Description
Book SynopsisSoccer is the most popular mass spectator sport in the world, gaining huge media coverage and reaching all levels of society in countries all around the world. More than just entertainment, soccer has proved to be a reflection of national, cultural, community and ethnic identity as well as an indication of the development and international status of post-colonial nation states. For those nations still at the fringes of the modern global game, soccer represents a vision of potential commercialisation, capable of generating foreign reserves and bringing in considerable economic power.
This book explores aspects of the development of soccer in countries which have recently been marginalised in world soccer or have only erratic success on the international stage. These fringe nations include a greater part of Africa, the USA, Australia, Israel, India, Nepal, Bhutan, Burma, Indonesia, Thailand, Maldives and Sri Lanka, and while these countries are rarely noticed by the global foot
Table of Contents
1. Africans' Status in the European Players' Market 2. Split Loyalty: Football-cum-Nationaity in Israel 3. High on the Himalayas: Football in Nepal, Bhutan and Burma 4. Soccer Tradition in the Land of Emerald Buddha 5. Soccer Aspirations of the Indian Ocean Islands: New Light on Coastal Football of Indonesia, Maldives and Sri Lanka 6. National Sports and Other Myths: The Failure of US Soccer 7. 'Our Wicked Foreign Game': Why Has Soccer Not Become the Main Code of Football in Australia? 8. Muslim Spectatorship and Soccer Violence in Indian Football 9. Football in Liberia 10. Soccer in Columbia
