The Football World Cup is back. For one month, billions of people will follow the matches of the best national teams in the world. Streets fill with jerseys, restaurants and bars become meeting points for fans, and public squares transform into arenas of collective celebration. The image is familiar. But alongside the sporting competition runs a second contest – far less visible but no less politically significant: the staging and appropriation of the event by politics. An insightful example is provided by the Alsatian city of Mulhouse. With the announcement ...
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