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Last year three billion people-including twenty million in the United States-watched Italy's extraordinary victory over France in the World Cup final. It was a down-and-dirty game, marred by French superstar Zinedine Zidane's head-butting of Italian defender Marco Materazzi. But millions were also exposed to the poetry, force, and excellence of the Italian game; as operatic as Verdi and as cunning as Machiavelli, it seemed to open a window into the Italian soul.
This is a country where 107 games are currently under investigation for match-fixing in one season alone, and where drugs, corruption, and the culture of suspicion are key parts of soccer history. Italy has three daily sports papers, numerous soccer-obsessed TV programs, and twenty-six million declared fans (about half the population). John Foot's epic history shows how it is impossible to understand Italian society without understanding Italian soccer, and vice
versa.
In a story that is reminiscent of The Gangs of New York and A Clockwork Orange, Foot shows how the Italian game-like its political culture has been overshadowed by big business, violence, conspiracy, and tragedy, and how demagogues like Benito Mussolini and Silvio Berlusconi have used the game to further their own political ambitions. But Winning at All Costs also celebrates the sweet moments—the four World Cup victories, the success of Juventus, Inter Milan, and AC Milan, the role soccer played in the resistance to Nazism, and the agers and players who show that Italian soccer is as irresistible as Italy itself.
This is a country where 107 games are currently under investigation for match-fixing in one season alone, and where drugs, corruption, and the culture of suspicion are key parts of soccer history. Italy has three daily sports papers, numerous soccer-obsessed TV programs, and twenty-six million declared fans (about half the population). John Foot's epic history shows how it is impossible to understand Italian society without understanding Italian soccer, and vice
versa.
In a story that is reminiscent of The Gangs of New York and A Clockwork Orange, Foot shows how the Italian game-like its political culture has been overshadowed by big business, violence, conspiracy, and tragedy, and how demagogues like Benito Mussolini and Silvio Berlusconi have used the game to further their own political ambitions. But Winning at All Costs also celebrates the sweet moments—the four World Cup victories, the success of Juventus, Inter Milan, and AC Milan, the role soccer played in the resistance to Nazism, and the agers and players who show that Italian soccer is as irresistible as Italy itself.