Opening
Modern football has become too sterile. VAR measures three millimetres of toenail for offside, millionaires complain about the pitches at every stadium in the world — the grass is cut too long, then too short — and the stands sigh if the ball goes a metre over the bar.
Our football was different. There, the goalposts were built from bricks, the referee was replaced by rock-paper-scissors, and the medical staff consisted of a plantain leaf, some spit and the phrase "you're fine, keep playing". It was not a game. It was a school of survival.
