Play the ball not the man

Here’s a blog post I wrote a few weeks ago about the politics of football in Laos.

I like to think something so quaint as a football game can put ‘real’ things in perspective. Around the office beforehand I was in a typical pre-game mood. Nudging a few of my colleagues, I asked – in the blunt way I adopt only when I’m doubtful of shared nuance – whether we’d smash ’em. Either due to limited conversational English or genuine cultural differences, I’m not sure, I was met by blank faces and a long silence, before being quietly informed the game was organised to ‘build solidarity’.

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