I usually chuckle when I hear people say, whether verbally or on social media, that “sports and politics don’t mix.” That is flat-out wrong and this book by Luciano Wernicke proves that for just one sport – soccer.
Starting with Benito Mussolini. Wernicke discusses how many of the world’s most vicious tyrants used soccer to either promote their form of ruling, to make threats to players and coaches if they did not honor the country or even order some killed simply due to the results of a soccer match

Most of the matches that are used for reference are from the World Cup tournament or the Olympics, but there are some other means of using the sport for political power as well. The Spanish dictator Francisco Franco used soccer to “depoliticize” the people of the country and therefore distract them from the terrible conditions. Mussolini did not want Italy to enter the first World Cup tourney in 1930 because he did not want to risk having the team do poorly. But then he lobbied for and hosted the next one in 1934. That was to show off how well his country was doing while hiding the brutal reality, much like Adolf Hitler did for the 1936 Olympics (which are also covered in the book).

Other world leaders portrayed that used soccer as part of their iron-clad ruling included Josef Stalin, Juan Peron (through his wife Eva) and Pablo Escobar, the notorious Columbian drug lord. The writing in all chapters on these people can be dense and hard to follow at times, especially the chapter on Escobar. Nonetheless, it is a very good look at not only soccer, but also the time period in the 20th century when these dictators ruled both their countries and the game of football.

I wish to thank Sutherland House books for providing a copy of the book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. The views expressed are strictly mine.

📕Welcome to the first morning of my holy month: World Cup opening day! I thought what’s better than starting day with review of a book that talks about how world “leaders” used football for their darkest goals. Apparently all dictators loved to use football’s connecting power to manipulate masses
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📗FFS please leave the sports alone. Whether it’s football or American football or basketball or whatever they love to follow, it’s their way to recharge, to forget how much life sucks for a second, to feel part of something bigger without being discriminated for one thing or the other
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📘I knew about Hitler and Mussolini’s attempts, but I didn’t know that every country tried this. You can see how low these people go, how hard they try to get what they want. I’m beyond annoyed that football was an accessory to their cruelty.

An interesting look into how some of history's worst leaders have coopted soccer as a way of appealing to their people despite the crimes they are committing. I was expecting this to be more an analysis but it was more vignettes - like a whole chapter on Mussolini, then one on Hitler, etc. It was interesting even though it was not what I expected.

Super interesting premise, but got lost in some of the meandering storytelling. Some chapters or stories were more interesting than others and a few were almost unbearably all over the place. I enjoyed it but not as much as I had hoped.

What an interesting look at history! I always enjoy a good microhistory book and this one did not disappoint. It could be a bit dense at times, but that was offset by how interesting the info was. Terrible regimes utilizing sports to broadcast a more palatable image is definitely on trend right now.

I thought the book was informative but I kind of wish it were longer? I feel like there was more material to dive into.

The writing of this is really dense at times and it's very difficult to get into but once you do it's a really good time. Will almost certainly buy a copy.