ABSTRACT
The so-called Arab Spring of 2012, in which a number of governments across North Africa were threatened by their populist challenges, if not actually brought down, is the latest example of unfinished political revolutions. Sport played little role in these upheavals, although Zamalek FC, a prominent football club in Egypt, was noted for its forthright and immediate support of the anti-Mubarak protesters in Tahrir Square and club members’ connections underpinned part of that head of state’s eventual removal. The role of this club, as a social institution, is unusual. Most sport-related institutions are known more for their support of established political regimes and embedded in state institutions such as the military and police, some infamously so. Two well-known examples are the East German Stasi’s infiltration of all social institutions and the use of sport clubs by various state ministries in Ceacescu’s Romania. In 1989, athletes (international medallists in target shooting) from the Steaua sport club famously shot at the Romanian secret police while members of the Dinamo sport club manned barricades protecting the Securitate.1 These are unusual instances, though. In general, sport is not usually at the cutting edge of revolutionary violence or movements.
