Full Description
Drawing on wide-ranging archival research, this authoritative new history examines the cultural diplomatic role played by British football in international affairs, British foreign policy, and international football during the 1930s.
For British governments, soccer diplomacy emerged as a favoured instrument of soft power when facing Hitler's Germany, Mussolini's Italy, Hirohito's Japan, and Stalin's Russia on and off the field. Examining the evolving relationship between successive governments and the Football Association, this book records how governments, though publicly espousing the distinctive autonomy of British sport, pursued privately a progressively interventionist role regarding international matches played by England and Football League clubs. Embedding its central themes in the wider context of international relations, the war of ideas between the liberal democracies and the dictatorships, and international football, the book also interrogates one of the most shocking moments in British sporting history, when England players gave Nazi salutes in Berlin in 1938, an episode in which virtue signalling was used in support of footballing appeasement.
Offering readers an informed historical perspective on some of the modern world's most significant issues, from the divide between dictatorships and liberal democracies to the use of sport as cultural diplomacy aka cultural propaganda, this book is fascinating reading for anybody with an interest in the history of Britain, sport history, football, international politics, diplomacy or international institutions.
Contents
1. Introduction: The British Government, Football, and the Outbreak of the Second World War, 2. British International Football Between Two World Wars: Continental Europe Twists the Lion's Tail, 3. Using Soccer Diplomacy as an Invaluable Instrument of British Soft Power: Britain as a 'Troubled Giant' Fighting a 'Fierce War of Ideas', 4. Viewing Football in Weimar Germany Through a First World War Lens: 'To Play, or Not to Play, Germany?', That Was the Question for British Football, 5. 'The Greatest Ever Triumph' Keeping Politics Out of International Football?: The 1935 England-Germany Match, 6. Facing Hitler's Germany On and Off the Football Field, 1938-1939: England's Nazi Salute as Virtue Signalling in Support of Footballing Appeasement?, 7. Projecting British Power On and Off the Football Field: Facing the Challenge Posed by Mussolini's Italy, 1933, 8. 'The Most Important' and 'The Most Controversial' Match Played in Britain Since the First World War: "The Battle of Highbury", 1934, 9. Britain's 'Football Ambassadors' Play Italy, 1939, 10. An Exceptional Case of British Governmental Intervention in Football?: Banning Stalin's 'Red Jerseys', 1930, 11. The British Government and the Football Association, 1938-1939: Collaborating to Ensure 'a Good Impression is Made Abroad' by British Football, 12. Conclusion: Using 'the Power of Football' for Britain
