Fan politics: dissent and control at the stadium

Abstract

This essay delves into the theoretical and practical dimensions of political expression at the stadium. While previous chapters are organized around the form of media, this essay considers the breadth of media put to use to convey political sentiments. While the notion of sport as apolitical has surface appeal, the stadium has always been political, and provided that sport continues to aggregate tens of thousands of fans in an enclosed space, there is little hope of eliminating politics. The stadium offers the chance for average citizens to gain a voice and, I argue, the stadium is an important part of the public sphere. The chapter considers how the stadium is used for dissent in several contexts. In Italy, the stadium has long been a site of political expression while more recently, in Cairo and Istanbul, football fandom has provided the tools to directly confront the state.

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