Política

Publicizing this blog among folks I know almost always imbues a certain response: "Football and politics? How are they related?" The bigger question is, of course, the relationship between sports and politics. The sophomoric socialist in me is quite tempted to respond with platitudes: The personal is political!

I'm hoping the posts in this blog will prove our point, that sports aren’t just mindless entertainment. There’s so much more. There’s politics, economics, unity and racism; elements and contradictions of society apparent on a playing field.

On a related note, The Guardian has a great summarizing article about the politics of football and how, historically, they have tended to gravitate left-wing. It's extremely difficult to argue that point now, especially considering the billion dollar business of English football, but Barney raises some good points:

British football is ahead of the rest of the world here. Lyons [editor of When Saturday Comes, the UK's only independent national football magazine] believes that in other countries players are not only more openly political, but possibly also have a greater bond with their supporters. "You find in countries where the working classes tend to be more political, such as Argentina, where there is still a strong trade union movement, there tends to be more of a sense of communal identity," he says. "Society is perhaps based around older social patterns that no longer exist here, such as heavy industry. In among these, football is one of the forces that bind people together."

Check out the rest of the article. While I appreciate the sentiment, I'm really glad politics in football isn't limited to Thierry Henry sporting a Che Guevara shirt.