Kevin Bridges: In Search of the Beautiful Game

Twenty-eight years since Scotland last qualified for a World Cup, Kevin Bridges embarks on a global journey to understand what football has become, and whether the sport that once brought people together still has beauty at its heart.

Kevin starts in Clydebank, where his own love of football began during the 1998 World Cup. Meeting his old pal and Scotland vice-captain John McGinn, Kevin revisits those early memories of jumpers for goalposts and the idea that football could mean something bigger than the game itself. But they also consider how football has changed, and maybe lost some of its soul, prompting Kevin to embark on a journey to find out whether the beautiful game still exists. And where better to find out than the home of Jogo Bonito - Brazil.

Kevin meets Daniel, a world champion who has returned to the favelas to coach young players on the pitches that overlook the city. Football here offers an escape and a reason to dream and hope, and the kids play with an ease and creativity born of their surroundings.

In São Paulo, Kevin joins a local torcida, one of the fiercely loyal fan collectives whose chants, drums and banners animate Brazilian football. In the space of one day, Kevin experiences both sides of Brazilian passion: the intoxicating unity of the torcida, and the uneasy knowledge that the forces commercialising the sport are already at its gates. At várzea matches played on dirt pitches, Kevin finds that a game unimpeded by the rise of corruption, money and corporate sponsors still exists, even if it is being threatened by property developers.

Kevin's final stop is New York City, where contrary to his expectations, the support for football is exploding. He speaks to fans and visits a bar in the morning to witness lines of people round the block waiting to come inside and loudly support Arsenal.

Back in Scotland, Kevin reconnects with home and with the next generation of fans. He and John McGinn visit their old school, where young children talk about the Scottish team with the same excitement he once felt, and he understands that the spirit of the game doesn’t disappear, it just moves.

Football may have become a global business, but its essence - the sound of kids playing, the heartbeat of a crowd, the belief that anything is possible - remains the same. The beautiful game never left, it’s just harder to hear beneath the noise.