I remember seeing at a football match – it was probably a West Ham game; if so it was very apt – a huge banner unfurled in one of the stands, reading: ‘FOOTBALL: CREATED BY WORKERS, STOLEN BY CAPITALISTS.’ (Or a slogan to that effect. I’m not certain of the exact words.)

I’ve alluded to this idea before in one or two of my posts on this site, with special reference to my beloved ‘Hammers’: who were ‘stolen’ several years ago by a sleazy little capitalist who had made his fortune in the ‘porn’ market – see https://bernardjporter.com/2026/06/11/soccer/. But I wasn’t fully aware of the broader, global dimension of this capitalist takeover of our ‘beautiful game’, until I read Jules Boykoff’s Red Card. The 2026 World Cup, Sportswashing, and the FIFA Greed Machine; my prepublication copy of which reached me a couple of days ago. It’s a pretty devastating investigative journalist’s account of the highly corrupt machinations of FIFA – the sport’s governing body – and of its president, Gianni Infantino; who together with Donald Trump – the recipient of Infantino’s ludicrous ‘FIFA Peace Prize’ (in compensation for his not getting the Nobel one) – are behind the over-priced tournament which is going on in the USA, Canada and Mexico right now.

I’m watching it, of course, on the telly from Sweden. I’m sorry that Sweden came a bit of a cropper yesterday. (And with an English – and ex-West Ham – trainer, too!) Tonight we’ll see whether England (with a German trainer) can get past its former colony, Ghana. But the corruption of the game at all levels has, I must say, rather sapped my enthusiasm for it.

What I still like about it, however, is how multi-racial most of the European teams are. Can that be credited to capitalism?

PS. Oh my God. News just in: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/fifa-president-trump-world-cup-finals-b3001390.html?utm_source=taboola&utm_medium=editorial-push.