For the legendary Liverpool manager Bill Shankly, “Some people think football is a matter of life and death.
I assure you, it’s much more serious than that.” There is some truth to this, if one considers that football’s magic captivates more people than the miracle of life itself; they feel a greater sense of awe watching a goal than witnessing thousands of deaths on the battlefield.
This is why dictators of all stripes have used football as the opium of their people.
Yet there is a paradox.
Everyone knows that this “opium” is adulterated.
