Behind the Curtain: Football in Eastern Europe

Description

From the war-ravaged streets of Sarajevo, where turning up for training involved dodging snipers' bullets, to the crumbling splendour of Budapest's Bozsik Stadium, where the likes of Puskas and Kocsis masterminded the fall of England - the landscape of Eastern Europe has changed immeasurably since the fall of communism. Jonathan Wilson has travelled extensively behind the old Iron Curtain, viewing life beyond the fall of the Berlin Wall through the lens of football. Where once the state-controlled teams of the Eastern bloc passed their way with crisp efficiency to considerable success on the European and international stages, today the beautiful game in the East has been opened up to the free market and throughout the region a sense of chaos pervades. The threat of totalitarian interference no longer remains, but in its place mafia control is generally accompanied with a crippling lack of funds.

Jonathan Wilson is the Football Correspondent for the Financial Times, and has travelled widely throughout Eastern Europe.

'With style and erudition, [Wilson] proves that football is a metaphor, an allegory, and much more than just a game' THE TIMES 'Enlightening' THE SCOTSMAN