Jordi Domínguez explores Europe’s hidden football and its pull on politics and power | OneFootball

Jordi Domínguez’s new book, No es solo un juego, published by Panenka, uncovers lesser-known football tales across Europe and argues the sport sits deep within society and is often used to influence it.

On 13 August 1997, Louis Van Gaal took charge of FC Barcelona for the first time in a Champions League qualifier against Skonto de Riga. The Latvians led 2-1 at Camp Nou until Giovanni Silva levelled and Hristo Stoichkov hit a stoppage-time winner, then Barcelona sealed the group stage with a scrappy 0-1 away. El Periódico Mediterráneo reports that Domínguez revisits that tie and Skonto’s owner Guntis Indriksons, a wealthy ex-KGB figure who for years combined the club with leading Latvia’s federation.

The book comprises 55 standalone chapters, one per European federation, and steers clear of superclubs and their stars. Domínguez, who coordinates sports storytelling at Mediapro and works pitchside for Movistar Plus, argues that modest sides can produce stories worthy of the Champions League.

He highlights football’s pull in Rabo de Peixe in the Azores, where half a tonne of cocaine washed ashore with tragic consequences, and a Gibraltar club born from a pub chat that reached the Conference League. His most special chapter is on Ukraine, centred on an interview with a Stroitel Pripyat forward who worked at the plant and was at reactor 4 during the Chernobyl disaster on 26 April 1986.

Domínguez maintains the game cannot be separated from politics, culture, social movements or conflicts that spill onto the pitch, and that many try to manipulate through football. He sees the sport as a gateway to wider, complex narratives, starting from small details that lead back to the game.

Source: El Periódico Mediterráneo

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