Red Card

“Rips off the band-aid that covers the noxious realpolitik of global football.”—Christopher Gaffney

“We urgently need writers and thinkers like Boykoff to encourage us to reclaim the people’s game for the communities it is supposed to serve.” —Nick McGeehan

“Essential reading for anyone who truly loves the beautiful game and believes in sport’s real values of integrity, inclusion, and human rights.”—Andrea Florence

“Indispensable reading for those who want to make sense of the gradual degeneration and how to reclaim the beauty within the game.”—Karim Zidan

“There is no one better equipped than Boykoff to interrogate the FIFA World Cup … he critiques it with nuance, intelligence, and with necessary vigour … a must-read for anyone interested in football, in transparency, and in truth.”—Shireen Ahmed

“It is as erudite as it is earnest. Boykoff’s searing criticism doesn’t leave you feeling defeated, but rather, hopeful that we can breathe life back into football.”—Brenda Elsey

Jules Boykoff is the author of Kicking, a memoir about his former life as a professional soccer player and his current life as a critical academic of sport. He has written six books on the politics of the Olympic Games, including What Are the Olympics For?, NOlympians: Inside the Fight Against Capitalist Mega-Sports in Los Angeles, Tokyo, and Beyond, and Power Games: A Political History of the Olympics. His work has appeared in outlets such as The Nation, The Guardian, The Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, The Globe and Mail, Jacobin, Folha de So Paulo, and Common Dreams. Boykoff teaches political science at Pacific University.