ABSTRACT
The organization in control of world football is Federation Internationale de Football Association (FIFA). The FIFA story is more than a tale of successful sporting development, however. The growth from 7 member countries in 1904 to 200 at the end of the twentieth century illustrates the game’s growing global appeal, and its significance as a barometer of international relations. This chapter locates FIFA’s story within debates concerning the contribution of football to the politics and culture of the postcolonial world. Postcolonial theory has generated, and in part revived and revitalized, some important concepts that can be borne in mind while working up appropriate case-studies. Prominent among these are alterity and hybridity. Etymologically, alterity derives from the Latin, and refers to difference, diversity and otherness. The missions of more formally politically constituted internationalist organizations, such as the League of Nations between the two world wars, and the United Nations since, have been undone by the pervasive persistence of forms of nationalism.
