quite dated).

Football has changed a lot since Simon wrote this book. It has definitely dated in places, but it is a lovely look at the world of football and culture of the 90s. Knowing how the world has evolved makes it an even more interesting read now.

if you like books about the history and culture of football this is fascinating and well written.