Football has to do with many things. Memory, history, place, social class, gender (mainly male, but increasingly female), identity, family, community, nation. And while it is a collective, almost socialist affair, it thrives in greed, corruption, capitalism, and authoritarianism.

Philosopher Simon Critchley attempts to understand all of the above and create an aesthetics, even a poetry of football, to show what is beautiful in this beautiful game. And to describe how, by watching a football match, we discover a very special dimension of time, how its magic prevents oblivion, how we as spectators participate in the game.