The Day Total Football Died: With David Winner, author of Brilliant Orange

Srijandeep Das

23rd December 2017 | 3:55 AM

You’ve heard the legends about Total Football. But did you know what killed it? We talk to David Winner about the assassination of a football philosophy.The Day Total Football Died: With David Winner, author of Brilliant Orange

Somewhere in the south of Maine and north of 1974, an everyday-dog-day teaching job pushed a bright 26-year-old into alcoholism, like teaching jobs often do. His wife Tabitha picked out a manuscript he was working on from the trash and positively badgered him, like wilful wives do, to send it to the publishers. ‘Carrie’ was published later that spring, and the genre of horror gripped the world anew.

Inflation spiralled out of control reaching 17.2% in the UK, and in response to the global energy crisis, Daylight Saving commenced nearly 4 months in advance in the US. 20,000 died from smallpox in India, and in an ingenious act of policy, the government detonated their first nuclear device to boost morale.

In Germany, Joao Havelange, the man who would forever change the game into a mutant cash-cow, was being elected FIFA president behind the scenes. On the foreground, the 10th World Cup went on, undaunted.

The 1974 World Cup was the tipping point in the history of the tournament, perhaps of all global sport. – David Goldblatt

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