Get Free Shipping on orders over $89
Red Card : The 2026 World Cup, Sportswashing, and the FIFA Greed Machine - Jules Boykoff

Red Card

The 2026 World Cup, Sportswashing, and the FIFA Greed Machine

By: Jules Boykoff

Paperback | 9 June 2026

At a Glance

Paperback


RRP $32.99

$32.75

or 4 interest-free payments of $8.19 with

 or 

Available for Backorder. We will order this from our supplier however there isn't a current ETA.

The World Cup is here, but what function does a worldwide tournament play in an increasingly belligerent police state, with Donald Trump at the helm?

Publishing on the eve of the soccer World Cup in the United States, Mexico, and Canada, this concise, power-packed philippic provides a critical take on the dark underbelly of the beautiful game at its most storied moment.

At the heart of this analysis by acclaimed sportswriter and scholar Jules Boykoff, who himself played soccer professionally, is the concept of sportswashing, where political leaders use sports to stoke nationalism and legitimize themselves on the world stage, deflecting from chronic problems at home. Step forward the recipient of the newly cast FIFA Peace Prize, Donald J. Trump, a titan unrivaled in squeegeeing every drop of personal wealth and prestige from hosting the competition. In this, he is ably assisted by a governing body of global soccer dripping in patronage and corruption.

In these pages Boykoff demonstrates that it is possible to simultaneously treasure the skills and athleticism displayed on the pitch while lamenting their exploitation by malevolent powerbrokers for whom love of the game means nothing next to turning a buck or harvesting prestige. And, as Red Card so skillfully shows, this bait and switch is not confined to soccer. Precisely the same legerdemain will be used to distract and enrich when the Olympic Games come to Los Angeles two years from now.

More in Fascism & Nazism

Demagogues and Despots : Democracies on the brink - John Keane

RRP $32.99

$28.75

13%
OFF
The Prosecutor : One Man's Battle to Bring Nazis to Justice - Jack Fairweather
For the People : Fighting Authoritarianism, Saving Democracy - A. C. Grayling
Caste : The International Bestseller - Isabel Wilkerson

RRP $26.99

$22.99

15%
OFF
The New Racial Regime : Recalibrations of White Supremacy - Alana Lentin
Vulture Capitalism : How to Survive in an Age of Corporate Greed - Grace Blakeley
The Nazi Mind : Twelve Warnings From History - Laurence Rees

RRP $26.99

$22.99

15%
OFF
The Hohenzollerns and the Nazis : A History of Collaboration - Stephan Malinowski
Fascism and Democracy - George Orwell

$4.99

Liberal Fascisms : Žižek's Essays - Slavoj Zizek
Hitler's People : The Faces of the Third Reich - Richard J. Evans

RRP $32.99

$26.99

18%
OFF
Disaster Nationalism : The Downfall of Liberal Civilization - Richard Seymour
The Girl with Seven Names : Escape from North Korea - Hyeonseo Lee
Man Up : The New Misogyny and the Rise of Violent Extremism - Cynthia Miller-Idriss
Children of the Third Reich : Three Pasts, Three Futures - Catrine Clay