Trigger Issues: Football

David Beckham, Pakistan and the oil fields of Siberia are all linked to the small round ball that began life as a lump of rubber in Latin America hundreds of year ago.

Football is an arena of vast money and TV deals, plus million-dollar sponsorship for the superstars and their retinues. While club owners such as Berlusconi and Abramovich pour in their millions much of the home-grown talent is pouring out of African and Latin American countries, while child labour is often used to create the balls.

Chris Brazier’s Trigger Issues book explores football in an era of globalization showing how it reflects some of the major trade-offs between wealth and poverty while also having an almost limitless capacity to transcend geography, culture and class.

The Trigger Issues series presents single objects that have had far-reaching impact on the modern world. Each item is explored through its effects on society and often surprising cultural connections. Exposing topical items in a new light these are short, sharp and provocative booklets._