Thursday 12 June 2025 @ 18:30
£12 / £8 (Friends go free)
The Volley, Old Street
“Football, beer and above all, gambling filled up the horizon of their minds. To keep them in control was not difficult.” Nineteen Eighty-Four
Football punctuates the life of millions of people in the UK, while the Premier League is watched and loved around the world. Given the cultural and social impact of the game – and its deep personal importance for so many fans – it’s no surprise that football is inextricable from politics, both nationally and globally.
On the eve of the 2025 FIFA Club World Cup, and a year away from the supersized 2026 World Cup in the USA, FIFA continues to receive allegations of corruption and ignoring human rights abuses. At home, clubs are more than ever the playthings of wealth and power, while betting companies flood the game with advertising (while players suffering from gambling addiction are banned for months).
Can we love football and keep our principles? How did we get here, and what might the future look like? Is the game, as they say, gone?
Join Philippe Auclair, writer, broadcaster and contributor to the Guardian Football Weekly podcast, Miguel Delaney, chief football writer at the Independent and chair Matthew Beaumont, Co-director of University College London’s Urban Lab and Orwell Prize judge at The Volley (“the best place to watch football in London”).
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