Thirty One Nil - Interview with James Montague

Following on from my review of Thirty One Nil last year, I was pleased to be afforded the chance to interview the author James Montague (@JamesPiotr) with the paperback release of the book by Bloomsbury Sport.

- What is the appeal of travelling to watch football around the world?

Doesn't everyone want to do that?! For me, the highest form of the game was international football. From a young age, before the internet, it was a window on the world. I vividly remember my Panini sticker album from Mexico 86 and it was glorious. The Iraq team! They all had these tremendous moustaches. So I grew up fascinated by the rest of the world and was lucky enough to get a job in the Middle East in my mid 20s, and started going to local games.It all started from that.

- Do you see it as an alternative or escape from the mainstream of Sky Sports coverage?

I can't stand what's happening to the game. The Sky-ification of football. It's an idiotic gentrification that is stripping football of its identity and will, eventually, kill the goose that laid the golden egg. You don't have to travel far to find the game's true soul, but for me travelling to different countries, understanding them through football, shows me that the game as we all remember it, the game we fell in love with, is still out there. It's messier sometimes, and fucked up, but who wants everything to be perfect? 

- What was your total mileage?
Christ knows. But if I wanted to offset my carbon usage I'd have to replant a forest the size of East Anglia.

- Were you afraid of anywhere you did travel to?

Yeah, there were times when I was properly scared. Egypt post revolution. When it was all falling apart. I remember being in Port Said, after the announcement that 20 people were being sentenced to death for their role in 72 Al Ahly fans killed at a  match in the city. Protests broke out there, dozens were shot dead, a curfew had been put on the city. I managed to get in just before the curfew started. It was chaos and terrifying. It seemed so far removed from football, but you have to follow a story all the way. Or you've failed.

- Would you visit these places if there was not a football match taking place (I have the same belief with cricket, would I travel to the sub-continent if a test match was not happening)?

Luckily, we live in a world where a football match is taking place in every country on earth every day. So there is nowhere I could possibly go where a football match isn't going on. Expect perhaps Antarctica.  

- Do you feel the minnows are closing the gap on the world powers, will the extra teams in Euro 2016 close it further?

Yeah. There was a lot of criticism of the expansion, but it has proved to be a genius move. Sport lives or dies on competitive balance so what was seen as a weakening of the tournament has motivated teams to up their games. Every game counts now because every team believes they have a chance. Hope is important. Look at Armenia, Albania, San Marino even. Everyone benefits from this system.  

- Why are smaller nations getting better?

Hope is a big factor. But football is getting smaller. You can watch any game in the world at any time online. Football across the world is becoming increasingly professionalised. That will improve hugely in the next 20 years. But the main reason some countries are making huge strides is money. Iceland is a case in point. They narrowly missed out on being the smallest nation to ever qualify for the World Cup. It would be a record that would never have been broken. They invested heavily on indoor halls, for their harsh winter, and in training up coaches. They are lucky. They are one of the richest nations on earth so can afford it. But it shows what resources can achieve.  

- What are your thoughts on Russia and Qatar hosting the World Cup?

There has been so little scrutiny of Russia's World Cup. There is a very strong case that it should be moved elsewhere given Putin's actions in Ukraine. Qatar is little trickier. I was pleased the Middle East won the chance to host it. it is an important region that loves football. And having lived in the Gulf i wasn't at all surprised they won. Qatar and the UAE have been perusing these mega events for years. What is clear is that there is some very important scrutiny of Qatar including the kafala system. I started visiting worker camps when I lived in Dubai, in 2005. The treatment of humans in them is a disgrace. And the UAE has zero interest in reforming it. Qatar on the other hand has been forced to confront it. It is a far more reform minded place than the UAE or Saudi Arabia. So for that reason alone I hope they don't lose it. Kafalla is one of the world's great evils and if the World Cup can in any way help bring about its timely demise then I can live with a winter World Cup in 2022.

- What are you working on currently?

I'm typing this out in an Irish pub in Macedonia, covering the protests out here. I've moved to Belgrade and working on my next book, about money in football. But first I've got to get out of this god damn pub. They've had the same CD on for four hours now and if I have to here that Ke$ha song again I might kill someone.

Thirty One Nil

When I interviewed James Montague at the tail end of last year in relation to the release of his book, When Friday Comes, my last question to him was, What advice do you have for a young writer? His answer was go out and find the stories. Taking heed of his own advice and endorsing the quote on the front of new book ' The Indiana Jones of football writing', Montague travels around the world from 2011 throughout the qualification period for the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.

Montague travels to all corners of the globe from the now famed American Somoa team (who garnered world attention after being defeated by Australia 31-0) which gives the book it's title. Other outposts visited include Lebanon, Curaçao as well as returning to the Middle East, a place of which he wrote with such authority.

Montague is an affable writer, and by placing himself at the heart of the action amongst such eccentric players and equally fanatical fans whilst experiencing the problems of travelling the globe and being an outsider in a strange land.  Often he had little money, often he is up against the clock; he makes clear that it is not all warm beaches and glamour, the dedication to the craft of journalism is never in doubt.

While some call him Indiana Jones, for me he is Michael Palin - the polite Englishman ever respectful and yet universally liked by all, able to infiltrate previously restricted areas with ease and gaining access and interviewing those who rarely gain exposure from the world media.  Whilst football provides the overall framework for the book, the locations and their residents provide the page-turning material. The final score is not the most important result, more so the bus journey to the ground.

Mixing in top rate observations of new landscapes as well as explaining the sometimes qualifying procedures for these lonely nations; Montague has again written a book that is more travelogue than tome to football.

It got me thinking that if Shakespeare had been born in the twentieth century, he may well have written, 'All the world is football' and with writers like Montague who venture to all corners and continents to cover it with such aplomb, the passion for football will never diminish.

Thirty-One Nil is out on 22 May 2014 from Bloomsbury priced £12.99 for paperback and available on eBook

www.bloomsbury.com

When Friday Comes: James Montague Q&A

When Friday Comes is a book by respected football journalist, James Montague, who has written for the New York Times, World Soccer, CNN and The Blizzard.  The book is a collection of Montague's travails around the Middle East from Egypt to Israel following football, and how in spite of political differences football appears to be a unifying item of personal pleasure for many people across the vast region.

 

To help support the release of the book in hardback, Mr. Montague in his very hectic schedule afforded me the opportunity to ask him some questions about the book and his time in the Gulf, the rise of football and the awarding of the World Cup to Qatar in 2022.

 

Where did the idea of the book come from?

 

The book idea came shortly after the first time I arrived in the Middle East. I moved to Dubai in 2004. It was quite a strange place when I got there. Blisteringly hot, all these clash of cultures and values. It was a booming totem to neo-liberalism wrapped in a strong Islamic culture. It was pretty disorientating at first. But football was something that very clearly permeated most strata of societies in the Middle East. So when I travelled to other countries in the region I'd watch the local league, watch the national teams, read about the intrigues and controversies of the game. It was fascinating but also gave me a window on the region that I think very few other areas of life can offer. I'd have never known about the schism, if that isn't too harsh a word, between the Jewish Ashkenaism and Mizrahim communities in Israel. Or the pronounced sectarian divisions in Lebanon if it wasn't by first looking at football in those countries. It was the perfect mirror in many ways. 

 

The book covers a period of eight nine years. A version came out in 2008 but I decided to essentially write a sequel as the region changed forever thanks to Arab Spring and also the economic explosion in the Gulf. On the one hand you had this incredible movement for change that swept away much of the old order in some countries, and football, especially in Egypt, played a part. So it wasn't just a mirror of understanding any more. It was actually an agent for change in itself. People don't like to see football in that way. But we look at art and culture in such terms. But why not football?  

Is the sport growing abundantly in that region?

It was huge when I got there. You have derbies in Egypt and Iran that pull 100,000 fans. Saudi Arabia too. In Israel you'll have ten per cent of a city's population turn out to see their team. What is changing now is that money from the region is changing the game in the West. Qatar and the UAE especially are reshaping the financial aspects of top flight European football. It will be an interesting few years to come. 

 

You seemed to encounter some really scary moments, did you ever fear for your safety?

 

The Middle East is seen as an alien planet. But I was met with kindness and compassion almost everywhere I went. You begin to see things as they are. The issue of Islam's influence on Western society is one that is gaining momentum. There is a fear of this alien concept sweeping the land. But when you spend time in the region you see something different. People aren't that different. They want jobs and a family, they want to get married, get laid, get wasted. We see a conservative, crazy place. But most of the places I've been to are no more conservative than Christian societies in the 20th century. These are ancient civilizations that had values of tolerance and multiculturalism whilst we in England were still building mud huts. The great game of competing empires has given rise to militant Islam and emasculated many countries in the region from having a functioning middle class and political class. We are surprised with the problems Egypt is experiencing in reconciling its new democratic order. But we propped up Mubarak, who liquidated any reasonable, liberal, left of centre opposition. Are we surprised that all is left is the Army and the Brotherhood?

 

Where you in Egypt around the time of the Arab Spring?

 

Much of the new book follows the exploits of the Ahlawy, the Al Ahly Ultras of Cairo's biggest club. They played quite a role in the revolution, and after it too. There was the incident at Port Said where 72 of their fans were killed after a game. I wasn't there but the aftermath was pretty dicey. The scariest was when the initial verdict that sentenced 21 Al Masry fans to death for their role in the killings. I was with the Ahlawy in Cairo and there was wild celebration. 15,000 fans were there, firing guns in the air. But the people of Port Said were livid. Police shot 30 people dead when they stormed the prison the AL Masry fans were being held. President Morsi announced a curfew and I went down to Port Said on the last bus before the curfew fell. The city was deserted. Empty. It was a ghost town. Except for one street where protesters were fighting with the police over burning barricades. I was cowering behind a Red Crescent ambulance, hearing gun fire wondering how I had got there. That night there was a march to break the curfew. It ended with a protester being shot dead and a gun battle followed. I remember having to get back to my hotel, hiding from car to car past the gun fire. That was pretty scary.  

 

Which country was the scariest? Which country was the safest in comparison?

 

It's not a country but Gaza was pretty malevolent. I went there in 2009, not long after the Israelis had bombed it even further back in to the dark ages. Journalists were being kidnapped but Hamas was in control so there was order laid atop chaos. I felt it was cursory. And it was also a dark, miserable place. It left its mark on me.   The safest? No question Oman. It is beautiful. In many Gulf countries, if you can call Oman strictly a Gulf country, it is difficult to meet the local population. But Omanis are warm and eager to meet you. I have a favourite pool bar I go to in Seeb where I would get hammered in almost every game, drink tins of lager with my Omani opponents and talk about life in the country.  Although sometimes they can be a little too warm. I have never been propositioned by so many men my life!

Where you surprised that FIFA awarded the 2022 World Cup to Qatar and that region in particular?

In a way, no. FIFA is about taking the power centre away from European football and I was not surprised at all. Qatar played the game better than anyone else. It remains to be seen whether FIFA's investigation into the bids will find anything. But I wasn't surprised at all.

 

Will the 2022 tournament be moved or taken away from them?
  

I suspect that it will. There's too much money at stake for FIFA. Moving it to Winter is a no no. Platini, UEFA and the top clubs want January-February but that can't take place because of the Winter Olympics. November December is Blatter's choice, but that clashes with the Champions League. That leaves having it in Qatar in July which, unless they can show vast improvements in the cooling tech they promised, won't happen, or moving it to May-June. Which is an option. But again you feel like there are some people who actually hope that Qatar will have been found to have done something bad so it makes it easier (ie, won't cause massive legal issues). It is being used as  pawn in the up and coming 2015 FIFA presidential vote. It will be clearer after that.

What country or continent are you covering next?

 

My next book is called Thirty One Nil. I've been following the underdogs as they try to qualify for the 2014 World Cup. It has been quite a journey that started in 2011. From Palestine, Tajikistan, Haiti, Rwanda, Samoa, the US. So, pretty much every continent is covered!

Are you the Michael Palin of football?

 

Well, I wouldn't say that although it is kind of you to say. I always wanted to write football books that appealed to people who loved the game but also those who have never seen the beauty in it before. I hope journey helps to show that in some small way. 

What advice would you give to young writers and bloggers of football to get more recognition and get noticed?

 

Get out there. Get into the smoke and the heat. There are so many people writing blogs and analysis. What journalist are doing less because of the financial restrictions on the trade is travelling to stories. Get your self there. See it with your own eyes. And you will have the stories no one else has.

 

When Friday Comes is out in hardback from DeCoubertin Books (@deCoubertin www.decoubertin.co.uk) at £16.99 RRP but £7.20 on Kindle through Amazon.co.uk
 

James Montague can be followed on twitter @JamesPiotr