Hidden inside a decommissioned military bunker in the Stockholm Archipelago, street artist Herr Nilsson has tucked away a new obsession. Beneath a moss-covered entrance that looks as though it belongs in Middle-earth, Gollum crouches lovingly over a football. Gone is Tolkien’s One Ring. In its place sits the world’s most popular game—his new “Precious.”

The face appears to borrow features from FIFA president Gianni Infantino, turning Gollum’s all-consuming fixation into a sly comment on football’s governing establishment and its grip on the sport.

It is a timely reminder that football has become far more than a sport. It is spectacle, identity, commerce, politics, and, for many, a substitute for civic engagement itself. Victories and defeats by players we’ll never meet can send millions into the streets, while issues much closer to home struggle to command the same collective energy.

Herr Nilsson doesn’t lecture about any of this. He simply replaces the Ring with a football—and suddenly Tolkien’s most famous addict begins to look uncomfortably familiar.