ABSTRACT
Soccer threads itself as a red line through the twentieth century history of the Middle East and North Africa as the region came into its own and independence populated it with nation states. Soccer was important to the leaders of the region’s struggles for independence as a means to stake claims, develop national identity and fuel anti-colonial sentiment. For the region’s rulers, soccer was a tool they could harness to shape their nations in their own mould; for the region’s citizenry, soccer was both a popular form of entertainment and a platform for opposition and resistance. The sport offers a unique arena for social and political differentiation and the projection of transnational, national, ethnic, sectarian, local, generational and gender identities, sparking a long list of literature that dates back more than a century. The sport also constitutes a carnivalesque event that lends itself to provocation of and confrontation with authority, local, national or colonial.
