Football fan cultures after the Euro 2004 in Portugal

ABSTRACT

International football tournaments show the new potential of the late modern sport in addressing and resizing of identities and superiorities that inserted on the agenda the revalidation of symbolism in the expression of societies in the global context, in the wider context of the large-scale commercialization of a cultural mega-spectacle associated with the image of a nation-state. Having as reference the study on the UEFA Euro 2004 in Portugal, and subsequent events, this article focuses on the most significant impacts produced by the tournament in Portuguese football supporters’ culture. There was a growing interest in football, in particular among women, while enhancing at the same time the ability of games in galvanizing the sense of national identity, well expressed in the democratization of the national flag by fans. In the domain of prevention, safety and security, our analysis focuses on the proximity policing.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. Horne and Manzenreiter, ‘Accounting for Mega-events’, 192, 200.

2. See Dauncey and Hare, ‘World Cup France ’98’, 331–47; Dauncey and Hare, France and the 1998 World Cup; and Marivoet, ‘Le Spectacle’, 36–9.

3. See Horne and Manzenreiter, Sports Mega-Events; Marivoet, ‘Futebol’, 13–40; and Marivoet, ‘Le Spectacle’, 36–9.

4. Marivoet, ‘UEFA Euro 2004^TM Portugal’, 125–43.

5. Fans’ embassies were created for the first time at the Euro ’96 in England. From that moment on, several socio-preventive programmes have been created in several countries by supporters’ associations and NGOs. The goal has been to support and accompany national fans, especially in terms of the logistic aspects related to their journeys to watch international matches. The model has also been adopted in some countries for domestic competitions. The positive results of the work carried out by the organizations that came to be known as fans’ projects or fan coaching, led the Council of Europe to recommend the creation of fans’ embassies within the framework of international football competitions and to encourage sports organizations (UEFA, FIFA and their associated national football federations) as well as the public authorities of the member states to support this type of initiative by the Standing Committee on the role of socio-educational measures in the prevention of violence in sport. See: Pampanay, ‘Social Work Initiated by the Football Club in Urban Areas’, 131–5.

6. See Marivoet, ‘Violent disturbances in Portuguese football’, 158–73; and Marivoet, ‘The Public at Football Stadiums’, 24–30.

7. See Comeron and Vanbellingen, Prevention of Violence in Football Stadiums in Europe.

8. This cooperation platform, formed by all the different organizations proposing the project under the coordination of the German KOS-Projekte, also proved to be of great importance for the concerted action that the different fans’ embassies integrated in the FSI-network (Football Supporters International), which came to be established during the Euro 2004, with the additional benefits that resulted from the work developed by the so-called fans’ workers.

9. Gomes, ‘Eurofoot 2004’, 74–80.

10. Cavaleiro, Modelo integrado de segurança em espectáculos desportivos, 19.

11. Marivoet, ‘EURO2004^{TM –} Um evento global em Portugal’, 39.

12. Cavaleiro, Modelo integrado de segurança em espectáculos desportivos, 19.