This is Jacobin Radio, and welcome to the People's Game edition of Jacobin Radio.

I'm Melissa Vigaroa.

With my co-host, Alan Minsky, we are sitting in for Susie Weissman, who will be back next week.

The People's Game is a special series that looks at the economic and political subtext

of the tournament, as well as the joys and passions of the game on the field in Mexico,

Canada, and Donald Trump's America.

Today we spend the hour with Ryan McKnight, a doctoral researcher at Manchester

Met University who is researching the impact of neoliberalism on what he calls the

opportunity of football fandom. Football fandom, to him is the last remaining act of large-scale

collectivism in the UK where he lives and offers a special window into

what he calls the nature of society and the contestation of what football means and is to fans

in the UK and throughout the world today.

Next, my co-host Alan Minsky speaks to former Congressman Jamal Bowman

to get his thoughts on the World Cup and the victory of the Knicks and how that's being

experienced in New York. Stay tuned for a fascinating conversation when our program returns

in just a moment.

And welcome back to the people's game. We are here. We're going to have a lovely discussion right now with Ryan McKnight.

Now, Ryan McKnight is a doctoral researcher at Manchester Met University, completing his PhD,

which is researching the impact of neoliberalism on what he calls the opportunity of

football fandom. So, Ryan, if you could, first of all, explain to those of us in the United States,

because football culture is not quite as developed as it is in the rest of the world. If you

could explain, Ryan, first of all, describe what football fandom is like and what the

...