"Let’s Take a FIFA!:" Football and the Free-Time practices of at-risk youth under remand

Emma Witkowski Rune K. L. Nielsen “And life is itself a game of football” – Sir Walter Scott, 1815 Walking into Highland, we encounter a typically institutional interior accented in greys and blues. As we turn the corner from the common room a familiar scene is revealed. Against the corridor wall sits a low portable table and small screen with cables looping about helter-skelter. We see well maintained black controllers, ready for future play, and four discs (three FIFA discs, one Grand Theft Auto) sprawled across a console cabinet. They are grubby though undamaged. We are struck by how regular this looks. In an institution where almost nothing looks like an ordinary home, the games are scattered in a way that is reminiscent of how books might be scattered in the house of a voracious reader — haphazardly, not because of a lack of care, but lovingly because one expects to...