David Goldblatt / Farayi Mungazi

6.30 – 8.pm | Wednesday 19 May 2010
Wolfson Theatre, New Academic Building, LSE

Speakers
David Goldblatt is a writer, broadcaster and teacher. He is the author of The Ball is Round: A Global History of Football and has been writing the Sporting Life column in Prospect since 2008. He has been reporting for BBC World Service and Radio 4 on politics and football in Israel, economics and baseball in the Dominican Republic and the globalization of cricket. He will be embarking on a South African odyssey in June, and writing a daily world cup blog for Prospect.

Farayi Mungazi was born in Zimbabwe and has been a sports presenter and commentator on Zimbabwe Broadcasting. In 1999 he joined the BBC World Service and has worked on the sports output for Focus on Africa, Network Africa and the BBC African football website. Farayi is passionate about sport, with a fondness for cricket and figure-skating as well as football. He hopes to run the London marathon one day.

Chair
Simon Glendinning, Reader in European Philosophy, European Institute, LSE and Director of the Forum for European Philosophy

The World Cup Finals, now 80 years old, attracts the biggest television audience of any global event. In an era of globalization, it is, if only for a month every four years, the closest we come to imagining and being a global community. It’s the kind of audience no state, no political movement can turn down and since the Uruguayans celebrated the centenary of national independence by hosting the 1930 tournament, politics has been in play at every game. In this dialogue David Goldblatt and Farayi Mungazi explored the political history and cultural meanings of the World Cup in the context of the 2010 tournament.