The Age of Football by David Goldblatt review – not just a beautiful game

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David Goldblatt’s encyclopedic study shows how football worldwide has been co-opted by populist movements

It is easily forgotten that the EU referendum fell in the days between Roy Hodgson’s hapless England football team grinding out a 0-0 draw with Slovakia to advance to the last 16 of Euro 2016 and it losing 2-1 to Iceland in a humiliating exit from the tournament. Donald Tusk tweeted presciently or gleefully: “UK-Iceland, 1-2. Winter is coming.”

Who knows how a swan song Wayne Rooney hat-trick in that game might have affected voting intentions a couple of days later? What is certain, however, is that only a government as insouciant or incompetent as David Cameron’s would have called a vote on Britain’s European future while fans clothed and tattooed in the flag of St George were defending the honour of our boys in the fountains and pavement cafes of France – and our up-and-at-’em footballing nation was sensing a new humiliation at the hands of those sophisticated operatives from across the channel.

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from The Guardian https://ift.tt/2PyV5Jl

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