The Dreaming Fields: Football, Life And Labour In An Orwellian Global Economy

One of the grand paradoxes of empire, association football (Soccer), a sport introduced to modern industrial life by Europe’s imperial-colonial elites, has become one of the major social currencies of workers, migrants, and Diasporas throughout the world.  Today, excellence as a footballer represents for many a rare means of accessing citizenship, education, employment, leisure and social mobility, especially in Europe.  Indeed, the beauty, history and immense popularity of the sport have often overshadowed the industry’s current involvement in the gendering and globalisation of poverty and inequality.  This article discusses the confluence of gender, migration, race and international relations, identity discourse and capitalism in the cultural industry of Soccer and addresses the argument that World Soccer, as a Eurocentric economic and cultural exercise, replicates and legitimates the dynamics of the Global Plantation.

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