Dominic Green, writing a neat historical reflection on football’s place in English society for the Spectator following England’s loss in the final of the European Championship, says:

Football is more than a religion to the English. People drop in and out of religion, and faith comes and goes. But football is a constant, furious passion at the heart of English life — the only activity apart from tea-drinking that unites everyone, regardless of class, race or ethnicity …

If soccer is the reality, and politics the shadow play we conduct while waiting for Saturday afternoon, then this European Championship suggests that English soccer is again in sync with what the unromantic and unsporting call ‘real life’.

See also Green’s The Religious Revolution: The Birth of Modern Spirituality, 1848-1898.

The Chase Creative Consultants created this image for a flag for a global exhibition celebrating football and graphics, and supporting the quote attributed to Diego Maradona: “Football isn’t a game, nor a sport, it’s a religion.”

Josh Sexton struggles with typical religious questions:

Like, if there is a god that is as great and powerful as the one you know and love, how does a global pandemic happen? How are the awful things happening every single day on this earth allowed to happen, for that matter?

But he can:

Relate to the idea that no matter how bad things get you know there are brighter days to come. Or that you’ll have bad days where things are weighing on you but you have something/someone to share that with.

Because:

I have witnessed divine intervention. I am a part of something that is bigger than me. I am a part of *something*. I go to a place of worship, with the same smiling faces, to make the same idle small talk with other believers. Something which is our combined thing. The faith.

That thing, that something, that faith, is Liverpool Football Club.

So, as he tells the readers of The Anfield Wrap:

We should remember that brighter days are coming. I can’t tell you when, I just know they are.

The SBS broadcaster and former Socceroos captain has worked tirelessly to promote the 'world game' and help provide football opportunities for disadvantaged children.

The discussion on ABC Radio National also briefly touches on a certain issue of religious freedom ...

For some soccer is just a game, a time for friends to come together and kick a ball around. There are those who make it a career, training daily and travelling the world to compete for the title of number one. But soccer, for Africans, has all the makings of a religion without actually being one. Whether it’s called soccer or football, these devotees live to play the game ...

From Design Indaba.

A report published by Coptic Solidarity, an organisation advocating equal citizenship for the Coptic Christians of Egypt, Egypt’s biggest Christian denomination, revealed that being a Christian footballer in Egypt is a significant obstacle to a professional career.

Ewelina U. Ochab, writing for Forbes, says:

Getting the call to represent your state at a major sporting event should be the result of a certain mix of skill, talent, ability to perform under pressure and other qualities. Religion should not matter. The news from Egypt sheds a different light on football and questions whether religious discrimination may, in fact, be entrenched in some countries.

From the Economist:

With its mortifications and sense of worldwide communion, the World Cup—which begins on June 14th—is a kind of global religion. It is a form of soft diplomacy and a safe outlet for nationalism. For many fans, it is a potent quadrennial madeleine, each tournament summoning memories of previous ones, the lost friends with whom they were watched, past selves. Sometimes the football itself can be cagey and boring. But, especially on its biggest stage and canvas, sometimes football is art.

"Football in Nigeria is like a religion. I do not know any religion that is followed in Nigeria like football."

Aljazeera: Femi Bamigboye: Local Man

From the National Catholic Reporter.

Black Inc. book club notes are now available for Anna Krein’s Night Games: Sex Power and Sport.

Krien has received a Cross British Sports Book Award for her multiple prize-winning book, reviewed earlier on Sacred Turf.

See also: Anna Krien in discussion with Ramona Koval about Night Games for the Monthly Book Club.