Bakunin on Football

ireland / britain | culture | non-anarchist press Monday February 26, 2007 18:58 by Joe

A curious article from the (British) Times sports section that cites anarchist theory to explain some of the problems of European football

"Apply Bakunin’s logic to football and the argument goes like this: football, as an institution, derives its power from the big clubs and the big leagues because they generate the most money and attract the most fans. Therefore, they implicitly wield power over the institutions – Uefa, the football associations, the media – that govern football. The individuals at those institutions realise that their privileged position stems from the big clubs and the big leagues and because they want to hang on to the power they hold, they exercise that power accordingly, favouring the big fish over the small."