As someone who believes football and intellect are not necessary placed at opposite ends of the spectrum, I have been deeply shocked at the level of ignorance, racism, xenophobia, and indeed fascism that has recently come to the fore in football.
As a teenager I had always tended to assume that fascism cum racism had disappeared, simply because it did not really feature that overtly in the 1990s – or better, the press did not pick up on it, at least as far as I was aware.