The powerpoint presentation which you can access through the La pelota no se mancha link below was given originally at the University of Salamanca at the kind invitation of Professor Guillermo Mira Delli-Zotti. In it, I explore some of the surprising similarities between the growth of football and the growth of cinema in the modern world, including when they were born (end of the nineteenth century), their exponential growth in the twentieth century, their association with modernity, their similar industrial model as well as their use of ‘soft power’, their mutual interpenetration (via the filmic replay, for example), their status as a simulacrum, their creation of ‘pundit armies’, their lucrative success, the fierce competition between employers (film directors/football managers) and employees (actors/football players) and creation of a ‘star system’, and their ability to adapt to different cultural contexts and produce different discourses (French New Wave cinema vs. Hollywood, and the organisation-based German football model versus the skilful ‘criollo’ football played in Latin America).
Whether you are a fan of football or cinema, or neither, or both, I hope you will find some insights and/or entertainment in what follows.
BAS editor Stephen Hart
Bulletin of Advanced Spanish 