ABSTRACT

This book takes a close look at discrimination in football in order to illuminate our understanding of the interaction between sport and wider society, politics and culture, particularly in terms of the (re)production of identity.

It presents insightful and diverse international case studies, including the shadow of fascism in Italian football; fan activism against racism, sexism, and homophobia in US soccer; migrant football clubs in Germany, and the use of football club history in the teaching of antisemitism. Together they demonstrate the damaging societal consequences of unchecked resentment and discrimination in football fan cultures but also the potential for fan activism as a socio-positive force.

This is fascinating reading for anybody with an interest in football or fandom, the sociology of sport, cultural studies, or political science.

part I|26 pages

Prologue

chapter Chapter 1|24 pages

Collective identity and forms of abuse and discrimination in football fan culture

A case study on antisemitism

part II|60 pages

Ressentiment

chapter Chapter 2|10 pages

The image of the “Judenklub” in interwar European soccer

Myth or reality?

chapter Chapter 3|18 pages

The sociopolitical roots of antisemitism among football fandom

The real absence and imagined presence of Jews in Polish football

part III|43 pages

Identity

chapter Chapter 7|16 pages

Racism and interethnic conflict in Amateur football

The case of migrant sports clubs in Germany

chapter Chapter 8|11 pages

Struggling to belong in the face of otherness

The Atlanta Fútbol club of Buenos Aires1

part IV|58 pages

(Anti-)discrimination

chapter Chapter 9|11 pages

Appealing to a common identity

The case of antisemitism in Dutch football

chapter Chapter 10|14 pages

Eintracht Frankfurt fans and the museum

Football history, remembrance culture, and the fight against antisemitism

chapter Chapter 12|18 pages

The twofold American exceptionalism in soccer fandom

Anti-discriminatory activism among organized soccer supporters in the US