The Age of Football: Soccer and the 21st Century

by David Goldblatt

In the twenty-first century, soccer commands the allegiance, interest, and engagement of more people in more places than any other phenomenon in the world. David Goldblatt—author of the acclaimed, best- selling The Ball Is Round—charts the sport’s global cultural ascent, economic transformation, and deep politicization.


With breathtaking scope and unparalleled knowledge of the game, The Age of Football explores soccer’s vital role in our social, political, and economic lives: its connections to social discord in the Middle East and political division in Europe; the reasons behind its surprising surge in popularity in China, India, and the United States; and its use (and misuse) in the global advance of equality and human rights. Goldblatt proves that whether you call it football or soccer, you can’t make sense of the modern world without understanding its most popular sport.

Genres: Sports, Football, Nonfiction, Soccer, History, Politics, Audiobook

560 pages, Hardcover

Published February 18, 2020

About the author

Librarians note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

David Goldblatt is a highly experienced sports writer, broadcaster, and journalist. He is the author of The Ball is Round: A Global History of Football (Penguin, 2006), the definitive historical account of the world’s game. He has also written the World Football Yearbook (Dorling Kindersley, 2002), which was published in nine languages and ran to three editions.

As a journalist, he has written for most of the quality broadsheet newspapers including the Guardian, the Observer, the Financial Times, and The Independent on Sunday, as well as for magazines such as the New Statesman and the New Left Review. He is a regular reviewer of sports books for The Independent and The Times Literary Supplement and is currently the sports’ columnist for Prospect magazine.

As a freelance reporter he has worked for BBC Radio 4 and the BBC World Service, including producing documentaries on football in Jerusalem and the politics of football in Kenya. He has also appeared on other BBC radio programmes including The World Today, The World Tonight, The Sunday Morning Show, and Africa – Have Your Say.

In addition to his extensive writing and broadcasting career, he has also taught the sociology of sport at the University of Bristol and has run literacy programmes at both Bristol City and Bristol Rovers football clubs, as well as teaching sport, film, and media at the Watershed arts cinema, also in Bristol.

Reviews

[Jonathan Hutchings · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you like football but want to hate it then this is the book for you! From tracking corruption and violence in South American football to tracking corruption and violence in European football with many more continents in between it's a book that gives incredible detail in detailing football's evilness.

[Jarrod S · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a book about globalism and capitalism first and a book about soccer second. A region-by-region look at the state of modern soccer and politics. With anything this sweeping, a precise thesis and mastery of every area are near impossible. A few areas read more like syntheses of news reports, but in general Goldblatt is effective at relaying the relationships between power, money, and the masses, all moderated by soccer. The writing is at times very dense, but it is well-organized and usually lean.

Goldblatt is clearly writing from a left-wing perspective, and is not shy about his beliefs, but this is not a weakness of the book. Any history of politics will have a political bent. The book is well-researched and the perspective Goldblatt takes flow naturally with his critique of global capital. Deft political writing is missing from most sports/soccer writing I read, and this was a welcome change.

A few things that will stick with me from the book, even as its events become less recent:
- A deep, informed, and passionate vision of what soccer can and should be. This often comes out in opposition to the nefarious changes brought by globalism and corruption, but it's in every part of the book. At times the author waxes near-poetically about the power of the crowd and the game. As someone not raised in a soccer culture, I appreciated the vigor of this leftist Englishman's beliefs for soccer. No I will not call it football.
-A clear-eyed identification of the obstacles of this vision. Namely, global capital, nationalism and racism, sexism, and corruption. At times it is repetitive to read, but the villains are not half-drawn.

This is a pessimistic read, but a necessary one for any fan of the global game.

[W · Rating 3 out of 5]

Tons of info but it all feels like reporting from the outside, like it was drawn from vast reading of the papers rather than from living it or getting to know people. Some interspersing of travelogue-type material, some adventures in world football, would have made it livelier.

[Theo R-O · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'll give Dave credit for some wild research, but goddam this was dry asl. It gets three admittedly generous stars because im 100% addicted to this game.

[Walker · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow. Crisscrossing the globe, engaging with every country, this book effortlessly combines geography, geopolitics, and domestic and international soccer. That is a mean feat by itself, yet the scope and detail of each chapter honestly is unbelievable. Goldblatt writes passionately about the game of football, highlighting the joys that football brings on the pitch to fans across the globe. He brings humor into his writing well, too, as this example shows:

"Relegation in Argentina has been determined on the basis of average points over a three-year period, allowing big clubs who have single or even consecutive bad seasons to pull back from the brink. However, the incompetence and chaos of the nation's leading clubs have ingeniously outwitted this plan. In 2013, Independiente, winner of 7 Copa Libertadores, played so poorly that their fate was sealed with half the season to go."

But the passion for the game on the pitch doesn't blind him to the almost incomprehensible amount of corruption, authoritarianism, sexism, racism, violence (between fan groups, police, cartels...), death, etc. that plagues the "beautiful game" and the political aspects of many countries. The facts Goldblatt presents will make you feel things, whether it be frustrated, angry, happy, interested in Gamestop stock, or something else entirely.

[Amanda Vocelka · Rating 4 out of 5]

Going into the Age of Football, I was expecting to read about how soccer is the great equalizer - regardless of language, country, culture, we all can come together to play the beautiful game. Instead, Goldblatt’s book provides an encyclopedic history of modern soccer, going region by region and highlighting the ways greed, corruption, violence, racism, and nationalism have defined the sport. A bit dense at times, but great if you want to start hating the thing you love the most!

[Nick · Rating 5 out of 5]

A world tour of the political and socioeconomic conditions that are intertwined with the sport. Fascinating histories of each region display how football can be used as a tool to measure social progress, regime corruption, and political sentiments of a populace. The reader is forced to think critically about issues like the commercialization of the game and its use as an ideological vessel by political forces. A long-ish but excellent book.

[Thomas Bodenberg · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you think this is a book which discusses whether the 442 or the 541 is a better tactical formation, well, this isn't. However, this provides a nation-by-nation account of the political and sociological forces, with special emphasis placed on corruption, behind the modern game - and it goes up to the 2018 World Cup Finals in Russia. FIFA gets their deserved attention, as well as tinpot dictators on every continent who believe that modern day football can provide some "redemption" for their misdeeds.
There were several factual errors in this work, such as the name of Liverpool's training ground(Melwood) as well as the team the United States defeated in the Round of 16 at the 2002 World Cup (it was Mexico, not Portugal). But these do not devalue this work in general.
Highly recommended.

[Aaron Cohen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really a book about globalization and corruption. Shocking look into the greed driving world football at every level everywhere. Yet, the bits of pure joy that manage to come through anyway make me love the sport even more.

[Patrick Watts · Rating 3 out of 5]

A long and dry book which reads like a series of articles on each countries relationship between football and geopolitics.

I feel like I understand the world better, but at what cost?

[Michael Hauge · Rating 5 out of 5]

In The Age of Football, David Goldblatt describes and diagnoses the tides, actors, and cancers that act on and through the world of soccer in the early twenty-first century. From the complex undercurrents of ultra cultures, in locales as varied as Italy, Malaysia, Tunis, and Montevideo, to the vast kleptocracy that controls the monies and favors in football's financial stratosphere, to the social movements that have sprung like wildflowers on a refuse pile, offering hope for a different kind of world - Goldblatt, with intelligence, wit, and occasional biting sarcasm and soaring allegory, teases apart the sport that commands so much of the world's attention. Soccer is a cipher for all manner of sociopolitical currents, as it refracts and reproduces the vestiges of colonialism, the continued suffocation of monochrome neo-liberalism, and the ever-widening ripples of globalization on scales large and small, tragic and joyful, profane and profound. The future of the game depends on the understanding of those who participate in its cultures, an understanding of the past and present that will allow an informed and impassioned approach to reforming, or tearing down, that which controls it. For the beginnings of such an understanding, The Age of Football is without peer.

[Andrei · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jätk 2006. aastal ilmunud ülimahukale jalgpalliajaloole, keskendudes seekord pärast aastatuhandevahetust aset leidnud sündmustele kõigil kontinentidel. Võib võtta ära isu vutile üldse kaasa elada, sest pilt on päris masendav - Goldblatt kirjeldab korruptsiooni, poliitilisi intriige, inimõiguste rikkumisi, neokolonialismi ja lihtsalt kohutavat ahnust, mis end maailma suurima spordiala külge on kinnitanud. Samas eks olegi see jalgpalli võlu, kuidas temas peegeldub ja mõnikord võimendub mujal ühiskonnas toimuv. Autori hääl on oma magnum opusega võrreldes märksa hinnangulisem ja teravam, isegi kibestunum - Sepp Blatterile ja FIFAle pühendatud peatükk on (täiesti õigustatult) intellektuaalse hävitustöö meistriklass ja tülpinud pettumuse väljendus. Armu ei anta ka end naftaraha ning vuti abil legitimeerivatele Qatari ja Venemaa režiimidele, Aafrika ja Lõuna-Ameerika saamatutele alaliitudele ega ka postimperialistlikule Euroopale, kes üheltpoolt edendab ja teisest otsast labastab oma väärtusi. Mõned motiivid korduvad (nii raamatu sees kui eelkäijaga), mõned suured teemad (superagentide tõus, üleminekutasusid puudutav) on puudu, ent igale spordisõbrale hariv, kainestav ja põnev lugemine. 4.5/5

[Yorben Geerinckx · Rating 5 out of 5]

Een Bijbel over hoe voetbal verweven is met alle aspecten van onze maatschappij: politiek, economie, cultuur, ... Bijna elk land ter wereld komt aan bod en telkens wordt de relatie tussen voetbal en de maatschappij uitgebreid en gedetailleerd onder de loep genomen. Daarbovenop komt nog een zeer interessant en onthullend hoofdstuk over de (smerige) interne keuken van de FIFA.

De schrijfstijl van David Goldblatt is vaak wat lastig te begrijpen, door de vele moeilijke woorden en ingewikkelde zinsconstructies. Maar dat maakt hij ruimschoots goed met de nodige humor. Bovendien is The Age Of Football inhoudelijk zo sterk dat je je als lezer nauwelijks stoort aan de schrijfstijl.

[Hans-Martin Ishida · Rating 4 out of 5]

I felt the book was belligerently pessimistic, except when speaking about a small select number of nations. Notably, the Big Five in Europe and the US. If you're going to do as much research to bemoan and point out the flaws of ultra groups and oligarchs in Nigeria or Thailand, you could still find time to talk more about the systemic flaws for Europe's biggest clubs and how their selfishness is the root of many of the problems you spend so much time writing about.

[Yossi Khebzou · Rating 4 out of 5]

Como parte de mis lecturas para la Copa del Mundo en Qatar 2022, leí este libro y no podía encajar más con la temática. Más de la sociología del poder en el juego que del juego en sí, Goldblatt contrapone los efectos de la globalización, el neoliberalismo y el autoritarismo en el fútbol con la llama de revolución que pueden encender los aficionados. En un mundial donde la pelota rueda sobre la sangre de los constructores inmigrantes de los estadios y la corrupción de los trajes en Zurich, Goldblatt nos recuerda qué hay que luchar para que el fútbol regrese a quienes le pertenece: sus aficionados y los jugadores.

[Nakshatr Okhade · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good

[Jack · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great research and reporting and writing. True triple threat. But you’ll probably hate sports when by the time you’re done. The subtitle should probably be: “Why Capitalism Ruins Everything You Love.”

[Paul Mcloughlin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Comprehensive, readable and often fascinating summary of the state of football around the world in this blasted century . To be honest, I would have preferred more analysis and less of the endless parade of names , dates and places . My attention drifted a few times and some pages were skipped . That aside , as a football fan it’s well worth your while , and much of it is fantastic.

[Brendan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was an interesting book that covers the state of soccer in every continent around the world. The author is prone to meandering a bit, and some of the anecdotes start to feel a little duplicative, but this is still a fascinating book that I would recommend to anyone wanting to learn more about how things work in the soccer world in 2020.

[Ian Plenderleith · Rating 2 out of 5]

(This double-review was first published by Soccer America)

Soccer Books of the Year, 2019, Part 1: Goldblatt vs Wilson
The Age of Football: The Global Game in the Twenty-first Century by David Goldblatt, (Macmillan)

The Names Heard Long Ago: How the Golden Age of Hungarian Football Shaped the Modern Game by Jonathan Wilson, (Blink)

Britain's most prolific and widely read soccer authors, David Goldblatt and Jonathon Wilson, have reached the stage where it has apparently become difficult to offer an objective assessment of their books. Reviews will point to their past works as evidence of quality, while summarizing the latest in the form of an extended jacket blurb. In the incestuous circles of soccer journalism, however, critics often seem too tentative to answer the most important questions: Is this book any good? And if so, is it good enough to make it worth reading?

Goldblatt's "The Age of Football" is not quite such an epic work as his shelf-straining history of soccer "The Ball is Round." Still, it's long enough, straddling the five continents to offer an overview of soccer's health. The overwhelming conclusion: the state of our game is not good. Corruption, poor administration, avarice and death blight these pages from cover to cover, with only the odd scrap of optimism thrown in to stop the reader closing the book and taking up embroidery instead.

In terms of its scope, "The Age of Football" is a roller-coaster ride around a theme park of greed and depravity, and is a comprehensive catalogue of the scandals and stadium disasters of the past 50 years. I can only recommend it as a work of reference, because unless you've been watching nothing but Real Madrid from the safety of a tint-glassed executive box for the past few decades, there is little new information in this book. There are no author-sourced interviews, and little research beyond the archives of readily available media and the internet. Reading it is like being hit over the head with a rhetorical hammer, and finishing the book is like walking out of the stadium after a 5-0 defeat -- your depression may only be tempered by relief that it's all over.

Goldblatt also has the machinated habit of backing up any point with a quote in the form of, "As [insert name] once said, [insert quote]." Over and again. Add to this the sporadic inaccuracies (there never was a team in Wales called Trans Network Solutions) and the endless, needling subjective asides ("Even Celtic, in a good year like 2016 ... were at best a strong Championship club." Really? How do you measure something like that?), and you wonder why Goldblatt's books are subject to eulogy. He writes in a cogent, attacking style, but maintaining that pace over several hundred pages is like sprinting a marathon. It's not long before exhaustion kicks in.

Nonetheless, if you want a book to goad you into a state of revolutionary anger (and there's nothing wrong with that), then "The Age of Football" could meet your needs. If you want to read a soccer book in a state of fascinated pleasure, then you might prefer Wilson's "The Names Heard Long Ago."

Where Wilson tops Goldblatt is in terms of readability and research. I believe that the two are connected. When Wilson scours the archives to unearth interviews or talks to anyone still connected with the Hungarian soccer scene of the early 20th century, it's the quotes and anecdotes that bring his material to life. That's no mean feat when you're covering teams and personalities that most of your readership might, at best, be only vaguely aware of.

So while reading about the players and coaches who gave Hungary such a key role in the formative years of soccer history, it's not important to retain any knowledge of how many titles Ujpest Dozsa won in the 1920s. What remains is the disparity of peripatetic Magyars who moved around Europe and the world, their chaotic lives and seesaw careers more often than not shaped by the political and economic situation both at home and abroad.

The middle section of the book, covering the period before, during and after the Second World War, is a profoundly affecting testament to the truth that sport may be important but, like all other aspects of mundane existence, it can be rapidly subsumed by the insanity of terror, violence and war. Players and their families you've come to love in the first section of the book disappear, last seen on trains destined for Nazi death camps.

The book lacks a linear narrative due to the nature of its material, and to contrive one would have been a dishonest reflection of the fragmented lives it depicts. Had it covered just one team, or even one person -- pioneering English coach Jimmy Hogan, say, or the utility player György Orth, labeled by Hogan as "the most versatile, greatest and most intelligent player I have ever seen" -- then the publisher would have had had an easier hook to sell it on. The strength of Wilson's approach is that it defies the demands of marketing for a simple selling-point. His books are so much the richer for it, and provide an engrossing read for all who are entranced not just by soccer's history, but also by the immersion of its characters into their social and political context. Massively recommended.

[Daniel Evensen · Rating 2 out of 5]

There is no doubt that Goldblatt did his research while composing this work. "The Age of Football" gives the reader a frenetic tour of the complete world of soccer, from the most impoverished and least organized pickup games of Nigeria to detailed accounts of the spectacle and grandeur of several World Cups.

Goldblatt's research itself is impeccable. Naturally, the average reader is unlikely to know enough about the assorted subjects presented to do any mental fact checking. I was pleased, however, that the stories he relayed that I am familiar with (in particular, the game in China and on the Korean Peninsula) seemed to be completely accurate. I imagine that Goldblatt had a strong team of researchers, and doubt that this astounding global feat will be repeated anytime soon.

This attention to specific events also just so happens to be this work's biggest drawback. The time frame here is easy to identify: anything that took place between 2000 and the tail end of 2019 is fair game. Everything is presented in a heavily journalistic style, with much emphasis on the who, what, where, and when, along with a bit of simplistic armchair psychology to hint at the why. The problem with this approach, of course, is that this book was essentially obsolete the day it was published. It is too historically close to the events it depicts to allow for any meaningful analysis, leaving the reader with what is essentially a laundry list of scandals and riots.

I waited in vain through the entire book for some sort of general theory or observation - or, better yet, some hint as to how things ought to be. There's nothing like this anywhere. In fact, some of Goldblatt's observations are flagrantly contradictory. For example, Goldblatt loudly complains on the one hand about the endemic problem of racism in soccer matches worldwide - a problem that appears to be more prominent in Europe than anywhere else. And yet, in the same breath, Goldblatt complains about the constant migration of talented players from poorer countries to the richer ones, noting the damage that this does to domestic leagues throughout the global south. Is he then in favor of a more robust global soccer marketplace, or is he in favor of chasing after the national soccer autarky dragon?

Frankly, I think that the intent here was to hold up as much dirty laundry as humanly possible. Goldblatt is correct: soccer is filled to the brim with corruption, and injustices abound. But is this really the story of 21st century soccer? Have there really been no improvements worth speaking of?

This book's conclusion is the most clear indication of what a mixed bag we are dealing with. The conclusion is essentially an appendix to the chapter on Russia, which directly precedes it. There is no summation of trends, no recommendation for the future, no weighing of the good and bad side of the global game. We're given a somewhat entertaining description of the 2018 World Cup, followed by a few very brief paragraphs reminding us of how much corruption there is in the game - and that's it.

Overall, I can't recommend this. You're better off sticking with weekly sport publications.

[tomahawk28 · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's well known that by all measures, the world cup is the world’s single largest global sport spectacle. But if you think this tournament presents humanity’s harmonized, peaceful character, you don’t see the other side of history.

That side of the story is what “The age of football” meticulously tells you about. This book guides you through the world of football in your mind and weaves each nation’s rich stories with its modern history which serves its center as football.

Starting a tour from Africa to middle-east nations to its most corrupt head, FIFA, most people will be surprised to see the global patterns are similar even though its geographic and economical difference.

First, It’s almost impossible to sustain the local football ecosystem from the poorer countries since globalization has swept around the world. All football talents have been migrating to the European Union for their career. Moreover, most people chose to watch a rather famous EPL league prior to their own national league. The force of globalization has proved so powerful that even nations with sizable economies also cannot escape from the same downward spiral, namely Sweden, Denmark.

Second, Many authoritarian regimes found football’s potential as national propaganda. They try to convince their people that their national fate is more or less their national football achievement. Evidently, these rhetorics have been igniting vicious fights between football fans. The western world is no exception. After following right-wing populists rising, many ultra groups in Europe found they resonated on its core message, which is mainly anti-immigration, racism, and fascism.

Last, when we can still claim football itself has no harm, no one can claim for organizations’ innocence. Many football organizations have turned a blind eye when they obviously see scandals like match fixing or violence, especially if it is connected to VIP. Their corrupted insight has not ceased on this level; they put their vote in auction for choosing the next world cup location, with pricey tags on these. Qatar, Russia would be the best example in times.

In these darkest hours, it’s so joyful to see that Women’s football leagues are spiraling around the world. They not only prove that their leagues are economically profitable, but their ultra cultures are also much less toxic compared to men.

The author, David Goldblatt, ponders on the last chapter, whether the world cup serves as Potemkin Village, which was built by Russian aristocrats to hide the ugly landscape behind the river. But the more I know, the more I think it would be perfect to quote the Russian novel, Anna Karerina, which starts like this; Every unhappy football culture is all alike; every happy football is happy in its own way.

[Clinton Hutchings · Rating 4 out of 5]

Overwhelming book. Need to know a lot about so many country's governments and past soccer experiences that it was really difficult to stay focused, follow along. However, one paragraph by itself raised this book from a three to four star. I've pasted it below - the best description of football/soccer I've come across. Captures it so well - been thinking about it most days since I finished the book. Here it is:

The game is simple, and instantly comprehensible with a tiny rule book and a mode of play so intuitive that every playground scuffle works out the necessity of off-side for itself. It is cheap and flexible; it can be played with any number of players, requires just a ball, a sphere of almost any kind, and works on grass, sand, mud and concrete. It is accommodating of many body shapes and sizes, but privileges none. It provides space for individual brilliance and brio but it is above all a collective effort that is only as good as its weakest links. It's a game of flow rather than sequence, truly three-dimensional in its movements, visually compelling and emotionally relentless, tumultuously punctuated by the orgasmic quality of its rare and precious goals. It remains the case that, by comparison with other sports, the odds on football's favorites are always longer, because the game is so much more unpredictable. Most matches turn on the small number of chances, and an even smaller number of goals. Football's entropy giving underdogs a better chance. It is a game that thrives upon chaos and uncertainty. The demands on individuals and collectives that they constantly adapt to an ever-changing medior, yet retains the notion that anything is possible. Sudden changes of heart and fortune, last minute reversals and rescues are its true emotional and narrative currency.

[Kevin McAllion · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fascinating, albeit depressing, examination of where football finds itself in the 21st century. David Golblatt kicks off his book by comparing and contrasting two World Cup Finals between Germany and Argentina, staged almost three decades apart.
As the Argentines celebrate victory in 1986, fans swarm around the heroic Diego Maradona, lifting him into the air while he holds the trophy aloft. When the Germans get their revenge in 2014 those supporters are kept at a distance, recording everything on their mobile phones while the presentation is staged for maximum exposure of the tournaments's sponsors.
The rampant commercialisation of football is just one of the worrying threads examined in further depth as every corner of the football glove is is covered.
What stands out most is the institutionalised corruption, from shifty officials pocketing cash ear-marked for the grassroots game in smaller nations to the breathtaking greed of former FIFA chief Sepp Blatter.
This is a man whose arrogance extended to spending £30m of FIFA's money on a self-serving biopic and Goldblatt does a wonderful job lampooining him while outlining his incredible mismanagement.
The book also details how shady stadium deals leave vast empty arenas across large swathes of the football world, the attendances hampered further by the monster that is the English Premier League.
Thanks to broadcasting deals across the world, fans sit in front of the TV watching England's big beasts and El Clasico instead of supporting their local teams, devastating domestic football. It's a trend that sadly shows no signing of changing and although there are a few reasons for optimism, the picture Goldblatt paints is pretty bleak.
Essential reading for anyone who wants to understand the insidious mechanics of modern football

[Jarrod Showalter · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a book about globalism and capitalism first and a book about soccer second. A region-by-region look at the state of modern soccer and politics. With anything this sweeping, a precise thesis and mastery of every area are near impossible. A few areas read more like syntheses of news reports, but in general Goldblatt is effective at relaying the relationships between power, money, and the masses, all moderated by soccer. The writing is at times very dense, but it is well-organized and usually lean.

Goldblatt is clearly writing from a left-wing perspective, and is not shy about his beliefs, but this is not a weakness of the book. Any history of politics will have a political bent. The book is well-researched and the perspective Goldblatt takes flow naturally with his critique of global capital. Deft political writing is missing from most sports/soccer writing I read, and this was a welcome change.

A few things that will stick with me from the book, even as its events become less recent:
- A deep, informed, and passionate vision of what soccer can and should be. This often comes out in opposition to the nefarious changes brought by globalism and corruption, but it's in every part of the book. At times the author waxes near-poetically about the power of the crowd and the game. As someone not raised in a soccer culture, I appreciated the vigor of this leftist Englishman's beliefs for soccer. No I will not call it football.
-A clear-eyed identification of the obstacles of this vision. Namely, global capital, nationalism and racism, sexism, and corruption. At times it is repetitive to read, but the villains are not half-drawn.

This is a pessimistic read, but a necessary one for any fan of the global game.

[Jamie Thompson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Football is "the beautiful game", and through its history has been described in glowing terms as a vehicle for peace, community and kinship. Indeed, as perhaps the second biggest and most popular global organising framework for communities (behind only religion, and arguably transcending all other sports combined), it has immense social, political, cultural and economic value and potency. This multi-faceted and, in the 21st century, immense capital, though, has been commandeered by a series of forces of capitalism - sovereign wealth funds, nationalistic governments, corrupt officials, the gambling industry - and when understood through this lens, we begin to question how the game has been stolen, and quite how strongly its beauty is allowed to shine through.

I treat this book as more of an encyclopaedia, or reference text, than a traditional non-fiction book, as Goldblatt meticulously tours each region of the world and carefully selects anecdotes to illustrate the state of the game in the modern era. At length, he outlines some sporting tragedies that tend not to capture public imagination - the plight of African refugee footballers in East Asian footballing outposts, for example - as well as carefully tying political trends to footballing ones (state ownership of footballing facilities in Italy being an example I enjoyed). He reserves his ninth circle of ire for FIFA in a scathing take-down of their position as self-appointed custodians and growers of the global game.

This is an outstandingly researched book which I revisit frequently.

[Jeff · Rating 3 out of 5]

I badly wanted to like this book more than I ended up doing. It is truly impressive as a work of research and reporting, and Mr. Goldblatt is a wordsmith of the first order...but it is so, so relentlessly bitter and pessimistic.

I understand that The Age of Football is less a book about soccer (sue me, I'm American) than a book about soccer's place in the spheres of global politics, economics, human rights, etc., and particularly the abuses committed in those spheres by and through soccer. But no one is going to read a book on those topics centered around the game without being a fan of the game to begin with. And as there might have been five total pages out of 465 in this book that actually conveyed an unironic love of the sport, the overwhelming conclusion I was left with was, 'Why the hell should I keep paying attention to soccer if it's this universally corrupt?' It actually made me question my love of the game, which, respectfully, is not what I wanted from this book.

Side note: despite all of the above, I can enthusiastically recommend Mr. Goldblatt's earlier book on the subject, The Ball Is Round. It is equally encyclopedic and unflinching as to the realities of the sport and the world, but manages to be so without losing sight of why the world loves soccer in the first place. Well worth the read if you feel so inclined.

[Tom · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very interesting and thought provoking work, covering football to the present day, the book focuses on football across the World, slitting it up into regional chapters. Lots of detail and work gone into the book, full of socio-econimic and the politics of the regions and individual countries.

Sadly football is beset by corruption at all levels and the same problems exist Worldwide with misappropriation of funds, vote rigging, match fixing as well as the racist issues which unfortunately are becoming more frequent.

Sadly it shows the game and sport in its worst light but hopefully it can clean itself up in the future starting with FIFA and work its way downwards.

A very engaging read and one I would recommend to all fans of sports, not just football.

The audiobook was very well narrated by the author and a top quality production, usually in my experience books narrated by authors are not as good as ones narrated by professional narrators and voice actors, but this clearly was a labour of love and having heard a sample of The Ball Is Round by David Goldblatt, I much prefer David’s narration of this to the other narrator. It was very clear and the author's pronounciation of international clubs, players names were very good (unlike some narrators pronounciations).

I reviewed this on audiobook provided by NetGalley and kindle purchased by myself.

[Larkin Tackett · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an encyclopedia of global football that leaves no stone unturned, especially new stories for me about club ownership by oligarchs around the world, the depth of FIFA's corruption, connections to national politics, and the racism baked into too many ultras supporter groups. Like the game, I left with mixed feelings -- a deeper appreciation for how to game works in so many countries and of the pain the manifests through the sport. Goldblatt makes a compelling case through exhaustive detail that football is complex part of modern life, reflecting our deepest social, political, and economic realities. Among my favorites quotes is:

"Thus, almost universally in football cultures, there is a sense that games should not be fixed; that victory should follow virtue, not wealth or power; that glory bought is glory turned to ashes; that the game is not about me or you, but about us; that success and failure are collectively made and shared; that we are only as good as our weakest link, our must vulnerable team mates and citizens. Despite its commercialization, despite its capture by the global culture industries, despite every move to make over and manicure its staging, despite every effort to make the game pay homage to power on this earth, it remains a place in which, albeit dimly, a different world can still be imagined."

[Sofia · Rating 4 out of 5]

A deep dive into the deeply rooted scandals and corruption that plague every federation under FIFA’s watch, Goldblatt explores the politics of soccer and the many shady figures who came into power of their respective regions and their demise. Goldblatt goes into depth, revealing bribes and betrayals that were unbeknownst to me. The book also goes into a deeper understanding of the supporter culture and how many (mainly those that go by ultras or barres bravas) have strayed far from the game and used their “groups” to deepen the divides between the people of their countries. Admittedly, it was frighting yet unsurprising how so many are rooted in racism and neo Nazi ideology.

However, my only critique of the book is that it greatly overlooks women’s soccer. Granted that many of the federations funneled their funds for their own personal gains, there was hardly any mention of the growth and continuing struggles of the women’s game. Goldblatt does do a good job in examining the USWNT given that they are largely more successful than the men, but there is still so much scandal to be discussed!! I would highly recommend the NWSL’s Yates Report for anyone who would like to know just how much work needs to be done to improve the conditions on the women’s side.