Sport and the media in the UK: the long revolution?

‘It seems to me that we are living through a long revolution, which our best descriptions only in part interpret. It is a genuine revolution, transforming men and institutions; continually extended and deepened by the actions of millions, continually and variously opposed by explicit reaction and by the pressure of habitual forms and ideas. Yet it is a difficult revolution to define, and its uneven action is taking place over so long a period that it is almost impossible not to get lost in its exceptionally complicated process.’ 1 1 Williams Williams, Raymond. 1961. The Long Revolution, London: Chatto & Windus. [Crossref] , [Google Scholar], The Long Revolution, 10. The dialectics of the relations between globalization, national identity and xenophobia are dramatically illustrated in the public activity that combines all three: football. For, thanks to global television, this universally popular sport has been transformed into a worldwide capitalist industrial complex (though, by comparison with other global business activities, of relatively modest size).2 2 Hobsbawn Hobsbawn, Eric. 2007. Globalisation, Democracy and Terrorism, London: Little Brown. [Google Scholar], Globalisation, Democracy and Terrorism, 90.