"A fascinating exploration of a sporting obsession conducted across continents and political divides. Grant Farred's narrative shows how sport both transcends and embodies politics, how close you can get and how far away you will always remain from your sporting heroes. Just as American businessmen have started to buy into English soccer in order to profit from its global appeal, this book provides a powerful explanation of the breadth and depth of the passion that the game can evoke." Stefan Szymanski, Cass Business School, London "That Farred writes well about football is beyond debate. He brings a distinctive passion to the topic along with a wealth of analytic insights that will please readers versed in the rich lore of the sport and alert to its growing status as an exemplary vehicle of globalization." Andrew Ross, New York University "More than a love letter to his beloved Liverpool Football Club, this is a journey into the present, from Farred's early years as an outcast in apartheid South Africa through Videla's Argentina and Franco's Spain to the docklands of Liverpool. It is a journey as much spiritual as temporal by a long-distance fan who reads like a latter-day Bill Shankly, albeit with the style and sophistication of a scholar." Bill Murray, author of The World's game: A History of Soccer and The Old Firm: Sectarianism, sport and society in Scotland "Remarkable...In delightfully exuberant prose, Farred recounts a passion that, for him, borders on religion... Long Distance Love is a playful
yet no less brilliant
work of political theory; its contribution to political thought comes from making such hopeful statements without compromising the immoderate passions that sports fandom indulge." Centre Daily Times