Simon Kuper
Simon Kuper
Simon Kuperis a British author. He writes about sports "from an anthropologic perspective."...
ProfessionNon-Fiction Author
Date of Birth15 October 1969
champions due dutch european last league modern next overload partly playing top week
It's partly due to the overload on modern players, ... All the Dutch are playing in the Champions League or in top European leagues. So it's last week Barcelona, this week Dublin, next week Milan. It's just not that exciting.
country expected high opinion people
People are enormously disappointed because if there's one country that really expected to be going and has a high opinion of its own qualities, it's Holland.
against among black eastern england few field happened none outside past people player racists seen soccer spain strong sweeping taboo united vanguard
In the United States, there's a strong taboo against racism; in England it's only happened in the past 15 years. In Spain and Eastern Europe, there is none of this revulsion among most people. There are few people of color, so a black player on the field is a new thing. In that sense, soccer is seen by racists as the vanguard of the world outside sweeping into town.
soccer football country
Even before 2007, this half of a small island was the richest football country on earth. In 2005-2006 the Premiership's total revenue was about £1.4bn, 40 per cent more than its nearest rival, Italy's Serie A. That was before take-off. Now foreign television channels are sending so much cash that the Premiership is expected to take in nearly £1.8bn this season. Even the team that finishes bottom of the table (Wigan might be a good bet) will get £26.8m from TV. That's more than all of Argentine or Belgian football put together.
player support world
I remember World Cups in 1982 and 1986 when we weren't there and we'd support Belgium or Denmark, .. They had some players who played in Holland and they were a bit like the Dutch.
football oil stupidity
Football is not merely a small business, it's also a bad one. Anyone who spends any time inside football soon discovers that just as oil is part of the oil business, stupidity is part of the football business.
soccer country caring
It seems that soccer tournaments create those relationships: people gathered together in pubs and living rooms, a whole country suddenly caring about the same event. A World Cup is the sort of common project that otherwise barely exists in modern societies.
thinking america radio
You'd never last in South America. Fans take their radios to the stadium so they can think what the commentators think.
sports war unity
Other than sports, only war and catastrophe can create this sort of national unity.
soccer football taken
Chelsea's players, coaches and agents are now football's wealthiest millionaires. Surely the billions taken from the Russian people by an oligarch in questionable privatisations couldn't be better spent?
soccer roots fans
Whereas fanatic is usually a pejorative word, a Fan is someone who has roots somewhere.