Article content

Home and Away: Writing the Beautiful Game

Karl Ove Knausgaard and Fredrik Ekelund

Knopf Canada

432 pp; $29.95

Toward the end of Home and Away,a book of correspondence exchanged between the Swedish writer Fredrik Ekelund and Norwegian author Karl Ove Knausgaard during the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, one of Ekelund’s drinking companions in Rio de Janeiro takes a moment to mark what he believes will be global football’s zenith.

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or Why the 2014 World Cup was 'the last great party,' according to two unlikely sports reporters Back to video

“‘Fredrik, this is the last great party!” he proclaims. “2018, Russia, Putin. 2022, Qatar. And FIFA’s fascism will probably only worsen. This World Cup – right now! – is the last great footballing party ever. In years to come people will look back on this as a high point in the history of football. Nothing is ever going to beat this.”

Nearly three years later, it’s hard to disagree. Earlier this year, FIFA announced that in 2026, the World Cup will bloat from 32 teams to 48, while Putin’s Russia has since been accused of running a state-sponsored Olympic doping scheme. Meanwhile, Qatar continues to spend lavishly – recent estimates peg construction costs at US$500 million a week – on a World Cup that puts the lives of its exploited migrant labourers at risk. Despite the many social and political problems that plagued preparations for Brazil 2014, soccer fans are likely to look back on that summer with fondness.