Football: One Game - Many Worlds - Hardcover

Football exerts an irresistible pull throughout the world. It represents a stage for world-views, religions and values held by all sorts of cultures. From Brazil to Japan, from Cameroon to the Ukraine, from Mexico and even the US to Europe: throughout the world, this sport is interpreted and celebrated in different ways. Which players become heroes? How do fans from these entire different cultures act during a game? What is the importance of football to politics and what is the politics of football? Why do eleven team members become eleven advertising vehicles for sponsoring companies? Why do stadiums end up as multifunctional arenas? What cults and rituals are entwined with this sport in all the different countries? "Football: One Game - Many Worlds" looks at football from an anthropological view, discussing customs and rituals from around the world, such as Japanese football mangas and the Neapolitan cult of Maradona, Latin American 'fetishes' to invoke 'the gods of football' and West African coffins shaped like football shoes. Included are artefacts and photographs from the four corners of the world revealing exotic and unknown aspects of football as well as its familiar sides in a new and often astonishing light. The many photographs bring alive the cultural diversity of football as celebrated around the world, and commentary is provided by internationally renowned experts such as sportswriters, journalists and ethnologists.