The most devoted foreign fans admire British fan culture. Some of the foreigners try to imitate the British, which explains the Union Jacks on terraces all over Europe…
British fans are unique. In Britain, football itself is almost incidental to fan culture. The British fan’s main virtue is devotion (to his or her team). Nothing else in football matters nearly as much to him.
British fans are also historians. When two British sides play each other, their histories play each other too. When John Motson, the famous English TV football commentator tells us that ‘these two sides last met in the Cup in I954, Rovers winning 1-0 thanks to a 31st minute own goal’, he is making a very British point.
With that said, Kuper does very well in his examination of why soccer is played the way it is. His look into African soccer really gives an insight into what life is like there. He shows the absolute dictatorial rule that many people suffer under, and how soccer can become the one true expression of how people feel. This startling insight can catch the reader off guard.
From his many encounters and observations, Kuper believes that a top player today has metamorphosed from the working class hero of the post-war period to “a slightly monomaniac corporate man and yes-man,” while the idea that they are driven fanatics is largely untrue. In short, the great players have more natural talent, more time and more money than us, but are not in any grandiose way super-humans or geniuses.
最投入的外国球迷欣赏英国球迷文化。有些外国人试图模仿英国，其中解释了国旗的梯田，在整个欧洲…
英国球迷是独一无二的。在英国，足球本身几乎是附带的球迷文化。英国球迷的主要美德是忠诚（他或她的团队）。没有其他的足球事务几乎一样的他。
英国球迷也历史学家。当英双方互相比赛，他们的历史发挥对方太。当约翰·莫特森，著名的英国电视足球解说员告诉我们，“这些双方最后一次在杯i954，流浪者队赢1 – 0感谢一个第三十一分钟的目标”，他是一个非常英国点。
也就是说，库珀做得很好，他的考试为什么踢足球的方式是。他看着非洲足球真的给出了一个深入了解的生活怎么样。他显示了绝对的独裁统治，很多人遭受，以及如何才能成为一个真正的足球表达人们的感受。这惊人的洞察力，能抓住读者措手不及。
从他的许多接触和观察，库珀认为，一个顶级球员今天已变质的工人阶级英雄战后“略有偏执狂企业人和唯唯诺诺的人，而他们的想法是狂热分子基本上是不真实的。总之，伟大的球员有更多的天赋，更多的时间和更多的钱比我们，但是不在任何宏伟的方式，人类或天才。
