FOOTNOTES: The Anthropology of Football

From players using ChatGPT to negotiate £20,000 bonuses to clubs seeding synthetic fanbases to manufacture 24/7 hype, are we moving toward a version of the game that is perfectly optimised but emotionally hollow? 

Football has always been a game of follow the leader. From formations like 4-4-2 to the uptake of pressing, we’ve spent a century copying the best human managers. But for how much longer will the leader be human?This episode of FOOTNOTES looks at how clubs are already using AI, how these could be used to find gaps in the game that no human coach can see, and why Elon Musk’s Neuralink might be the only way for players to exploit these gaps in real-time. If we eliminate every human blunder and needless dribble to achieve a 100% efficient game, what are we left with? 

With Trump’s talk of a US annexation of Greenland wreaking havoc, the ‘Boycott 2026’ movement is picking up steam. But the truth is, FIFA doesn’t really care if your country doesn’t show up. This episode looks at why the 2026 tournament is basically ‘boycott-proof.’ I look at two historical examples of World Cup walkouts to show why this kind of moral posturing usually backfires - punishing the fans and setting a country’s football back years, while the rest of the world just keeps the party going.Subscribe for more cynical debriefs on football and geopolitics that nobody asked for.

In tennis, they call for silence. In golf, they hold their breath. In football? We call it “atmosphere”. But where do we actually draw the line?This episode of FOOTNOTES looks at the dark arts of football fandom, where supporters take their role as the 12th man to the extreme. From the neon lasers of AFCON to the pepper spray of La Bombonera, this episode asks why football is the only sport where we celebrate the active destabilisation of the athletes, and how far we’re willing to take it.

Would you sell your blood to keep your football club alive?In Berlin, this isn't just a figure of speech. Back in 2004, supporters of FC Union Berlin literally sold their plasma to pay the club’s registration fees. Years later, they showed up with cement mixers to put in 140,000 hours of unpaid manual labour just to save their stadium from crumbling.This episode of FOOTNOTES looks at the "shared fiction" that turns profit-driven football clubs into a life-and-death blood pact. Why do fans of some clubs treat the badge as sacred, while those at other clubs are more like consumers ready to return the product for a refund the moment results drop off?This episode focuses on the 'Union Berlin Blueprint' and how the principles of resistance, protected identity, and fan-authored history can be used to save the A-League from flatlining.TIMESTAMPS:0:00 – Intro: The fans who sold their blood for a badge 0:35 – The stadium built on congealed sweat 1:40 – Does the A-League have a story worth bleeding for? 2:48 – Franchises vs. “Real Clubs”: The ownership problem 4:31 – How Portsmouth and Wimbledon fans refused to let their clubs die 5:21 – Football as a "Collective Hallucination" 7:06 – East Germany, the Secret Police, and the "State Team" 9:30 – "The Wall Must Go": Union Berlin as political resistance 10:35 – The Blueprint: Replicating Union in Australia 10:55 – South Melbourne & Preston: The resistance narrative ready-made12:35 – Why the A-League needs more "Villains" 13:15 – The Heritage Clause: Protecting the Crest, Colours and Name15:53 – Letting fans write the history 17:52 – Conclusion: Is Australian apathy too deep to save?

What happens when a couple hundred sunburnt Englishmen invade a sterile football match?This episode is inspired by a strange Sunday afternoon at AAMI Park when the Barmy Army hijacked a Melbourne City vs. Perth Glory fixture. They didn't know the players' names, but they owned the stadium for 90 minutes, proving that the true "product" of football isn't always the 22 men on the pitch.This episode of FOOTNOTES: The Anthropology of Football looks at three strategies to manufacture the "soul" that fans actually want to show up for:05:59 - Collective Effervescence: How sound waves are swallowed by empty seats and why clubs must surgically "shrink" their stadium to create density. 08:55 - The Power of Totems: From Portland’s "Victory Log" to Norwegian toothbrushes, how symbols transform passive consumers into a tribe.13:45 - The Villain Strategy: Why being "liked" is a marketing failure and why clubs need to stop "playing nice" and start embracing the "smugness" or the "machine" persona.

The FIFA World Cup likes to present itself as a celebration for football fans everywhere. But as the 2026 tournament in the US, Canada and Mexico approaches, the question for many supporters isn’t Do I want to go? It’s Can I?In this episode, I use World Cup 2026 as a starting point to look at who has actually been able to travel to World Cups over time, who hasn’t. From Uruguay 1930 to Brazil 1950, Mexico 1970, the rise of mass European travel, the securitisation of supporters in the late 20th century, and more recent tournaments in Russia and Qatar, this is a story of access, movement, and exclusion.Along the way, I look at oceans, borders, passports, visas, money, politics and logistics, and whether the idea of the “travelling supporter” has ever been as open or universal as we like to remember. Not as a defence of this World Cup, but as a way of questioning the nostalgia we attach to past ones.This isn’t a verdict or an expert lecture. I'm trying to figure stuff out and want you to be a part of the conversation. If you’ve been to a World Cup, if you’ve tried and failed to go, or if you’ve already ruled out 2026, let me know in the comments.