What are the chapter summaries for How Soccer Explains the World by Franklin Foer?

In the Prologue of How Soccer Explains the World, Franklin Foer--a Washington D.C. journalist writing for New Republic, the brainchild of founder William F. Buckley--explains how his compelling interest in soccer (i.e., obsession with soccer) drove his interest in examining how globalization and the flaws of globalization were manifest and furthered by the attitudes, organization and actions of the range of international soccer clubs and soccer fan clubs.

Foer explains that the early promise of globalization to override national borders and identities and to build a harmoniously interdependent world was reflected in the composition of soccer rosters that had multinational line-ups of players. After the September 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center (resulting in an international death toll), the promises of globalization took on a new visage: "the consensus on globalization changed considerably ... [it being] no longer possible to speak so breathlessly ... of the political promise of economic interdependence." Foer then explains his thesis by saying that globalization's promise had "failed to diminish the game's local cultures, local blood feuds, and even local corruption. ... globalization had actually increased the power of these local entities." Foer states his intent that his book present the value of nationalism to blunt the re-merging tribalism directly represented on the soccer field.

Chapter 1 begins to prove Foer's assertion that "local entities" of ethnic culture, feuds and corruption were increased by globalization, and "not always in such a good way," by describing his interview with the Serb soccer organization: the Red Star Belgrade team and the Red Star Ultra Bad Boys fan club. The organization is comprised of team members, team management and fan club over-site of management--over-site gained by "intimidation" exerted with "bats, bars, and other bludgeons." During the interview, the "three-fingered salute of Serb nationalism" (forcibly present during the Balkan War Serb attacks on Croat civilians) was a dominating influence. The salute is a critical symbol to the nationalism exerted by the Bad Boys, who enjoy telling their victory stories, such as of when they attacked fans and police at a match against their arch-rivals, the Partzan team. The stadium-wide attacks produced "lines of casualties" as the Bad Boys "'made it around the stadium in five minutes.'"

Foer then presents the examples of Milosevic and Tudjman--the former an elected Serbian national leader and the latter an elected Croatian national leader (representative of World War II Croatian attacks against Serbs)--to illustrate the connection between ethnic hostilities, national policy and soccer. These two men illustrate Foer's intent: "the book uses soccer to defend the virtues of old-fashioned nationalism--[as] a way to blunt the return of tribalism" (Prologue).