Popped into my local bookshop on Saturday and was intrigued to see the slim volume above. It’s a treasure. ‘What is Sport?‘ (google books preview here) was written by Roland Barthes as the commentary to a Canadian Broadcasting Company documentary, made by the little known Hubert Aquin. Essentially, Barthes was invited to write 5 pieces on sports specific to their national settings: bullfighting in Spain, motor-racing in the US, the Tour de France in, erm, France, ice hockey in Canada and football in England.

All of them contain moments of almost shiver-inducing clarity, though I think my favourite is on motor racing:

…on the turns…space is against time. Hence the driver must be able to cheat space, to decide whether he can spare it…or if he will brutally cut it down; and he must have the courage to drive this wager to the brink of the impossible.

drive this wager to the brink of the impossible – love it. And not unlike my rubbish poker technique. Its 65 pages (of commentary) are full of these little crackers. Have to say that the final chapter on football was a little disappointing, as it moves too quickly into generalised conclusion to the whole piece, but the others are all great.

Also nice are Aquin’s letters inviting Barthes (who had published ‘Mythologies‘ shortly before) to contribute to the project in the first place. I’m guessing copyright issues prevented them from including Barthes’ replies, which is a shame. There’s also a lovely note at the end from Richard Howard, Barthes’ long-time translator.

Now where can I track down the documentary itself?

Happily, the whole thing appears to have backfired horribly on Usmanov and his team as the stories of heavy-handedness propagate around the internet. Labour MP Tom Watson has been raising awareness, Channel 4 News ran a piece last night, and the blog Chicken Yoghurt is tallying sites that are pushing the story.

I’d imagine Usmanov is learning that the sort of posturing, weight-throwing and bully-boy tactics that are obviously acceptable in the oligarchic world of corporate takeovers in which he has amassed his fortunes aren’t quite so effective when it comes to smothering information, irrespective of whether it be fact, fiction or opinion.

Completely agree that the sound was as captivating as the imagery. Standing out for me: the deafening silence of the crowd after Villareal score their penalty, punctured only by the squeal-like noise of the opposing players as their celebration takes them past Zidane… That Zidane’s only words (that I can recall) other than the occassional aqui and si, were a gutteral You should be ashamed of yourself…, muttered into the ear of the referee in the aftermath of the penalty…