Stein, Shawn. Playing Fairly: The Satiric Tradition in Football Fiction from Latin America. Soccer and Society 21, no. 3 (2020): 316-328. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14660970.2019.1653858

Works by eminent authors Jorge Luis Borges, Adolfo Bioy Casares and Mario Benedetti are early precursors to a tradition of satirizing transgressions of fair play through literary football fiction. These literary heavyweights from Latin America attempt to demystify the notion of fair play in football by laying bare the mechanisms of foul play and forecasting concerns about inherent venalities produced by increased financial influence over the game in the 1950s and 1960s. By portraying commodification of the professional football spectacle as dangerous to individuals and society, these precursory works mark the beginning of a satirical tradition of denouncing the uglier sides of the beautiful game in football fiction from Latin America.

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