Mike Bassett: England Manager

Metal has This Is Spinal Tap, soccer has Mike Bassett. This mockumentary with a deadly serious face takes shots at everything around football, from the players to the mangers, football clichés, the politicization of rivalries, old grievances and the media, along with the press conferences, the public and Pelé. As a whole, it doesn't hold together (not at all), but it is very entertaining as a patchwork of scenes and pearls of wisdom. And while it is specifically targeted as a cleansing satire of the state of the English soccer environment (from the association to  the media) after the failures of the 1998 World Cup and the 2000 European Championship, it “hits the nail on the head", and it is timeless and independent of its country of origin. In addition to providing tons of laughter, it works in a really nice way, especially from the emotional point of view during the final press conference “4-4-F-2" (how is it possible that such a setup is not like an Easter egg in Football Manager?) before the match with Argentina. (30.04.2020)