When Rupert Murdoch told Havelange, the President of FIFA for
nearly a quarter of a century, that he would like to meet him but
could only spare him 15 minutes, Havelange replied that he was in
Los Angeles to watch a football match but Murdoch could come and
see him in his office in Zurich. That was the last he heard from Mr
Murdoch. As Havelange explained, 'I am important, but FIFA is
important also and people should respect FIFA. I, as President,
made Mr Murdoch respect FIFA in a certain way.' This is one of the
many fascinating insights into the power, personalities and money
which permeates every level of football's governing body. Sugden
and Tomlinson in their exhaustive study, have produced one of the
most comprehensive and important books to be published on the
politics of football. (Kirkus UK)
In "FIFA and the Contest for World Football" Sugden and Tomlinson
provide the first full-length study of FIFA (the Federation
Internationale de Football Association) and its role in framing and
controlling world football. Interviewing more than seventy
influential leaders world-wide and drawing on exclusive documentary
sources, the authors demonstrate FIFA's importance in
twentieth-century sport, and in an increasingly global consumer
culture.
The first part of the book covers the origins and organizational
characteristics of FIFA, and of the European and South American
federations. The second part considers how new and powerful players
have emerged in FIFA in the wake of the collapse of empires. The
book includes analyses of football's contributions to the growth of
nationalism and anti-imperialism; the use of football by ruthless
and sometimes corrupt officials and political despots; and its
expansion under the influence of increasingly prominent commercial
paymasters. Football's role in Africa, Asia and the USA is also
illuminated, and FIFA's global mission and rhetoric
evaluated.
The book is a valuable addition to the politics and social
history of sport, and to the sociology of the global system and the
changing world order. It will be of interest to students and
researchers in the areas of sport studies, cultural studies and the
sociology of popular culture, and to everyone concerned with the
social organization of one of the world's most popular sports.
General
Is the information for this product incomplete, wrong or inappropriate?
Let us know about it.
Does this product have an incorrect or missing image?
Send us a new image.
Is this product missing categories?
Add more categories.
Review This Product
No reviews yet - be the first to create one!