While football is on pause in this time of pandemic and social distancing, the Football Scholars Forum and the Society for American Soccer History intend to bridge our physical distance with an online discussion devoted to The English Game, the Netflix miniseries that made its debut on March 20, 2020. 

Join other fútbologists as we discuss the cinematic and historic merits (and demerits) of this deep dive into the origins of the modern game. Spoiler alert: all six episodes of season one will be discussed. David Kilpatrick and Tom McCabe will moderate the session. Kickoff is set for the traditional UK match time  of 3:00pm (London time) on Saturday, March 28 (11:00am US EDT). 

As usual, the 90-minute teleconference session will be conducted via Zoom. RSVP to Peter Alegi (alegi.peter@gmail.com) or Alex Galarza (galarza.alex@gmail.com) to receive a Zoom invitation. Another email will be sent to confirmed participants by Friday, March 27.

For more info: 

The English Game – https://www.netflix.com/title/80244928 

Football Scholars Forum – https://footballscholars.org/

Society for American Soccer History – https://www.ussoccerhistory.org/

On October 30, FSF welcomed Nuno Domingos for a discussion of his book, Football and Colonialism: Body and Popular Culture in Urban Mozambique. The conversation was moderated by Todd Cleveland.

Participants: Chris Bolsmann, Roger Kittleson, Zachary Guthrie, Itamar Dubinsky, Peter Alegi, and Alex Galarza.

Listen to an audio recording of the session (for personal and educational use only):

What a great opening to the 2019-20 season! Authors Brenda Elsey and Joshua Nadel joined us for a discussion of their new book, Futbolera: A History of Women and Sports in Latin America. The conversation was moderated by Alex Galarza.

Participants: Laurent Dubois, Rwany Sibaja, Danyel Reiche, Patrick Ridge, Javier Pescador, Martha Saavedra, Andrew Guest, Chris Gaffney, Melissa Forbis, Tom McCabe, and Peter Alegi.

Listen to an audio recording of the session (for personal and educational use only):

#1 Tuesday, September 24, 3pm (US ET)

Brenda Elsey and Joshua Nadel, Futbolera: A History of Women and Sports in Latin America [https://utpress.utexas.edu/books/elsey-nadel-futbolera] (Moderator: Alex Galarza)

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#2 Wednesday, October 30, 3pm (US ET)

Nuno Domingos, Football and Colonialism: Body and Popular Culture in Urban Mozambique [https://www.ohioswallow.com/book/Football+and+Colonialism] (Moderator: Todd Cleveland)

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#3 December 3-5 (tbc)

FILM: This Is Football (Amazon Prime) [https://www.amazon.com/This-Is-Football-Season-1/dp/B07T8KT8TT]

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#4 February (tbd)

Caitlin Murray, National Team: The Inside Story of the Women Who Changed Soccer [https://www.uswntbook.com/] (Moderator: Tom McCabe)

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#5 and #6 (March-May tbd)

David Goldblatt, The Age of Football: The Global Game in the 21st Century [https://www.panmacmillan.com/authors/david-goldblatt/the-age-of-football/9781509854240] (Moderators Simon Rofe and Peter Alegi)

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All sessions take place via Zoom. To participate contact Peter Alegi or Alex Galarza.

On May 22, author Ian Plenderleith joined us for a discussion of his recent book, The Quiet Fan.

Participants included: David Kilpatrick (moderator); Gabe Logan, Titi Kou, Tom McCabe, Andrew Guest, and Peter Alegi.

Listen to the audio recording below (for personal and educational use only):

On May 22, at 3pm (US Eastern, -5 GMT) soccer writer and journalist Ian Plenderleith joins FSF to discuss his memoir, The Quiet Fan.

Neither Fever Pitch nor a hooligan’s account, this book instead examines the role of football as a reassuring, ever-present background to life’s thrills, pains and fluctuations.

Contact Peter Alegi (alegi AT msu DOT edu) to participate in the online forum.

The second FSF session of 2019 featured sociologist Rachel Allison, author of an engaging new book titled, Kicking Center: Gender and the Selling of Women’s Professional Soccer.

The conversation delved into the team at the heart of the book and then examined various aspects of the marketing of WPS—the second women’s pro soccer league in the United States—as well as its social context and audiences. The book’s themes of race, class, gender, sexuality, and social media were explored in detail. The discussion also brought out continuities and changes between the defunct WPS and its successor, the NWSL, now in its seventh season.

For her next project, Allison will be traveling to the 2019 Women’s World Cup to conduct a study of women’s soccer fandom. This exciting new work is funded by a prestigious FIFA-CIES research scholarship.

Participants included: Andrew Guest, Adam Winkel, David Kilpatrick, Steven Apostolov, Danyel Reiche, Titi Kou, Todd Cleveland, Chris Henderson, and Peter Alegi.

Listen to an audio recording of the session below (for personal and educational use only):

On February 26, Todd Cleveland joined us for a discussion of his book, Following the Ball: The Migration of African Soccer Players across the Portuguese Colonial Empire, 1949-1975 (Ohio University Press, 2017).

Cleveland grappled with questions about different aspects of his multifaceted and player-centered history of migration to Portugal from African colonies such as Mozambique and Angola. Cleveland, a social and labor historian of Africa at the University of Arkansas, explained his use of archival and oral sources, and stressed how African soccer migrants, despite many challenges under colonial rule, managed to find ways to negotiate a better life for themselves in Portugal.

Participants included: Danyel Reiche, Martha Saavedra, Michelle Sikes, Jacob Fredericks, Tianyi “Titi” Kou, Andrew Guest, and Peter Alegi.

Below is an audio recording of the session (for personal and educational use only):

FSF’s first session of 2019 takes place on Tuesday, February 26, 2019, at 1pm US Eastern Time (-5 GMT). Historian Todd Cleveland joins us to discuss his recent book Following the Ball: The Migration of African Soccer Players across the Portuguese Colonial Empire, 1949–1975.

For free access to the book’s introduction click here, and for a journal article that provides a sample of the book’s main argument and its rich evidence click here.

Please RSVP to alegi AT msu DOT edu to participate in the Zoom call.

Looking ahead: our next session is scheduled for March 26 at 2pm US Eastern Time. We will welcome sociologist Rachel Allison (@rallis2 on Twitter), author of Kicking Center: Gender and the Selling of Women’s Professional Soccer. An ideal read in the build up to the 2019 Women’s World Cup!

Stefan Szymanski and Silke-Maria Weineck, authors of It’s Football, Not Soccer, joined the Football Scholars Forum on December 13 for the final session of 2018.

The discussion raised a number of interesting issues and questions, from historical usage of “soccer” vs “football” in US and UK media to American exceptionalism, regionalism, gender, psychology, and market logic.

Participants: Rachel Allison, Andrew Guest, Tarminder Kaur, David Kilpatrick, Adam Winkel, Chris Gaffney, Tom McCabe, Chris Henderson, and Peter Alegi.

Listen to a recording of the session below (for personal and educational use only):