Roger Peverelli on Football’s Power Beyond the Pitch
Football can entertain, unite and inspire. But in his book ‘Eleven Beautiful Goals’, Roger Peverelli looks beyond the results and asks a different question: what else can the game do? In this first out of three conversations about the book, together with Roger we focused on the opening three chapters, where that wider meaning takes centre stage. The stories move from FC St. Pauli’s anti-fascist identity to a refugee team on Lesbos and the visual storytelling of photographer Mel D. Cole. Three very different settings connected by the larger idea that football is never only about what happens on the pitch.
When Football Became More Than a Game
Before diving into the chapters themselves, we began with a more personal question: when did Roger Peverelli realise football could be more than just football?
His answer immediately shaped the rest of the conversation. “I’ve been playing football since I was six and I think it took me close to 30 years to get this idea that football could be much more than just a game” he said, tracing that shift back to his time in New York around the turn of the century. There, through a company developing life-skills programmes through sport, he first saw how the game could help children build cooperation, perseverance, self-control and responsibility.
That experience changed the way he looked at football. Since then, he has combined his professional work with football-for-good projects, including work connected to War Child, Feyenoord, the KNVB and the More Than Football Foundation. What stood out in his reflection was not only the scale of football’s potential, but how often that potential still goes unnoticed. As Roger put it, “when I tell them about the social impact of football it’s really an eye-opener to most people, I would say 90 percent. The good news is, it’s also very logical and understandable to them.”
That line sits in the heart of ‘Eleven Beautiful Goals’. The book was built to widen awareness of football’s social impact through stories that remain engaging and readable, rather than abstract case studies.
St. Pauli – A Club Shaped From the Stands
The first chapter, ‘The Pure Left-Winger’, explores FC St. Pauli from Hamburg, Germany. A club known far beyond football for its strong supporter culture and outspoken political identity, influenced by the 1980s punk values and anti-fascist movement. The chapter looks at the way that identity developed through fans, local punk culture and political conviction. In our interview, one of the most interesting exchanges focused on what it really means for a club to place its values ahead of unchecked growth.
Peverelli made clear that this philosophy is not without tension. St. Pauli is still a professional football club operating inside a commercial sport, and that creates compromises and limits. But in his view, the key point is that the club seems willing to accept those limits. “People, of course, want to see good football and they want to play as high as possible, but not at any expense,” he said. “Apparently this is the highest they can play without compromising their beliefs too much. And I think that’s a very sound way of managing the club.”
That quote gives the chapter its centre of gravity. St. Pauli’s significance is not just that it has a recognisable identity, but that it tries to protect that identity even when easier commercial routes are available. Roger also spoke about the ways that challenge becomes visible in practice, such as limited advertising space in the arena or the club not selling the rights to rename the iconic Millerntor-Stadion.
What makes the St. Pauli story so compelling is that it becomes larger than the club. It asks a broader question about modern football: can a club still stand for something meaningful when the sport is increasingly shaped by capital, branding and external ownership models? In Roger’s reading, St. Pauli shows that it can, but only if those values are lived, not merely advertised.
Lesbos, Cosmos and Football as a Form of Freedom
The second chapter, ‘The Other Cosmos’, takes us to Lesbos, where an informal refugee team called Cosmos FC plays under conditions marked by uncertainty. Roger’s reflections here were among the most vivid in the entire interview.
Describing the Monday evening training session he attended, he recalled how quickly the mood changed once the players arrived. “As if they couldn’t wait to play a game, or rather, as if they couldn’t wait to get out of the camp, leave their worries behind and, by putting on their football kits, be footballers first and foremost.”
That observation captures exactly captures the message of the chapter. On the pitch, identity briefly shifts. These men are no longer seen through the label of refugees, but as teammates, competitors and footballers. Roger Peverelli underlined that sense of recognition with one of the interview’s nicest passages: “The way they greet each other is exactly how we greet our teammates every Thursday evening and Sunday morning when I play football myself. Joking with each other, already having fun about what is to come.”
He saw the same familiarity both during and after the training. The joking, the competitiveness, the drinks afterwards, the reliving of goals and moments. But one image stayed with him above the rest: “When Moussa scored and fluttered like a bird between players, zigzagging, I couldn’t help it but think that perhaps that bird represents freedom. Free as a bird, able to go wherever you want.”
That quote says so much without overexplaining the moment. At the same time, Roger was careful not to romanticise what football can do. “Of course, I don’t know how they feel when they walk through the camp gate on their way to their accommodation,” he said, grounding the story again in uncertainty and reality. Still, he was clear on what football can offer in such a setting. “Football offers a strange form of stability. It is played everywhere, the rules are the same everywhere, and everywhere you can enjoy the same distraction and fun. Even if you don’t speak the same language.”
That is perhaps the defining line of this chapter. It explains why football can matter so deeply in places where almost everything else feels temporary. In Roger’s view, Cosmos FC is about both community and structure: a team that offers escape, but also connection and purpose.
Mel D. Cole and the Politics of Perspective
In the third chapter, ‘Picturing What’s at Play’, the focus moves from the pitch to the lens. Here, Roger Peverelli explores the work of Mel D. Cole, who’s visible in the portrait (Courtesy of Averie Cole). The New York photographer uses football imagery to think about race, representation and who gets to shape the visual story of the game. The chapter presents the photographer as someone using his platform to improve the representation of Black players and fans in football.
The sharpest quote in this section is also the simplest: “Whoever holds the camera determines the perspective.”
That line gave the conversation real weight. Roger did not present the issue as one of exclusion, but of depth, access and understanding. Drawing partly on his own background, he explained why lived experience can matter in documentary work: “Based on that experience, I agree with Mel: Black documentary photographers are probably better at documenting Black players and fans than non-Black documentary photographers. But I’m not saying it should be exclusive.”
That is what makes the chapter feel broader than photography alone. It is not just about images, but about who frames football and whose perspective gets normalised. Later in the discussion, Roger Peverelli extended that thought into the wider culture of the game. Anti-racism messaging matters, but it is not enough on its own. “Changing this requires leadership,” he said. “Storytelling and imagery to make those stories even more powerful are important tools for demonstrating that leadership.” He was equally clear that this is not an argument against campaigns or policy. “Policies and campaigns are and will remain necessary. But if you really want to solve problems as a club or association, you have to do so with leadership on this issue.”
That distinction is an important one, and it gives the third chapter its edge. The deeper question is not just how football wants to be seen, but whether it is prepared to lead in ways that make different stories visible and credible.
Looking At Football Differently
During our interview and across the first three chapters of ‘Eleven Beautiful Goals’, Roger’s main idea returns again and again: football is like a universal language. “Football is one of the last places where you still meet people from all walks of life, where everyone still talks to each other.”
That does not mean football automatically creates progress. But these opening chapters do make a convincing case that the game contains more social meaning than it is usually given credit for. The author does not ask the reader to love football any less for what happens on the pitch. He asks something more interesting: to look more closely at what else the game can carry. That wider aim also sits at the core of the book’s concept, which is to tell football culture stories that implicitly increase awareness of football’s social impact.
Ready for more?
If you want to read more on what football can do beyond the pitch, read our interview with Juan Mata.
From inspiring stories from the world of sports to the impact it can have on society, discover more stories Beyond Football.
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