Lynn reviewed How Football Explains the World by Franklin Foer
Review of 'How Football Explains the World' on 'Goodreads'
3 stars
The first few chapters of this were kind of disjointed and I wasn’t sure what his point was. (Although the chapter on Celtic and Rangers had the following observation: “The Protestant reformation sank its talons into Scotland with greater ferocity than anywhere else in Europe”, which is quite possibly true.) As I progressed, I kind of got the hang of it. He didn’t really have an overarching thesis, just observations on the different countries where football is played and the various quirks - national and/or corporate - that characterise each club examined. The chapter on the history and character of Barcelona and its fans, and the final chapter (on the. way the sport has been received - or reviled - in the US) were particularly interesting.