British Society: Through The Lens of Football
It Was What It Was : The Football History Podcast
The Overlap
4.9 • 667 Ratings
🗓️ 9 December 2025
⏱️ 63 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Welcome to It Was What It Was, the football history podcast. Co-hosts Jonathan Wilson and Rob Draper are joined by special guest and historian David Goldblatt. In this episode, they discuss David's new book, 'Injury Time,' which examines the impact of recent seismic events like Brexit, COVID-19, and populism on football in Britain. They delve into the popularity of football despite its numerous challenges, the economic disparities within the game, and the global obsession with the Premier League. The conversation also touches on the significance of football as a cultural and political space, the rise of women's football, and the ethical concerns surrounding state ownership of clubs. They also examine the role of fans and community. This episode provides a comprehensive look at the current state and the future of the beautiful game.
00:00 Introduction
00:55 The State of Football Today
03:21 Football as a National Obsession
07:41 Globalisation and Football's Cultural Impact
19:12 Economic Disparities in Football
21:35 Football Reflecting Social Inequalities
29:50 Football's Role in Social and Political Issues
31:20 The Role of Football in Society
33:38 Economic Inequality in Football
36:50 The Super League Controversy
41:25 Cultural Resistance and Football's Future
54:42 The Impact of COVID on Football
59:20 State Involvement in Football
01:02:11 Conclusion and Final Thoughts
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Well, welcome to It Was What It Was What It Was. I'm Rob Draper. I'm here with Jonathan Wilson and today we're very blessed to be joined by pretty much just one of the finest football historians in the business. |
| 0:17.8 | A man very beloved by us because he actually interfaces football and history, |
| 0:23.6 | and not enough people do that. David Goldblatt has a series of wonderful books, all of which |
| 0:28.1 | we'd recommend, but we're here specifically to talk about his new book, Injury Time, which |
| 0:33.4 | looks at football in general, but particularly in the last 10 years, David, doesn't it? |
| 0:37.7 | And what the seismic events in Britain of Brexit, COVID, |
| 0:42.6 | and the wave of populism represented by Russia's invasion of Ukraine, |
| 0:46.6 | have done to our national game. |
| 0:49.7 | David, thank you so much for coming on and welcome to the show. |
| 0:52.9 | Thank you very much for having me. Pleasure to be with you. |
| 0:55.9 | So David, it's a pretty bleak picture, I think it's fair to say that you painted in the book. I mean, you know, the subtitle is football in a state of emergency. But it's perhaps worth, before we start, saying this is quite a different crisis to say the crisis 40 years ago. |
| 1:12.1 | We've talked a lot this year about the events of 1985, which is when English football hit in a deer. |
| 1:21.1 | But football at the moment, for all the problems that you outline, it is staggeringly popular, isn't it? |
| 1:27.5 | Oh, it's more popular than it's ever been, I would say. |
| 1:31.1 | I mean, I would argue that the number of people, for example, going to watch professional football, |
| 1:37.6 | which now extends, of course, beyond just the four divisions to the National League and to the women's game, |
| 1:43.6 | we're actually looking at |
| 1:44.7 | numbers that exceed the record levels of attendance in 1951 after the Second World War. |
| 1:53.2 | And if you look at the number of people who are actually playing the game, albeit in its many |
| 1:59.0 | different forms, not merely 11 aside, we're probably at record |
| 2:03.6 | levels for that as well. So it is absolutely at the centre of British social life and British |
| 2:10.5 | cultural life. And at the very top end, of course, in the Premier League in terms of finances and the amount of money coming in |
... |
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