PREVIEW: Italia '90: Football of the Future by Pro Revolution Soccer

In this preview of our subscriber-only episode Italia '90: Football of the Future, Tom, Juliet and guest Keir Milburn discuss the media coverage of England and how it changed during their surprising run to the semi-final, and how this, combined with the authorities’ handling of the team’s travelling supporters after years of hooliganism and the disasters at Bradford, Heysel and Hillsborough between 1985 and 1989, won a new generation of middle-class fans over to football. They look at how good England actually were (and often weren’t), how commentators described their quarter-final opponents Cameroon, how the tournament ushered in the Premier League and Sky TV age, and suggest a hauntological reading of Italia ’90 in which football did not become fully neoliberalised – especially if the Soviet Union’s bid to stage the World Cup had been chosen instead.

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Produced by Oliver Kealey with music by Matt Huxley. Made possible with the generous support of the Lipman-Miliband Trust.