ABSTRACT

In this chapter we wish to revisit some of the ideas, concepts and evidence contained within the work of Maguire and Poulton (1999), and Maguire, Poulton and Possamai (1999) on association football and national identity. Using an Eliasian perspective (set out more fully in Chapter 5) we focus once again on association football. Specifically, we examine a single match between Germany and England that took place on 1 September 2001, and the ways in which sport intersects with habitus and identity at the level of the nation. The chapter first reviews the findings of the earlier work on the Euro 96 soccer tournament held in England. In so doing, we can compare and contrast the media coverage that surrounded the match in 2001. On this basis, we make the case that the media’s representations of identity politics can be understood from the vantage point of national habitus codes.