ABSTRACT
The features of Middle Eastern spectator culture are the same as for passionate football fandom everywhere – the love for one’s own team and the antipathy or hate for the opposing team; the spontaneity of uniform emotional outbursts that are yet ritualistic in the learnt and embodied behaviour of jubilation, chanting, jumping, dancing and even fighting. Yet, a distinctive feature of the Middle Eastern fan culture is its politicisation. What largely explains this politicisation is the link between the passion and emotionality of football and the sociopolitical grievances in Middle Eastern societies in general. Anger, joy, pride, optimism and emotions that promote a higher risk acceptance are all found in abundance during football matches. The paths of football and street protests have thus increasingly crossed together in the region. How these paths have crossed each other is discussed through a description of various distinctive features of the Middle Eastern supporter culture in six different countries: soundscapes in Turkey, social memory in Jordan, female emancipation in Iran, resistance in Egypt, everyday violence in Morocco and invented fandom in Qatar. The cases reveal how football matches today in the Middle East constitute an arena for the social construction of processes that have cultural, social and political impacts far beyond the football pitch.
