Soccer Suspicions

Seventh-grader Gabriella Carter, goalie for Stratford Park Middle School, was given the treasured medal of professional soccer star Shaune Covington to hold for a week, but now it has disappeared from her backpack; clearly somebody took it, and it is up to Gabriella and her friends to gather clues, check alibis, and figure out who took the precious medal--and why.

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.

Gifts have been given and received in all eras and societies; gifts are part of a universal human exchange. The importance of creating and sustaining social bonds with the help of gifts is widely acknowledged by social scientists, not only from anthropological but also from economic, sociological, and political science perspectives. Contemporary anti-corruption campaigns, however, have led gifts to be viewed with ever-increasing suspicion, because it is feared that the social bonds created by gift giving may contaminate professional decision-making. Suspicious Gifts investigates the sensitive issue of gift exchanges and how they become an object of contention. Malin akerstro;m considers the moral dilemmas presented by bribes and gift giving as experienced by Swedish aid workers and professionals working in the public sector, business, and adoption agencies. She also deals with professionals' interaction with foreign officials or contractors. Often a gift is just that, although sometimes the gift giving may be seen by others as a bribe. akerstro;m highlights the tensions between strict regulations designed to prevent corruption with the human affection for the institution of gift giving. She argues that bribes and gifts are important social phenomena because they are windows into classic sociological and anthropological research issues concerning interaction, social control, exchange, and rituals. This unique analysis will be of keen interest to all sociologists, public officials, and professionals.

This brightly written, highly pictorial volume tells the story of 'The beautiful Game' in South Africa since the early days, illuminating the drama, the struggle against poverty and political odds, the victories and the heartaches of a fraternity of players, of all colours, in its journey to the hallowed arenas of the World Cup. Packed with action pictures of the games major personalities and events, including some rare archive shots -- plus a behind the scenes look at the movers and the shakers who run the game -- this is a unique look at the world's most popular game, in South Africa.