Searching for identity through football: the Nicosia derby

Abstract

This essay refers to matters pertaining to fan identity and, in particular, examines how identity is formed in the more specific ideological space of what constitutes the fan base (both online and offline). To this effect, it examines the identity of two rival fan groups, fans following Omonoia FC and APOEL FC (the Nicosia derby), in relation to theories of collective identity formation through a discussion of their acts and gestures (offline and online), including their official websites and the rhetoric found there. To better illustrate the fan identity of these two fan groups, we will also produce detailed accounts of fan groups associated to other football clubs around Cyprus. Overall, we will take a critical look into a sample of this rhetoric as well as an informal semiotic analysis of the symbols that are habitually exhibited as part of each side’s effort to culminate a distinct self-depicted identity with political connotations.

Notes

1. Public Record Office, British Cabinet Minutes C 54 245. 21.7.54.

2. O’Malley and Craig, The Cyprus Conspiracy, 12.

3. US Department of State, Volume X E, 1993.

4. Ibid.

5. O’Malley and Craig, The Cyprus Conspiracy, 78.

6. US Department of State, Volume X E, par. 10.

7. Hobsbawm, Nations and Nationalism Since 1780, 43.

8. Giulianotti, Football, 10.

9. Duke and Crolley, Football, Nationality, and the State, 80.

10. Ibid.

11. Kartakoullis et al., Cyprus: A Football Crazy Nation?, 232.

12. Ibid., 233.

13. Ibid., 241–2.

14. Ibid., 242.

15. Melucci, ‘The Process of Collective Identity’, 4.

16. Social Issues Research Center, Football Passions, 4.

17. Ibid.

18. Ibid., 5.

19. Ibid.

20. Ibid.

21. Flesher Fominaya, ‘Collective Identity in Social Movements’, 393.

22. Ibid., 394.

23. A performative act has the capacity to bring something into being by naming it. Performativity has been discussed by a number of theorists. We note the linguist J.L. Austin and his work How to do things with words, as well as the feminist/poststructuralist theorist Judith Butler who is among the first to discuss performativity in relation to gender identity. Since Butler, who argues that gender is performative, a set of stylized acts and gestures repeated over time creating the illusion that they are the effects of gender when they are in fact its source, the theory of performativity has gain ground in critical and cultural studies and has been used to discuss issues pertaining to a number of identity orders such as gender and more recently, race. See Butler, Gender Trouble.

24. Melucci, ‘The Process of Collective Identity’, 43.

25. Xinaris, ‘The Individual in an ICT World’.

26. Flesher Fominaya, ‘Collective Identity in Social Movements’, 394–5.

27. Ibid., 394.

28. Melucci, ‘The Process of Collective Identity’, 44.

29. Flesher Fominaya, ‘Collective Identity in Social Movements’, 395.

30. Gate 9 (official), https://www.facebook.com/gate9.com.cy.

31. Gate 9 (official), ‘Farewell to Fidel Castro’, November 27, 2016 https://www.facebook.com/gate9.com.cy/photos/a.137666222953684.31643.129118980475075/1186605344726428/?type=3 (accessed November 28, 2016).

32. https://www.facebook.com/apoel.net/.

33. APOEL.NET. http://www.apoel.net/tourkokiprii/.