Magdi El-Gizouli on how #Sudan’s revolutionary generation was dragged into total war. Via @equatormag.bsky.social
Khartoum After the Storm • EQUATOR
How Sudan’s revolutionary generation was dragged into total war
equator.org
Sean Jacobs
@seanjacobs.bsky.social
Eric Hobsbawm's idea that the imagined community of millions seems more real as a team of eleven named people infuses my work.
A candidate is outspent 11 to 1. Wins. So pundits frame it as a loss. Whatever.
Carlos Caszely. See "Culture Club: Coco-Colo" on Eleven Named People on Substack.
This is a beautiful essay, and something I've thought about quite a bit. To play jazz or football, you have to have extraordinary technical skill and play as part of a team/ensemble, with all moving parts working together. Yet, the improvisation, flourishes, creativity are where art and sport shine.
Argentina’s 2026 World Cup reinforced its reputation for anti-football: negative, defensive, disruptive play. Yet the label sat uneasily with a nation that produced Diego Maradona and Lionel Messi and, when needed, could unleash breathtaking attacking football.
Flamenco Sketches of Nico Williams
An Instagram post connecting Spain's Nico Williams to John Coltrane sent me down a rabbit hole to the links between jazz and football.
elevennamedpeople.substack.com
"The scandalous enrichment, speedy and pitiless, of this caste ..." (Frantz Fanon).
Sean Jacobs@seanjacobs.bsky.social · 4d agoGo figure: it turns out that, in this FIFA mess, Africa's football administrators were either the most risk-averse, loyal to power, or more concerned with lining their own pockets.
Go figure: it turns out that, in this FIFA mess, Africa's football administrators were either the most risk-averse, loyal to power, or more concerned with lining their own pockets.
I still hate vuvuzelas (scroll down to read, but also read the other entries). Via @goldengoalmag.bsky.social goldengoal.world/2026/07/26/r...
Remembering the World Cup: 2002-2022 - Golden Goal
Part II of our compendium of World Cup memories
goldengoal.world
If South America, for soft power, and Africa or Asia, for their voting strength, break with Infantino, it's over. Watch him try to seize control of an increasingly losing hand. Concacaf weakened him, but Africa or Asia now needs to break ranks.
Brand new piece from @johannamellis.bsky.social 👇🏻👇🏻👇🏻
Sean Jacobs@seanjacobs.bsky.social · last wk.@johannamellis.bsky.social on how rightwingers in the US use sports to erase transgender people, casting exclusion as a path to “feminine” motherhood and a white nation. Johanna's advice: We need to believe them when they tell us that.
Everyone needs to read this right now. @johannamellis.bsky.social absolutely nails the way that the Right's anti-trans, anti-women's sports agenda links to their larger project of eugenics, stripping civil rights, and forcing White women to give birth (preferably ONLY white, able-bodied women).
Sean Jacobs@seanjacobs.bsky.social · last wk.@johannamellis.bsky.social on how rightwingers in the US use sports to erase transgender people, casting exclusion as a path to “feminine” motherhood and a white nation. Johanna's advice: We need to believe them when they tell us that.
Will share more about this tomorrow!! TY Sean and Eleven Named People 🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻
Sean Jacobs@seanjacobs.bsky.social · last wk.@johannamellis.bsky.social on how rightwingers in the US use sports to erase transgender people, casting exclusion as a path to “feminine” motherhood and a white nation. Johanna's advice: We need to believe them when they tell us that.
@johannamellis.bsky.social on how rightwingers in the US use sports to erase transgender people, casting exclusion as a path to “feminine” motherhood and a white nation. Johanna's advice: We need to believe them when they tell us that.
It’s not just about sports
The Right uses sports to erase transgender people, casting exclusion as a path to “feminine” motherhood and a white nation. We need to believe them when they tell us that.
elevennamedpeople.substack.com
Football of, for, and by the people. #FuckFIFA
Sean Jacobs@seanjacobs.bsky.social · last wk.Episode 5 of World Cup Weekly, the last one wrapping up the 2026 World Cup, is live. With @tonykaron.bsky.social @ishaantharoor.bsky.social @davidgoldblatt.bsky.social and Abdullah Al-Arian of Georgetown Qatar. Watch on YouTube.
Episode 5 of World Cup Weekly, the last one wrapping up the 2026 World Cup, is live. With @tonykaron.bsky.social @ishaantharoor.bsky.social @davidgoldblatt.bsky.social and Abdullah Al-Arian of Georgetown Qatar. Watch on YouTube.
World Cup Weekly: 'Football is ours and we deserve better custodians'
YouTube video by Sean Jacobs
youtube.com
"Football is ours and we deserve better custodians” @davidgoldblatt.bsky.social to @tonykaron.bsky.social, @ishaantharoor.bsky.social and I about the struggle to reform #FIFA.
Argentinians are about to forward you that confusing NY Times story ...
"I am not a prisoner of History. I should not seek there for the meaning of my destiny. I should constantly remind myself that the real leap consists in introducing invention into existence. In the world through which I travel, I am endlessly creating myself" (Frantz Fanon).
Good piece, thank you. The 1982 Brazilians did the same for me.
An Instagram post linking Spain's Nico Williams to John Coltrane sent me down a rabbit hole (a rewarding one); in the process, reaffirming football and jazz's shared improvisation - and why football won the World Cup.
Flamenco Sketches of Nico Williams
An Instagram post linking Spain's Nico Williams to John Coltrane sent me down a rabbit hole; in the process reaffirming football and jazz's shared improvisation - and why football won the World Cup.
elevennamedpeople.substack.com
Some Argentinians now posting to show that while European teams are diverse, European societies are still racist, to, I suppose, stop people from talking about their history and present with race and racism. Also telling us race works ‘different’ like ‘racism of a special type.’ Zero self-awareness
11 Questions with @rajpatel.org "[The first player whose name I memorized was the] late, great Kevin Keegan. He simply seemed to be the person everyone talked about whenever Liverpool came up, so his was the name that lodged in my mind. First time I saw him on TV I didn’t recognise him."
11 Questions: Raj Patel
As football mourns Kevin Keegan, one of writer, filmmaker and activist Raj Patel's sporting heroes, he answers 11 questions on fandom, players, teams, and nationhood.
elevennamedpeople.substack.com
Paul Robeson would be the best player on that team by far. He was an All-American football player (American football of course). He also played multiple other sports.
11 Questions for @zeets.bsky.social: Q: Create a starting eleven of named people from arts, culture and politics. A: Karl Ove Knausgård ... Simone Weil, Aimé Césaire, Federico García Lorca, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Malcolm X, Edward Said, Paul Robeson, Clarice Lispector, Italo Calvino, and Ho Chi Minh.
11 Questions: Zito Madu
For this occasional series, I ask people to answer 11 questions about teams, players, rivalries, films, music, and all-time 11s.
elevennamedpeople.substack.com
I will keep my counsel to myself about that dumb, clueless, and insulting piece on football politics (especially on race politics) to guilt trip people into rooting for Argentina that Jacobin published on the eve of the World Cup Final.