Football, fans, players, clubs and their opposition to fascist dictators around the world.
The History of Football Against Fascism with Chris Lee
I know there are people who might have stumbled across this and are of the view football and politics don’t mix. I don’t particularly dismiss that thought but as I write this I’ve just watched Donald Trump having to be just about surgically removed from Chelsea’s trophy podium as they lift the Club World Cup in the USA, a competition largely bankrolled by the Saudi Public Investment Fund, who I don’t need to tell you have an interest in Newcastle United.
I’m just doing a final edit before publication the day after Farage has posed on the pitch at Portman Rd with an Ipswich shirt. Trump has been provided with the FIFA Peace Prize by Infantino to prove irony is dead.
The aspiration to keep politics out of football is sad to say wishful thinking and never has it been more obvious in Chris Lee’s book, The Defiant, detailing football’s traverses with some of the most evil people and political movements the world has ever known.
The History of Football Against Fascism with Chris Lee
Lee breaks the book into various sections and not surprisingly tackles it on a geographical basis looking at Italy, Iberia, Central and Western Europe, Eastern Europe and the Balkans, Latin American and Britain.
I do recommend the book though it will appeal to a certain reader who is interested in history per se and has a bit of knowledge of what has gone on with such horrific characters as Hitler, Mussolini, Franco, Pinochet et al.
The book details the heroism, barbarity and in some cases enduring legacies of fascism in those places. I like Chris Lee as a writer, he’s readable and I think he knows his audience … probably like the people drawn to this here doings and have an interest in the game beyond SKY SPORTS endless, breathless sensationalism.
Recommended.
Michael Martin, @TFMick1892
If you want to buy the book click on the image above to purchase it direct from the publishers.
You might enjoy this podcast discussing the book