ABSTRACT
Founded in 2004, in Borlänge, Dalkurd FF has ascended through the football pyramid in Sweden, including playing in the Allsvenskan (men's top tier) in 2018. Its usage of Kurdish and Swedish symbols points out to a desire of expressing allegiance to both identities. This chapter shows how aspects related to Kurdishness and Swedishness are expressed through an interpretation of how Dalkurd FF plays or is expected to, through an ethnographic approach. Native concepts of the performance aspect of professional football become important in understanding how and why fans support football teams. What the sport is supposed to “be” and “represent”, through its agonistic aspect and the make-believe it generates, shapes important relevant spaces of sociability, through the enforcement and maintenance of identities and cohesion centred around the club and its symbols. Moreover, they also serve as metaphors and metonymies for the lived experiences of my informants. Thus, this chapter focuses on how ideas of Swedishness and Kurdishness are expressed in and through what Dalkurd FF is supposed to represent. This interpretation becomes a very potent symbol of the place that both the club, and my informants wish to have within Sweden as a multi-ethnic nation.
