This week’s guest is historian and author John Foot, who has written the acclaimed _Calcio: A History of Italian Football. _
For obvious post-Euro 2020 reasons we take a deep dive into Italian football, as John explains his thesis that “it is almost impossible to comprehend Italy without understanding football.”
We talk of how the best way to understand Italy is to look at their treatment of referees, and why, in Italian football, there is no such thing as fair play. We discuss in what esteem Italians hold the World Cups they won under fascism, and the politics behind the adoption of the ‘calcio’ name.
There’s also talk of the newly-crowned European Champions: what separates Roberto Mancini’s team from those who went before?
Plus: the decline of Italian cycling, Silvio Berlusconi, and the legacy of John’s famous father. John’s picks were: Brilliant Orange by David Winner; The Age of Football by David Goldblatt; Paolo Sollier’s autobiograph; The cycling writing of Dino Buzzatti
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