Soccer Club Geopolitics

Why did Franco's Spain refuse to play against the USSR? Which matches have gone beyond the sporting stakes to become a geopolitical war? Which confrontations are impossible between certain countries, like the one between Russia and Ukraine? Or conversely, how can soccer be a tool for emancipation? In a pleasant and clear style, the author tells us 22 unusual stories to understand the world. In a few years, many people will say that they started to be interested in geopolitics through Kévin Veyssière's soccer stories, after having realized that geopolitics is not boring and uninteresting, nor is it reserved for seasoned diplomats and staff officers. Kévin Veyssière, 30, is an expert and professor in geopolitics and sports. He was a parliamentary collaborator at the National Assembly in France between 2017 and 2022. He is the author of Mondial, Soccer Club Géopolitics. 22 Unusual Stories about the Football World Cup (Max Milo, October 2022). The author is the creator of the website FC Géopolitics, which has popularized the geopolitics of soccer. His Twitter account has more than 50,000 followers. 150,000 people a day read his articles.

Preface by Pascal Boniface. Why did the Euro soccer tournament follow in the footsteps of European integration? What confrontations are impossible between certain countries, such as those between Russia and Ukraine, or Armenia and Azerbaijan? Which matches have gone beyond sporting stakes to become geopolitical “wars”? Or, conversely, how can soccer be a tool of emancipation for peoples? Or even play a part in the political strategies of countries such as Saudi Arabia and Qatar as they seek to improve their image in the eyes of the world? In a pleasant and precise style, the author tells us 22 stories in which the round ball found itself at the heart of international relations. He shows us that geopolitics is neither boring nor reserved for seasoned diplomats, and that soccer can go beyond the pitch.

Like the Olympic Games, soccer is much more than a sport-it allows each country to confront each other on another field than that of war, which has marked the history of nations for centuries.

This is the first book to define and explore the geopolitical economy of sport – the intersection of power, politics, money, and state interests that both exploit and shape elite sport around the world. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the global response, and the consequent ramifications for sport have put the geopolitical economy of sport front and centre in both public debate and academic thinking. Similarly, the Winter Olympics in Beijing and the FIFA World Cup in Qatar illustrate the political, economic, and geographic imperatives that shape modern sport. This book brings together studies from around the world to describe this new geopolitical economy of sport, from the way in which countries use natural resource revenues, accusations of sport washing, and the deployment of sport for soft power purposes, to the way in which sport has become a focus for industrial development. This book looks at the geopolitical economy of sport across the globe, from the Gulf States’ interests in European soccer to Israel seeking to build a national competitive advantage by positioning itself as a global sports tech start-up hub, and the United States continuing to extend its economic and cultural influence through geopolitical sport activities in Africa, Latin America, and the Indian subcontinent. This book captures a pivotal moment in the history of sport and sport business. This is essential reading for any student, researcher, practitioner, or policymaker with an interest in sport business, the politics of sport, geopolitics, soft power, diplomacy, international relations, or international political economy.

As the world’s most popular game, soccer is unique in its ability to reflect and impact culture, society, and politics. Beyond Soccer: International Relations and Politics as Seen through the Beautiful Game provides students with a new and innovative way to learn about political science and international relations. It uses soccer players, officials, fans, and organizations to teach political science concepts—such as geopolitics, discourses, and sovereignty—and IR theories—including realism, liberalism, and feminism. This text also incorporates three common soccer discourses to highlight the possibilities of soccer as a tool for unity and social change, as a defender of established power, and as simultaneously a mechanism used by established power and an engine for social resistance. With exercises, discussion questions, and keywords included in each chapter, Beyond Soccer is a worthwhile and accessible educational tool. Primarily written for undergraduate students of all levels, this book will be valuable in political science, international relations, cultural studies, and sociology courses.

Football in Central-Eastern and Eastern Europe has long functioned as a carrier of the three “non-normal” socio-political drivers that were effective below the surface of modernity, including the official self-image of European political systems, since the second half of the 20th century: Tribal Politics, Imaginal Politics, and Contextual Politics. All three are trends that are currently surfacing prominently on an international and global level. Long before the return of the now proverbial “Political Tribes” by the means of populisms and neo-authoritarianisms in societies around the world, football in Central-Eastern and Eastern Europe worked as a subconscious vehicle of group instincts and political moods that represented, mirrored, informed and influenced political behavior and governmental decisions both in the post-WWII communist and then, after 1989, the neo-capitalist societies located east of the former iron curtain. Football has always been used by both governments and their opponents, including the dissident civil society, to further coherence and to symbolically represent specific readings of power relations, system ideologies and history. Football in Central and Eastern Europe was always able to attract and include large parts of the population, inducing them to symbolically express protest against the government or to sustain the “politics from above”. Through football politics, aspects of the area’s specific political mechanisms are introduced and explained.

The 2010 World Cup will be the first ever held on the continent of Africa. This book features introductory essays on the cultural importance of soccer, the World cup, this tournament in particular, and on African soccer. The book contains an introductory essay, table, analysis of team players, coach, history, flag, foods, and uniforms for each of the 32 teams.

The Middle East and North Africa are experiencing the most fundamental transition in their post-colonial history. It is a transition that is changing the borders of nation states as well as their political and social structures. Conflicting visions of what those structures should look like have ensured that transition will take years, and these deep-seated differences have ensured that the transition process is volatile, brutal and bloody. The balance of power shifts like quicksand. Shifting Sands: Essays on Sports and Politics in the Middle East and North Africa is a compilation of essays that constitute a first stab at exploring the importance of sports in general and soccer in particular in the political, social and cultural development of the Middle East and North Africa since the beginning of the 20th century. In doing so, the book provides a new, fresh and unique perspective that contributes to understanding the turbulence sweeping the region that is fundamentally changing its geopolitics and political and social structures. Contents: IntroductionStreet, Shrine, Square and Soccer Pitch, Comparative Protest Spaces in Asia and the Middle EastReflections on the Revolutions in the Arab World — A Response to Ali A AlawiFacing One's Demons: The Egyptian Military and the Brotherhood at a CrossroadsThe War on the Islamic State: A Purely Military Response to Societal ProblemsHitting Militants Where It Hurts, Development Is the Way to Fight Global TerrorismIsraeli-Palestinian Peacemaking: A Paradigm ShiftA Region in Turmoil: Threats to Gulf Energy and ShippingTurkey: Caught between A Rock and a Hard PlaceWahhabism versus Wahhabism: Qatar Challenges Saudi ArabiaA Decade of Defiance and Dissent, A Wake-up Call for SportsSoccer versus AutocracyThe 2022 World Cup: A Potential Monkey Wrench for ChangeHow Qatar Is Its Own Worst EnemyAsian Football: A Cesspool of Government Interference, Struggles for Power, Corruption and GreedFootball: A Sporting Barometer of European Integration Policies Readership: Scholars as well as related media covering the regions of Middle East and North Africa, social movement, sports, and political and religiously motivated violence. Keywords: Middle East;North Africa;Political Violence;Sports;Governance;Egypt;Qatar;IslamReview:0