Intelligence Squared: The beautiful game? You're having a laugh! April 29, 2010

Money, violence, hate, cheating: that is the face of modern football. Once the so called “beautiful game” represented something precious and important about English identity. Football clubs were part of the fabric of local community; football players felt genuine loyalty to their clubs. And in the spirit of the traditional game, neither players nor fans tolerated diving or other forms of cheating as a legitimate tactic. But from a mixture of greed and appaling incompetence, the British football authorities have encouraged foreign oligarchs to take over the game – and this, say the tradtitionalists, has destroyed all that was valuable in the national game. Teams consist of foreign mercenaries; cheating is an essential component of the footballer’s repetoire of skills; successful clubs are no more than global brands. But are the traditionalists right? Haven’t mercenary values and unsporting tactics always been part of the spirit of English football? Isn’t the truth rather that the foreign fortunes poured into our football and the foreign players they have attracted have made the game infinitely more exciting, skilful and pleasurable to watch?

Tickets:

Regular tickets are priced at £25: http://events.intelligencesquared.com/current-events.php?event=EVT0211

Student tickets are priced £12.50: http://iq2-football.eventbrite.com

Doors open at 6:00 pm.

Speakers:

Tom Bower: Author whose books include biographies of Robert Maxwell, Mohamed Al-Fayed, Gordon Brown and Conran Black. He won the 2003 William Hill Sports Book of the Year Award for "Broken Dreams", an investigation into corruption in English football.

David Davies: Former Executive Director of the Football Association, and regular broadcaster on BBC News 24, Radio 5 and Sky News.

Hunter Davies: Journalist and author whose books include "The Glory Game", an account of a whole season spent with Tottenham Hotspur, and ghost written memoirs for Wayne Rooney and Paul Gascoigne. He writes a column on football for the New Statesman.

David Dein: Former vice-chairman of Arsenal Football Club and former vice-chairman of the Football Association.

Dominic Lawson: Commentator who writes a weekly column for both the Sunday Times and the Independent newspaper.

Ed Smith: Former England cricketer with a double first from Cambridge. Author of "What Sport Tells Us About Life", a discussion of the role of sport in society, and its moral and ethical lessons.

Watch live online:

Our debate will be live-streamed on our website at http://www.intelligencesquared.com/live. Make your voice heard through our live Twitter feed (#iq2football) and see the online discussion update next to the video.