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

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

Daniel Noemi Voionmaa (Ed.)

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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.

Daniel Noemi Voionmaa is a cultural critic, chronicler, football fan, and scholar of Latin American literature and culture. His research and teaching focus on the intersection of critical theory and literature, and on visual arts, film, and politics. He is the author of five books and many articles. His last book '¿Quién es Chile?' tells the stories of two Eastern European football coaches in Chile during the 1930-40s and 1980-90s. He has attended six Football World Cups (from Germany 2006 to Australia 2023) and written about them for Latin American Publications.
Currently, he teaches Latin American literatures and cultures at Northeastern University in Boston and is working on a book about the World Cups held in Latin America.

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