ABSTRACT
The Prologue to this collection of essays ended rather tongue-in-cheek with the suggestion that being against global capitalism and pro-football were two impossible positions to maintain. If there were any doubts about such a statement before reading the essay in this issue, there can be none afterwards. From the rather prosaic roots of football in the era of British empire (Mangan), when managers did not have to be ex-players, to the ‘desire’ of the USA to succeed in a sport that never really has been theirs (Klein, Martinez), in football we have a clear example of a global form of mass entertainment.
