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One of the Boston Globe’s Best Sports Books of the Year: “Incisive, heartbreaking, important and even funny” (Jeremy Schaap, New York Times–bestselling author of Cinderella Man).
The people of Brazil celebrated when it was announced that they were hosting the World Cup—the world’s most-viewed athletic tournament—in 2014 and the 2016 Summer Olympics. But as the events were approaching, ordinary Brazilians were holding the country’s biggest protest marches in decades.
Sports journalist Dave Zirin traveled to Brazil to find out why. In a rollicking read that travels from the favelas of Rio de Janeiro to the fabled Maracanã Stadium to the halls of power in Washington, DC, Zirin examines Brazilians’ objections to the corruption of the games they love; the toll such events take on impoverished citizens; and how taking to the streets opened up an international conversation on the culture, economics, and politics of sports.
“Millions will enjoy the World Cup and Olympics, but Zirin justly reminds readers of the real human costs beyond the spectacle.” —Kirkus Reviews
The people of Brazil celebrated when it was announced that they were hosting the World Cup—the world’s most-viewed athletic tournament—in 2014 and the 2016 Summer Olympics. But as the events were approaching, ordinary Brazilians were holding the country’s biggest protest marches in decades.
Sports journalist Dave Zirin traveled to Brazil to find out why. In a rollicking read that travels from the favelas of Rio de Janeiro to the fabled Maracanã Stadium to the halls of power in Washington, DC, Zirin examines Brazilians’ objections to the corruption of the games they love; the toll such events take on impoverished citizens; and how taking to the streets opened up an international conversation on the culture, economics, and politics of sports.
“Millions will enjoy the World Cup and Olympics, but Zirin justly reminds readers of the real human costs beyond the spectacle.” —Kirkus Reviews
6 Reviews
4.0
LoopyJaz
Created over 7 years agoShare
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Mtothecee
Created almost 8 years agoShare
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“The Olympics and World Cup are a neoliberal trojan horse designed from its inception to be a cash grab and experiment in silencing social dissent. Is the thesis of this book. And it proves it by going into histories of the IOC and past olympic events. It just never occurred to me how bad it was in real life, I always knew it was not worth it and was elated when Chicago did not win the one to host this year, because man we would have been broker than we already are trying to pay for it.
In history, the olympics from its beginning has been a war against the poor, because originally at its foundation is this ideal to display only "amateur" athletes. The same idea that colleges use when they rake in the millions from their sports team athletes. This is already a disparity against a true display of superiority, because it suggest that amateurs (WHO ARE NOT PAID WHAT THEY ARE WORTH) are the only ones worth watching. To this day, you don't have to go far to see the terrible wages of olympians that are doing because they are passionate about this sport, and apparently according to the IOC being passionate is all that matters (not paying athletes to you know, eat.)
No where is this is more evident that the horrible 1972 Olympics in Munich, where Israeli athletes were murdered in cold blood in Munich. The Olympics weren't canceled, they went on because money was to made.
Which is why the olympics happen. Its an opportunity for the same companies, every 2 years, to crash land into a country and charge ridiculous amounts of money for building "FIFA or OLYMPIC" quality stadiums. Which just means, new with a lot of money into the pockets of few. It has always been about poor displacement. This is where neoliberalism is at its worse. They take poor enclaves of people, put them out, clean up homeless by locking them up, pay prisons to deny parolees during a certain period, import labor from countries that has led to hundreds of death in dire work conditions, all to make billions for contractors (or for Putin in Sochi, 30 billion for his own pockets). How is this okay?
Because it put forth the nationalist agenda and feeds into what the book describes as a celebratory doctrine. The cousin to shock doctrine, neoliberals lap up the good will of people excited for having "won" something and display how proud they are of where they come from to implement horribly destructive policies that will do nothing for their countries and will leave them further in debt.
I'm horrified because I really enjoyed the spectacle of it all. By no more. Fuck you FIFA and FUCK YOU IOC.
And for fucks sake! The 2022 World Cup will be held in Qatar?? http://fortune.com/2016/03/31/qatar-world-cup-workers/”
Aaron Hood
Created over 8 years agoShare
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Sarah P
Created over 8 years agoShare
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cmhendrickson
Created over 10 years agoShare
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“Fantastic book on the history and protests surrounding the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.”
About Dave Zirin
DAVE ZIRIN is the sports editor for the Nation and the author of Game Over: How Politics Has Turned the Sports World Upside Down. Named one of UTNE Reader’s “Fifty Visionaries Who Are Changing Our World,” Zirin is a frequent guest on MSNBC, ESPN, and Democracy Now! He also hosts the weekly Sirius XM show Edge of Sports Radio and has been called "the best sportswriter in the United States," by Robert Lipsyte.
Other books by Dave Zirin
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