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Read our privacy notice . With the Euros kicking off in Germany on June 14, we can expect football fever to sweep the country. In a boon to our home nations, both England and Scotland have qualified this year, and so we have even more reason to be glued to our TVs for a month of coverage.
What about those of us who don’t care too much for football, and grow tired of the association between England fans and the image of some patio furniture being launched into a stream of tear gas somewhere on the continent? Or maybe you’ve never taken the time to explore the beautiful game, understand its quirks and eccentricities, and what it says about modern Britain? Sure, we love a screamer of a goal and a neat stat about performance, but anyone will tell you that the best books about sport are about more than just sport. Because sport isn’t even about just sport. As well as being about the pursuit of athletic excellence, it’s about passion and politics, rivalry and reverie, ecstasy and, as England and Scotland fans will know too well, agony.
Above all, the beginning of any major tournament is about hope, because in football, anything can happen. Football has the power to transcend boundaries and transform lives, and the best .
