“An astonishing void: official history ignores football. Contemporary history texts fail to mention it, even in passing, in countries where it has been and continues to be a primordial symbol of collective identity.”
Eduardo Galeano

foto S.R. Gaiger

The self-regulating crowd, 1930

Suddenly it’s right there in front of you: the book you wish you had written yourself. 992 pages of football history. Hardcover, fine dust jacket. Still there is a moment of hesitation to start reading: I really don’t have time for this, but the cover keeps inviting me to take the massive book into my hands. And by now I am no longer able to stop reading. Although I am not even halfway through yet, I thought I should nevertheless already dedicate a book review to The Ball is Round. This is truly a great book!

David Goldblatt, a jack-of-all-trades, has written books before, about social theories among other things, and has performed as a stand-up comedian. These days he supports the Spurs and also the two clubs from his hometown, Bristol Rovers and Bristol City. On the cover of the dust jacket a friendly-looking, somewhat countercultural person in his forties with large glasses and rasta-style hair looks at you. He has accomplished something extraordinary. As far as I know The Ball is Round is the first book that contains such a comprehensive history of football. On top of that, it is also very well written.

Goldblatt starts his history in China, during the Han dynasty where a game called “cuju” was played. In Mexico a game the Mayas played with a ball even goes back much further. It is mentioned as far back as in their holy book Popol Vuh. In Homer’s Odyssey the Phoenicians played a ball game, but there were no ball games scheduled at the ancient Olympics. Goldblatt’s conclusion at the end of the first chapter is: “Kicking is as old as humanity. The Ancients knew the ball, but football is born of modernity.”

foto from FIFA

Duitse team, Olympische Spelen Stockholm 1912

Football as we know it appears halfway through the nineteenth century in the English boarding school environment, about which David Winner wrote Zwaar Leer , which is well-worth reading. Football quickly spreads across the globe and becomes very popular, also with ordinary people. Goldblatt discusses the appearance of modern football on all continents and is able to turn almost anything into a good story. Sometimes the subject matter is familiar – there appears to be a canon in football history: Brasil-Uruguay at the 1950 world championship, West Ham-Hakoah, Dynamo Kiev’s tour through England, England-Hungary 3-6 are also reviewed by Goldblatt - , more often it is not, but never before has all this been compiled in one book, and somehow it has even become a coherent story with wonderful anecdotes and details. One thread is the relationship between the so-called Home Countries of football (Great Britain) and the rest of the world. But Goldblatt weaves many more threads.

He places the history of football expressly within general history. It isn’t for no reason that he opens his book with the above-mentioned quote from Galeano. Football is and has been so prominently present in daily life that it is not possible for historians to ignore it. Developments in the area of football are placed within the social, economic and political developments. By now I have reached chapter 9: Games of Life, Games of Death: European Football in War and Peace, 1934-1954, in which Goldblatt shows that not only have wars influenced football, but the other way round has also been the case. For example, an international between England and Germany in 1938 on White Hart Lane opened English politicians’ eyes to the feelings of the people. For that matter, in the Netherlands, football was hugely popular during the Second World War, there were large numbers of spectators, while in Norway the football competition was boycotted because it was organized by the fascist party.

I am already looking forward to chapter 14: If this is Football, Let it Die, The European Crisis, 1974-1990. I am curious as to how Goldblatt views this crisis. In any case he considers Dutch total football, as I have seen while taking a peek ahead.

(soon to follow is the review of the second part)


David Goldblatt
(uitg. Penguin)
de gebonden uitgave met de mooie cover is helaas niet meer leverbaar
paperback versie uit voorraad leverbaar
verschenen oktober 2007
(oorspronkelijke uitgave september 2006)
isbn: 9780141015828
prijs: € 20,95
992 Pagina's
Engelstalig

(voor het eerste gedeelte)