ABSTRACT
The books of Youcef Fates about Algeria and Moncef Lyazaghi about Morocco are timely considering the important (cultural, economic and political) transitions that the region is undergoing. The book offers a critique of French authors such as Jean Meynaud and Jean Marie Brohm who tend, according to Fates, to describe 'why sport is political'. Fates' book covers also the impact of political transition in Algeria in post-1988 and during the political violence in the 1990s on sport practice to make sense of the growing violence (verbal and 'physical-material') in football in Algeria. Fates' book covers a plethora of sport sociological debates with applications into the Algerian context that is valuable to sport academics and policy makers. Although Lyazghi'sbook does not engage much with theory, his rich historical narrative provides a fascinating insight into Moroccan's political and sporting systems that can be appreciated by a larger audience.
