We welcome Alan McDougall from the University of Guelph in Canada back onto the podcast to discuss his new book, Contested Fields, A Global History of Modern Football. In the book, Alan explores the roles of migration, money, competition, gender, race, space, spectatorship, and confrontation in the growth of the game worldwide.
We discuss the pivotal moments in world football – such as 1992 with the creation of the Premier League, the Champions League, the backpass rule – and also the Bosman ruling, and other key events that changed the course of the game. We discuss the role of the British Empire and mercantile networks in the game’s spread and also look at where football goes from here.
Alan’s podcast with us on East German football history is one of our most downloaded episodes, so be sure to check that out too.
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