BEYOND THE FINAL WHISTLE - WORLDVASILIS KOSTAKIS
Beyond the Final Whistle is a perfect book to introduce someone to the world of footballing politics and history. However I will note if you are someone with a cursory knowledge of footballing politics then I think this book may be a miss. When I initially spoke about this book I was somewhat harsh, so much so the author commented on a TikTok I made about it and it made me sad… Although I stand by my conclusions about this book, I should note that I did not stress well enough that this book is completely fine for a beginner, for lack of a better term, when it come’s to football and politics.
Kostakis explores many different ways football has been used as a vehicle for some much more than fattening the pockets of billionaires and sports-washing the reputations of Gulf States. He imagines what football would look like in a post-capitalist world, and how it can be used for much more than the money-grab it has slowly been turned into. The entire topic is handled with grace for the reader and Kostakis introduces them to many famous stories of footballing legends such as the Cruyff turn and how it represents the ever evolving and free nature of the sport and how it contrasts the increasingly market controlled natures of our lives. There is definitely a clear goal in mind with using football as a vehicle to introduce readers to post-capitalist ideas.
My main gripe with the book is I feel it is too simplistic. I feel that the book still could have slowly introduced readers to both footballing politics and anti-capitalist ideology, whilst also doing a deeper dive into the steps taken to achieve this goal or even explaining further the ramifications of specific aspects of the hyper-capitalisation of football.
Ulitmately I don’t think this is a bad book, I just don’t think it’s for me. Perhaps if I was at the beginning of the journey into left wing politics or even just getting to learn about footballing history then this book would be perfect. Sadly this book was published a few years too late for myself. However! If you know someone who may actually just be starting on that long road, you can pick up this book for them from either Bookshop or Waterstones!
