Football plays with fire as it merrily fans the flames of hate and division | Barney Ronay

There is rapacious ambition in so many parts of this industry now, albeit often concealed behind the same mask of sickly piety worn by Sven-Göran Eriksson and his ball project

“The horrible thing about the Two Minutes Hate was that it was impossible to avoid joining in.”

It is 16 years since Sven-Göran Eriksson and Nancy Dell’Olio unveiled their Kick A Ball For Peace initiative, a campaign in which they transported a single hope-filled ball across the continents so that world leaders in war-torn hotspots could kick it around in front of a camera crew. There was a grand launch starring Kofi Annan, with Nancy beaming on and Sven lurking in the background looking, as ever, like a kindly provincial bank manager who goes carol singing at Christmas, volunteers at the local rotary club and keeps a severed badger’s head in his briefcase.

Continue reading…