Kicking Off Around The World - 55 Stories From When Football Met Politics

'A tour-de-force that touches on how football is always mixed up with politics in every corner of the globe' Mehreen Khan, The Times and co-host of the 'Heroes & Humans' podcast

'Brings us closer to the overlooked aspects of football, the social and political ones, which truly imbue clubs with soul' Carles Viñas, author of St. Pauli: Another Football is Possible

Think you know everything about football?

Which football match triggered a war? How did 'the beautiful game' push back against the tyranny of dictatorship, and usher another into power? Kicking Off Around the World includes 55 incredible stories in which football clubs have been a mirror to-and a maker of-world history and politics.

Full of anecdotes, surprising facts and illustrations, Ramon Usall mixes the grassroots with the greatest of all time; the unknown and the unforgettable. He looks at the women's game, football during the war in Ukraine, and stories of clubs from Britain to the US, Europe, Latin America, the Middle East and Africa, from football under the Nazis to the communists and everyone in between. 

Introduction

1. Britain and Ireland: Manchester City F.C., Tottenham Hotspur F.C., Liverpool F.C., Forest Green Rovers, British Ladies' Football Club, Celtic F.C., Star of the Sea Youth Club

2. France and Italy: Red Star F.C., S.C. de Bastia, Juventus F.C., Torino F.C., A.S. Roma, Inter Milan

3. Iberian Peninsular: Associação Académica de Coimbra, Atlético Madrid, Madrid F.C. (Real Madrid), Rayo Vallecano, F.C. Barcelona, C.E. Júpiter, Spanish Girl's Club

4. Central Europe and Scandinavia: Berliner F.C. Dynamo, F.C. Union Berlin, S.C. Tasmania von 1900 Berlin e.V., St. Pauli, Polonia Warszawa, Ajax Amsterdam, Hakoah Vienna, Christiania S.C.

5. The Balkans: G.N.K Dinamo Zagreb, H.N.K Hajduk Split, F.K. Sloboda Tuzla, F.K Vele Mostar, Olympiacos Piraeus

6. Eastern Europe and the Caucasus: F.C. Olt Scorniceti, F.C. Dynamo Kyiv, F.C. Shakhtar Donetsk, F.C. Karpaty Lviv, F.C. Stroitel Pripyat, Klub Oktyabrskoi Revolutsii (Lokomotiv Moscow), F.C. Akhmat Grozny, Qarabä F.K.

7. The Middle East and Central Asia: Erbil Sports Club, Al-Wehdat Sports Club, Shaheen Asmayee F.C.

8. Africa: Racing Universitaire D'Alger, Club Atlético de Tetuán, JS Massira, Hafia F.C., The Passive Resisters Soccer Club

9. The Americas: New York Ramblers, Sport Club Corinthians Paulista, C.D. Cobresal, Colo-Colo, Mushuc Runa S.C., C.D. Euzkadi

Bibliography