Zohran Mamdani’s Fifa fight is a blueprint for the left to re-engage with sports | Leander Schaerlaeckens

The New York City mayoral candidate's petition blends progressive politics to an audience that's been near-monopolized by the right

If Zohran Mamdani had not intended it as a campaigning opportunity, he probably wouldn't have worn a full suit - the universal candidate's uniform. But there he was, the 33-year-old Democratic nominee for November's New York City mayoral election; the upstart democratic socialist who has stormed on to the national stage with a wildfire campaign on an unabashedly progressive platform of affordability in one of the world's most expensive cities. Last Sunday, he mingled in an Arsenal bar in Brooklyn, flanked by fellow Gooner Spike Lee, peering at the big screen with a solemnity befitting the showdown with Manchester City.

Mamdani is the overwhelming favorite in the race to run the United States' largest city, sitting 15 points clear of his nearest rival, Andrew Cuomo. Mamdani is potentially New York's first Muslim mayor. And also its first soccer mayor.