More Than Just a Game; Football comes to terms with the forces of globalization.(How Soccer Explains the World: An Unlikely Theory of Globalization)(Book Review)

Byline: Malcolm Beith

Only Brazilian midfielder Kaka could boast of better timing. As Franklin Foer's new book, "How Soccer Explains the World: An Unlikely Theory of Globalization" (255 pages. HarperCollins ), hits stores, the world has football on the brain. Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra's recent bid for Liverpool FC dominated Asian headlines. South Africa has been awarded the 2010 World Cup. European Championship fever is dying down just as Latin Americans rev up for the Copa America. The only people not obsessed with the sport this summer are the Americans, content to sit on the sidelines and watch baseball.

The author, an American who knows his football, is an exception to the rule. And as an editor at The New Republic, Foer knows his globalization, too. The result: a riveting analysis of football's struggle to come to terms with the forces of free trade, multinational brands and cultural imperialism.

Foer kicks off by tackling "the failure of globalization to erode ancient hatreds in the game's great rivalries." In the '80s and '90s, Red Star Belgrade supporters learned the hooliganism trade from newspaper accounts of English yobs. But they took the violence to another level, forming paramilitary groups that played a "pivotal role in the revival of Serb nationalism." After Foer met with one particularly virulent group of fans, the Ultra Bad Boys, he was ordered to perform the salute of Serb nationalism--the same one Serb paramilitaries demanded of their ...