In the first couple of chapters, Franklin Foer addresses "the failure of globalization to erode ancient hatreds in the game’s great rivalries," which is associated with football hooligans.

and AFC Ajax to appropriate Jewish symbols and terminology, which results in conflicting views between things such as the antisemitic chants and taunts.

In the second part of the text, the author uses soccer "to address economics: the consequences of migration, the persistence of corruption, and the rise of powerful new oligarchs like Silvio Berlusconi, the President of [both] Italy and the AC Milan club".

[2] In the final part, Foer uses soccer "to defend the virtues of old-fashioned nationalism", as "a way to blunt the return of tribalism".

[5] Critics for The San Francisco Chronicle[6] and The Boston Globe[7] praised Foer's portrait of the soccer world while dismissing his larger arguments.