Football fan culture and politics in modern Greece: the process of fandom radicalization during the austerity era

Abstract

The article explores the intersection between politics and football focusing on political activism in football fandom starting from its origin in late 1970s to the contemporary mass protests against austerity policies. The analysis focused on ideological conflicts between fascist and anti-fascist fans within football lifeworlds and the ways organized fans use current political circumstances to negotiate and re-interpret their identities. In the context of the Greek economic crisis, the intersection between fandom and political activism as well the newly emerged political formations that come from football elites and big business signify an important turn towards the ‘footballization’ of Greek politics. This trend reflects the growing disillusionment of Greeks towards a discredited political system and their anxious seeking of some savours come from outside the politics, as a magical solution to the social pressures and deadlocks of a society in crisis.

Notes

1. D. Kennedy and P. Kennedy, ‘Introduction’, 129.

2. Bourdieu, ‘Sport and Social Class’, 358.

3. Spaaij and Viňas, ‘Political Ideology and Activism in Football Culture in Spain’, 186.

4. Osborne and Sarver Coombs, ‘Performative Sport Fandom’, 675, 678.

5. Brough and Shresthova, ‘Fandom Meets Activism’.

6. Armstrong and Giulianotti, ‘Constructing Social Identities’, 270.

7. D. Snow and S. Soule, ‘A Premier on Social Movements’, 6.

8. Nash, ‘Contestation in Modern English Professional Football’.

9. R. Spaaij and C. Vinňas, ‘Political Ideology and Activism in Football Culture in Spain’.

10. A. Testa and G. Armstrong, ‘Words and Actions: Italian Ultras and Neo-Fascism’; and Kassimeris, ‘Fascism, Separatism and the Ultràs’.

11. Doidge, ‘The Birthplace of Italian Communism’; and Tottem, ‘Political Activism and Political Praxis within the FC Sankt Pauli Fan Culture’.

12. Bryman, ‘Integrating Quantitative and Qualitative Research’; and B. Glaser, Basics of Grounded Theory Analysis.

13. Van Steen, ‘Rallying the Nation’, 2121.

14. Ibid., 2129.

15. Papadogiannis, ‘From Coherence to Fragments’, 79.

16. Papageorgiou, Another Sunday, 58–9.

17. Testa and Armstrong, ‘Words and Actions’, 475.

18. Spaaij, ‘Men Like Us’, 379; and Kassimeris, ‘Fascism, Separatism and the Ultràs’, 681.

19. Tzoukas, ‘Talks about Politics’, 266–7.

20. Kitroeff, Greece, Europe, Panatinaikos.

21. Papadogiannis, ‘From Coherence to Fragments’.

22. Psharras, ‘The Black Bible of the Golden Dawn’, 152.

23. Ibid., 152.

24. Tsoukala, ‘Timing “Dangerousness”’.

25. Ibid., 604.

26. Dimitropoulos, ‘The Financial Performance of the Greek Football Clubs’, 13.

27. Psharras, ‘The Black Bible of the Golden Dawn’, 144.

28. Ibid., 142–6.

29. Hrisi Avgi vol. 66, 25-10-1991, 43.

30. It is worth mentioning that according to a survey of the newspaper Vima on several constituencies where police officers in service cast their ballots approximately 50 per cent of police officers voted fascist Golden Dawn in the 2012 Greek parliamentary election and the 2014 European election, Vima, May 26, 2014.

31. Ethnos, June 20, 2012.

32. The New York Times, April 19, 2007.

33. http://rfu.blogspot.gr/p/blog-page.html.

34. Humba 2, June 2002, 5–9.

35. http://nofairplay88.blogspot.gr. In the late 2013, after the criminal proceedings against the leadership of Golden Dawn the website retired, possibly temporarily, from web.

36. Sotiris, ‘Rebels with a Cause’, 2013.

37. The Annual Reports of Super League, Athens, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013.

38. Gurdian, December 17, 2012.

39. Avgi, December 18, 2012.

40. AEK was founded in 1925 by refuges that were arrived from Constantinople with the exchange of Greek and Turkish populations in the framework of the Losanne Treaty’s orders sighed by the governments of both states.

41. http://www.enikos.gr/politics/171349,H_Xrysh_Aygh_gia_ton_Katse.html.

42. PAOK was founded in 1926 by Greek refugees came from Istanbul (Constantinople in Greek).

43. http://www.sport-fm.gr/article/anakoinwsi-me-noima-gia-katse-apo-thura-4/719542.

44. http://www.soccerplus.gr/article/40902-oi-topothetiseis-porto-leone-th7-eksarxeion-gia-ti-dolofonia-toy-p-fyssa.

45. http://www.uefa.org/disciplinary/news/newsid=2039139.html#partial+stadium+closure+olympiacos+zenit.

46. V. Scalia, ‘Just a Few Rogues?’, 49.

47. H. Van Houtum and F. Van Dam, ‘Topophlia or Topoporno?’, 234; and Giulianotti, Football, a Sociology of the Football Game, 118.

48. Vima, January 5, 2015.

49. Brown, ‘Our Club, Our Rules’, 357.

50. Brown, Crabbe, and Mellor, ‘Introduction: Football and Community’, 307.

51. Foucault, ‘The Subject and Power’.

52. V. Scalia, ‘Just a Few Rogues?’, 49.

53. Ben Porat, ‘Football Fandom: A Bounded Identification’, 280.