More than just a game

Football v apartheid

Chuck Korr and Marvin Close, Collins, 327 pages, paperback, £7.99

With the football World Cup being played in South Africa this summer, this book is an antidote to the hype which will surround that event.

It tells the astonishing story of how political prisoners on the infamous Robben Island formed a fully-fledged football league — the Makana Football Association — and for 20 years ran a league of three divisions adhering strictly to the rules of FIFA, world football’s governing body. All this while South Africa remained expelled from FIFA because of apartheid. FIFA awarded the Makana Football Association membership status, a unique award never conferred on any other non-national association.

Obviously the creation of the league was hugely difficult in the face of constant obstruction by the apartheid regime. But apart from the direct benefits, football also contributed to breaking down political differences between prisoners from the different political organisations. The players who took part in the league included many people now prominent in post-apartheid South Africa.

Even those in solitary confinement, such as Nelson Mandela, who could not themselves play, followed developments and supported the league.

In the words of South African cleric and activist Archbishop Desmond Tutu, the story adds “a compelling dimension to our understanding of the struggle against apartheid”.