Introduction
Editor’s Note – Jonathan Wilson
Jonathan Wilson’s Editor’s Note from Issue Thirty One
Education – Brendan Archbold
Because after all, “it’s only football”
Politics
The Big Man – John McManus
What football can tell us about the reign of Turkey’s president Recep Tayyip Erdogan
Darkness Falls – Tim Vickery
How football facilitated the rise of Brazil’s new leader, Jair Bolsonaro
Away from Home – James Montague
The exiled Thai billionaire Thaksin Shinawatra explains what it was like to own Manchester City
The Unlikely Mariner – Jon Spurling
Why the foreign secretary Tony Crosland took Henry Kissinger to watch Grimsby Town v Gillingham
Culture
The Pure Spectacle – Alexander Shea
Sochaux, Roland Barthes and football’s rupture from its industrial roots
Photo Sensitive – John Williams
Celebrating the photography of football and a new exhibition from Stuart Roy Clarke
Cantona is the Parthenon – Justin Muchnick
Reflections on Jackson Pollock, AEK Athens, football and the nature of art
The Top Corner – David Owen
Hunting down the earliest depictions of football in postage stamps
The Two Cultures – Adrian Pecotic
The stats geeks and the football men and why both can learn from the other
Elsewhere
Horror Shows – Sean Cole
Remembering the two brutal Birmingham-Aston Villa derbies from the 1983-84 season
The Mouse that Roared – Gunnar Persson
Åtvidaberg, the Swedish village side that nearly ended Bayern’s glory years before they’d begun
The Land of the Bat – Jarrod Kimber
The stuttering attempts of Sri Lankan football to establish itself it a country where cricket is king
The Old Order – Tim Wigmore
Football’s dominated by those who play in western Europe, and what can be done about it
The Eagle and the Goat – David Shaw
Exploring the rivalry between Eintracht Frankfurt and Cologne through their meeting in February 2018
The Misunderstood
Oedipus and the Gallowgate – Bob Yule
Hatem Ben Arfa and the importance of father figures in the development of a star
Extremely Fast and Incredibly Straight – Richard Jolly
A celebration of Jesús Navas and his capacity to do the same thing, over and over again
The Indulgence – Tim Rich
Georgi Kinkladze could devastate opposing defences but he rarely did his own clubs much good
Fiction
Vossa Excelência – James Young
After Brazil’s 7-1 defeat to Germany, a new president decides to abolish nationalism
Greatest Games
Argentina 0 Colombia 5 – Carl Worswick
World Cup qualifier, 5 September 1993, El Monumental, Buenos Aires
Eight Bells
Eight Bells – Greg Lea
A selection of classic games from the Intercontinental Cup
