This Article Full Text (PDF) References Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Saved Citations Download to citation manager Request Permissions Request Reprints Add to My Marked Citations Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Citing Articles via Scopus Google Scholar Articles by Vrcan, S. Search for Related Content Social Bookmarking                         What's this?

The Curious Drama of the President of a Republic Versus a Football Fan Tribe

A Symptomatic Case in the Post-communist Transition in Croatia

Split, Croatia

This article offers a sociological interpretation of the conflict in the 1990s in Croatia between the President of the Republic of Croatia, the late Franjo Tuðman, and a football fan tribe. It began as a family quarrel in the same Croatian nationalist ideological and political family about the imposed name change of a football club but gradually became the first public political contestation of the President's charisma with growing political consequences. The interpretation is based upon identifying the set of confrontations involved: social system vs life world, different deconstructions and reconstructions of social and football reality, expropriators vs expropriated, nation-state politics vs autonomy of the civil society, corporate politics vs sub-politics. In conclusion, it discusses a set of problems regarding football and politics in so-called transition and, in particular, those regarding football fandom and nationalism.

Key Words: Croatia • football • football fandom • nationalism • politics • transition

International Review for the Sociology of Sport, Vol. 37, No. 1, 59-77 (2002)
DOI: 10.1177/1012690202037001004


CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter    What's this?