Articles of Faith

RB: That must be irritating.

DB: That is irritating. I don’t want to complain about it…well, perhaps slightly.

RB: Oh, go on.

DB: I’ve heard Chelsea fans…

RB: Go on, you were going to complain did you say? I’m listening…

DB: I’ve heard Chelsea fans complain, and they could be accused of hypocrisy here, that the Arabs at Manchester City are going to ruin football with all their money.

RB:(Laughter) Difficult to feel sympathy for the fans of Chelsea.

DB: Yeah it is, although it’s a strange thing, you know, I’ve earned a fair amount of money in my time and you must be earning quite a lot now.

RB: Yeah.

DB: But these are people who can offer £138 million pounds for Ronaldo, just ‘cos they sort of fancy it. How does that happen? How can people have that much money? It doesn’t really reflect so much on football as the general state of the capitalist global economy.

RB: Yes that’s what I feel. I feel that in general when people talk about the commercialisation of football, just say well this is cultural, that it’s not something that is specific to football, it’s just that demonstrably the world is becoming more corporate and more commercialised so of course sport is going to also, it’s just a reflection of that.

DB: Yeah, that is true and football is a microcosm of the extreme nature of the free market because as football gets more and more successful, which it has done over the last fifteen years, more money is attracted to it. There aren’t really any proper laws. The FA tried their best, but there aren’t any proper laws like there might be in a country, so as a result there is a free-market activity leading to £138 million pounds which could probably save the whole of Africa being spent instead on Ronaldo and his stupid over-white teeth.

RB: I think you’re quite right – instead of looking at football and condemning the current climate and the amount of money that players are earning, people should look at the implications of that globally, what that demonstrably means for global human capitalism.

DB: And they should also consider whether, if it is going to be a common, global economy Ronaldo should at least not be going to a club whose greatest player in the past was Francis Lee ‘cos that in itself is an affront.

RB:(Laughter) Yeah, that is a peculiar poem of capitalism to go from Franny Lee to Ronaldo.

DB: It is, that’s right, that is capitalism in itself, although somehow the movement from that fat bloke to that grinning pretty monkey is a remnant in some way of what Marx always predicted for our culture. I’m sure we’re now just talking, aren’t we?

RB: Yeah yeah we did, I felt we drifted away from making a football book to actual views and feelings.

DB: Ask me some other questions quickly about football.

RB: Ok.

DB: You’re quite a big England fan, aren’t you? That’s the thing that people often talk about, club and country. And I feel from some of my, well Frank and the one or two other actually working-class friends that I’ve got, although you’re actually working-class but you’re not in this category, that there’s something a bit poofty and middle-class about supporting England. I mean, Frank does support England but in his heart he will always say he’d rather West Bromwich Albion got into the Premiership than England won the World Cup.

RB: Really?

DB: Now I don’t know if I actually believe him, because I think he would go mental if England won the World Cup and West Brom have got into the Premiership and although he’s pleased, he’s not dancing naked in the street – a horrible image – but anyway he might do if England won the World Cup. So there’s a sort of sense that comes off hardcore fans that supporting England is what Johnny-come-lately fans do – with their love of Italia 90 and Gazza crying and the whole change that happened in football, rather than the hardcore club supporters.