Table of Contents

WARM-UP

It’s a Simple Game, Really
TED RICHARDS

FIRST HALF
The Nature of the Game

1. Why Is Football So Fascinating?
PAUL HOYNINGEN-HUENE

2. May the Best Team Win!
STEFFEN BORGE

3. Nietzsche’s Arsenal
DAVID KILPATRICK

4. Aristotle’s Favorite Sport
MATTHEW A. KENT

5. Plato and the Greatness of the Game
ANTONIS COUMOUNDOUROS

6. Can Robots Play Soccer?
PETER STONE, MICHAEL QUINLAN, and TODD HESTER

7. The Hand of God and Other Soccer . . . Miracles?
KIRK MCDERMID

INTERMISSION
The Unwritten Rules

8. What’s Luck Got to Do With It?
YUVAL EYLON and AMIR HOROWITZ

9. What’s Wrong with Negative Soccer?
STEPHEN MINISTER

10. He Had to Bring Him Down!
DAVID WALL

SECOND HALF
The Beautiful Game

11. Why Playing Beautifully Is Morally Better
VÍCTOR DURÀ-VILÀ

12. How to Appreciate the Fingertip Save
EDWARD WINTERS

13. Is Ronaldo a Modern Picasso?
TIM ELCOMBE

14. Kant at the Maracanã
LUCA VARGIU

15. Embellishing the Ugly Side of the Beautiful Game
JESÚS ILUNDÁIN-AGURRUZA and CESAR R. TORRES

FIRST EXTRA-TIME
Fandom

16.  Is It Rational to Support Aston Villa?
DAVID EDWARD ROSE

17. The Evolution of the Football Fan and the Way of Virtue
ANDREW LAMBERT

18. Playing the Derby
KRISTOF K. P. VANHOUTTE

19. Villa till I Die!
ANNE C. OSBORNE and DANIELLE SARVER COOMBS

SECOND EXTRA-TIME
Soccer and Society

20. Tell Me How You Play and I’ll Tell You Who You Are
JOHN FOSTER

21. Barça’s Treble or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Heat
A. MINH NGUYEN

22. A ‘Messi’ Way of Life
CAMILO OLAYA, NELSON LAMMOGLIA, and ROBERTO ZARAMA

23. Hungary’s Revolutionary Golden Team
ROBERT IMRE

24. When a Soccer Club Becomes a Mirror
ANDREA BORGHINI and ANDREA BALDINI

KICKS FROM THE MARK
It’s Down to Penalties

25. Bad Luck or the Ref’s Fault?
ROBERT NORTHCOTT

26. Kierkegaard at the Penalty Spot
ANDRE KRNAC

27. “It’s a Lottery!”: Penalties and the Meaning of Winning
BEN SAUNDERS

THE OFFICIALS

28. The Loneliness of the Referee
JONATHAN CROWE

29. God Is Not a Referee
MOHAMMAD MAJEED

30. The Player Prophet and the Phenomenology of Reading the Ref
SETH VANNATTA

THE POST GAME INTERVIEW

31. The Boy Done Good? Football Clichés
TOM GRIMWOOD and PAUL K. MILLER