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International Journal of Science Culture and Sport
June 2014; 2(2)
ISSN : 2148-1148
Doi : 10.14486/IJSCS131
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Football as a Reflection of Modern Society’s Conflicts and a Way of
Creating Societal Ties in Enduring Enmity Context1
Ekain Rojo-Labaien
PhD Researcher at the University of the Basque Country UPV/EHU Nor Research Group. Department of
Audio-visual Communication and Advertising.
Faculty of Social and Communication Sciences, Department of Audio-visual Communication and Advertising,
Sarriena z/g. 48940 Leioa (Bizkaia) Basque Country
E-mail: Ekain.Rojo@ehu.es 946012418
Abstract
This paper proposal, which emanates from a PhD research finished by the author in 2013,
is attempting to present a comparative study of different realities in the world to conclude that
football‟s success resides in its ability to create and recreate national belongings and that it is
capable to lead to the broadening of national understanding between confronted ethnic groups
or countries. That is to say, that football serves on the one hand to reflect mimetic conflicts
between countries; however, on the other hand it serves to reconcile fragmented societies
around a common sense of belonging. Which is apparently a football incongruity; actually it
is a reflection of the inherent conflict and contradictions of modern societies. In fact, firstly
the sport event is used in this study as a research object to conclude its importance in order to
develop inner understanding between different confronted groups in the world. Secondly, it is
considered, as well, as a scientific tool to analyze current human organizations and the
complex societal ties which are generated there. A comparative methodology comprising
different realities allows the researcher to obtain a scientific knowledge about the scope of the
football phenomenon concerning nation building and reconciling processes.
Key Words: Football, mimetic conflict, wars, rapprochement
1 This article was presented orally in the 3rd ISCS Conference, 24-26 May, 2014, Sarajevo
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1. Introduction
Despite being a sign of the existence of conflicts in modern societies, on the contrary, the
football event can develop also as a medium to ensure social understanding between diverse
social groups. This worldwide globalized phenomenon reflects the complexity and the
contradictions of the current modern way of life. As the French anthropologist Christian
Bromberger assesses, the football match brings together the fundamental values of ours
societies being one of the deepest symbolic representation of our time (Bromberger, 1995:
377). Thus, the rivalries and power struggles between different groups are displayed in the
sport ground. Football stadiums have been the bastion of diversity and popular expression all
over the world, even more so under dictatorships. This occurred in Korea, under Japanese
domination, in Austria under Adolf Hitler and the Nazis rule, in Spain during Franco‟s rule,
and more recently in Algeria, Tunisia or even in China. For instance, football grandstands are
the opportunity of last resort for political and social expression where it is usually never freely
permitted anywhere else (Njororai, 2009: 872). In a way, dictatorships have usually tried to
avoid the diversity and have been keen to show a peacefully united country. With this goal in
mind, they have often taken the profits of the football phenomenon and victories of national
sides and clubs. This is the so-called opium of soccer (Brohm and Perelman, 2006). This
approach, deeply assumes that football is merely manipulative tool in the hands of the
governments.
Obviously, social understanding and a peaceful situation is supposed to be more profound
than the exertion of manipulation which is so often promoted by governments throughout the
sport phenomenon in order to conceal the diversity and the distinct belongings of a country.
This real rapprochement process though is mainly what has occurred worldwide, South Africa
and the rugby fixtures of the post apartheid era being the most well-known representative
example of that. Nelson Mandela devised a national reconciliation by unifying his people
during Rugby World Cup held in South Africa and clearly won by its representative national
side. Rugby and the South African team which had been until then the symbol of the white
elite domination were cheered on by the black majority as well and this national unity thus
helped to avoid the risk of a civil war (Carlin, 2008)
Nor is this the only sport, nor is it the only example of this phenomenon in Africa.
Football has become one of the most important tools in countries such as Sierra Leone,
Liberia or even in Rwanda and all over Africa; creating national common sentiments where
the enduring boundaries between ethnic groups had lead them to extremely bloody wars
(Jarvie, 2006: 187). In fact, football is able to recreate the feeling of national belonging, which
surpasses the deep-rooted rivalries and tensions. Football is used in the same trend to improve
the relations and understanding between countries like Japan and South Korea thanks to the
joint organization of the 2002 World Cup, or with the efforts being made in Israel in the same
manner between Jews and Arabs. This being so, Peter Hough (2008: 129) argues that it is
reasonable to maintain that international football is a vehicle that fosters violent nationalism
expressions. Nevertheless, he agrees, on the contrary, with the statements made by Lars
Gustafsson, who nominated football for the 2010 Nobel Peace Price and with the thesis of the
FIFA‟s president Joseph Blatter. Both made a strong case for portraying football as a unifying
and peacemaking medium. Indeed, they contended that the contribution made by the sport for
reconciling States and nations serve as a balance for its more negative sides involving
violence and riots in the stadium stands.
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2. Materials and methods
The article seeks to underlay the football event‟s complementary character that involves
being the reflection of an existent conflict, as well a medium of the peace-making efforts in
countries hit by long-term confrontations and wars. The methodology employed for
examining this contemporary reality ought to be the analysis of a range of cases related to the
importance of football in nation building and reconciling, taking into account distinct and
distant cases from one another. The historical perspective would be at the forefront; however,
the dimension of football does demand an interdisciplinary approach. The empirical studies
such as the peace initiatives undertaken in African countries through the sport are confronted
to realities as the so called football war between El Salvador and Honduras in 1969 and the
riots previous to the war in the football fixtures in the former Yugoslavia. Moreover, the
incidents that occurred between Turkish and Swiss players and managers in the international
match previous to the 2006 World Cup in Germany are a recent example of the nationalistic
riots that take place around the sport. Furthermore, hooliganism has been, and continues to be,
an expression of football‟s broader current social issues for which the sporting event would
not be accountable for but instead the signal.
The so-often quoted definition of George Orwell about sport being a “war minus the
shooting” is a part of his broader analysis which takes the sport‟s domain as an atmosphere
that fosters the aggressive nationalistic expressions (Orwell, 1970). It is diametrically opposed
from the United Nations‟ approach to sport. The organization promotes it to improve
education, development and peace achievements in the world by the United Nations‟ Office
on Sport for Development and Peace (UNOSDP). A complete complementary view is
required in order to take into account the contradictory reality of the sport. The success of
football resides in its capacity for representing collective identities (Bromberger, 1998: 59,
Rojo Labaien, 2013). The mimetic confrontation (Elias and Dunning, 1989: 58) of two teams
which symbolically represent the opposition between “we” and “they” offers a favorable
environment to construct and regenerate collective and national belongings. Football
responded during the 20th century to the individualization process occurred in the world
(Eisenberg, 2006: 23). The society is no longer based on direct personal relationships, but on
indirect ones, that required some kind of unifying element. As Anthony Smith states, (1991:
16-17) “by the use of symbols such as the flag, the anthem, the uniform, monuments or
events, members are exalted by their sense of common identity and belonging.” Football by
the way of the mass medias‟ participation accomplishes this aim as long as it facilitates
regular events of national unity and celebration. Furthermore, it provides a platform for the
exposition of the other symbols mentioned above.
Thus, this article has two guiding hypotheses. First, that football is a space reflecting both
related conflict and peacemaking efforts. Second, its success can be explained by the ability to
symbolize collective identities. As to what concerns the construction of individual identities,
collectives‟ needs also to differentiate themselves from others in order to claim their own self
as a group. Football allows that, and so as to strengthen the group identity and to achieve the
pride of belonging, it reproduces a dispute or a conflict that is able to eventually enhance
deeper enmities or hostilities through representative teams. Nevertheless, due to the fact that it
encourages collective belonging in an identity contest against others, in this manner, it
promotes to overcome the differences that exist inside each group. For this reason, football
becomes a medium that helps to foster a national understanding within a deep-rooted
contention atmosphere. In addition, the competition provides also a gathering point for the
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interaction among different group identities. The African states are the clearest example of
this rapprochement phenomenon.
3. Findings
Many researchers (Mills 2009: 1201; Axboe Nielsen, 2010: 90; Foer, 2004: 24) contend
that a football match was the detonator of the war in the former Yugoslavia and its consequent
disintegration, the one Dynamo Zagreb and Red Star of Belgrade started to play on the 13th of
May 1990 but that were unable to finish due to the incidents which took place between the
groups of supporters of both sides and that included eventually the players and the Police of
Yugoslavia. This was the signal that informed both Croatians and Serbians that they would no
longer be able to share the same state and the same association. Indeed, the fans of both
groups would fight against each other only a few months later during the total war that was
unleashed from the football field and which eventually led to the war zone. In the words of
Srdjan Vrcan and Drazen Lalic, “there is no doubt that a movement from the terraces to
trenches occurred in Croatia and Serbia (Vrcan and Lalic, 1999: 176). This fact should serve
to corroborate the fact that football fosters the nationalistic passions to the point of leading to
war. In fact, this scenario evolves to take this path, despite this the researcher faces a more
complex picture. „The war minus shooting‟ analysis is even closer to the axe of this study.
Following the war, in the newly independent state named Bosnia-Herzegovina the
opposing collective identities struck by the war have been unable to build a unitary country in
the territory. Three separated autonomous regions have been created as a signal that the
reconciliation process would become a complex task to carry out. However, these three semi-
autonomous regions have reached an agreement in order to create a common football
competition which would bring together the representative teams of opposed national and
religious beliefs or belongings. Obviously, as Christian Bromberger argues, the unification of
the federation did not manage to eradicate by itself the antagonisms anchored in many
generations in the past (Bromberger, 2005: 38). Even in one single city such as Mostar, for
instance, the football matches between the Muslim team Velezh and Zrinkjski that represent
the Croatian and Catholic community are played in a rather violent atmosphere. Despite their
verity, these events promote mutual knowledge between opposing sides as does the Bosnian
national team who classified for the first time in its short history for the World Cup of Brazil.
Because most of the players of the national side are Muslims the achievement of this team
was not cheered nearly as much all over the fragmented country of Bosnia-Herzegovina.
Plainly, the feeling of belonging created by the football team‟s success does not provide
sufficient glue to bind the state together in unity, peace, and stability. Anyway, an external
enemy produced by the competition could join together the citizens of the recent plurinational
state.
Not far from the Balkans, in the same manner, the positive force of the football
phenomenon was used in Cyprus in order to transcend the political division inside the country
between the Greek Cypriots in the Republic of Cyprus who emerged after the independence
achievement in 1960, and the Turkish Cypriots in the north of the island, in the territory
proclaimed as the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus. At the start of the XXI century, FIFA
intended to program two matches between the youth teams representing the two parts on both
sides of the divided capital of Nicosia. Nevertheless, the political confrontation prevented the
football organization from carrying out the peacemaking plans through the football
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competition. Later on, the improvement in political relations between the leaders of the two
sides permitted the respective football federations to establish negotiations to create a unitary
football federation and national team who would include both the Greek Cypriots from the
south and the Turkish Cypriots of the north of the Mediterranean island. In spite of the
agreement reached by the spoke persons of the football federations towards integration, the
final accord has been hindered by political strife in 2009. The symbolic power of sport has
proved incapable of overcoming historical and political boundaries (Kartakoullis and Loizou,
2009: 1664). True political power is needed from the population in order to attain unity
through the use of football. But, having said that, on the other hand, the efforts made in the
context of football have been an opportunity for negotiation and rapprochement in Cyprus.
With respect to South America, the so called War of Football in 1969 between El
Salvador and Honduras, in the same vein, is at first glance proof that the sporting event is
directly related to the emergence of wars. Notwithstanding, run-up matches for the World Cup
of 1970 between the two respective national teams have been the detonator and not the reason
of the war that caused 6.000 deaths in 100 hours (Kapuściński, 1992). El Salvador and
Honduras were both dominated by the big landowners and the governments took the profit of
the patriotic scope of football and the antagonism generated there in order for them to not
have to deal with the claims of the majority of small holders farmers. Indeed they fomented
discord through football between the two countries to the extent that it burst into open
warfare. As a result, it ought to be explained that football was used by politicians as a medium
to sustain the established order based on inequalities and on the domination of the big
landowners. However, South America has also been a territory of inclusion, reconciliation,
and national celebrations as a whole guided by the way of football. In Brazil, the successes
attained by the national team made up of mulatto footballers like Pele and Garrincha helped to
establish and develop a positive view about racial diversity in the country`(Gordon and Helal,
2001; Natali, 2007). Moreover, the successes of football teams representing such nations are
perceived in South America by governments and populations at the same level of the
attainment as political independence. This occurred during the qualification of the Costa
Rican national team for the Italian World Cup in 1990 or in the same vein concerning the
Bolivian national team achievement for the 1994 World Cup held in the United States.
Fernando Lugo, Paraguay‟s former left-wing president declared a national holiday to honour
the football national team having managed to qualify for the 2010 World Cup organized by
South Africa. Football is able to go across social and political conflicts and create one of the
few current opportunities for national celebration.
In the same way we have been explaining, concerning Asia, the antagonism remaining in
Israel lends itself to being an appropriate space relating to the social impact of sport in
peacemaking initiatives. Namely, the process aimed at enhancing mutual understanding
between Jews and Arabs in Israel through the way of football competitions. For instance,
FIFA has been attempting to employ football as a reconciliation tool. Joao Havelange, the
former president of the international organization had declared that his dream was to arrange a
match in New York between the national sides of Israel and Palestine with the aim of
supporting the peace efforts. In the words of Tamir Sorek (2003: 446) the football league
competition in Israel remains a suitable context for the integration of Arabs as it produces
mutual knowledge there. As a matter of fact, football has resulted unable by itself to resolve
such a long standing conflict. Indeed, football stands continue to reflect the antagonism
existing between the two sides. An example of this is the fans shouting messages as “Death to
the Arabs” (Ben-Porat, 2008). In addition, more specific initiatives in order to make greater
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strides towards peace have not completely accomplished their mission. For instance, the
project named F4P originally from the United Kingdom initially achieved some crucial steps
setting up basic football coaching camps for Jewish and Arab children. Finally, it came to an
end in 2006 when the violence peaked in the region.
Going forward, from the Middle East to the Far East, the context of the competitive sport
teaches us about the contradictory influence carried out by football. The joint organization of
the 2002 World Cup in Japan and South Korea, on the one hand, is proof of its impact in
regard to developing a policy of rapprochement. Wolfram Manzenreiter argues that the
football event became a symbol of their improving relationships through mutual
understanding (Manzenreiter, 2008: 420). The first international mega event held in Asia
which was also the first joint organization of a World Cup, accomplished the aim of
reconciling Japan and South Korea. Not only had this event helped improve the relationships
of the two former enemies, but also the ones between North and South Korea in the same
vein. Udo Merkel states that after the organization of sport mega events such as the Olympic
Games in Seoul in 1988 and the World Cup in 2002, South Korea targeted to reconcile with
the North Korean state as well (Merkel, 2008: 303). Exhibition matches have subsequently
taken place between the teams of the two parties surrounded by Korean unity flags waved by
thousands of supporters (Podoler, 2008:13). On the other hand, the final of the Asian Cup
between the national representative teams of Japan and China held in Beijing in 2004 became
the context of anger demonstrations against Japan by the Chinese football fans to the point of
off-setting diplomatic issues between the two countries (Manzenreiter, 2008: 423). The
Japanese occupation of China in the XX century and the murders happened during the Second
World War by the Japanese empire were still alive in the memory of thousands of Chinese.
Besides that, the control of the Senkaku Islands is a current contentious issue between Japan
and China. At that time in 2004 a football match fostered and brought to light the enmity
which is still underlying among the two societies. As a result, Asia in the same way results as
an indicator regarding the contradictory and complementary use in addition to the impact of
the patriotic characteristic of football.
In any case, Africa turns out to be the clearest proof concerning the peacemaking
usefulness of the football event. The recent states of Africa have been forced with the difficult
cohabitation of many different and opposed ethnic groups in their territory, which had been
arbitrarily fixed by the European colonizers. In the words of Paul Richards (1997: 155-156)
football is an effective means of developing cooperation, due to its social impact, simplicity,
and cheap characteristics. Therefore, he defends that the example of Sierra Leone contradicts
the view that football is responsible for violent riots or wars: “First there was violence, and
then there was soccer. Perhaps soccer is one of the basic ways in which conditions of radical
desocialization can be reversed” (Ibid.). Indeed, children who had been forced to fight in the
war at the beginning of their lives, began to use football as the means to integration following
the war era. The case of Liberia follows the same pattern which is by no ways uncommon
throughout the African continent. When George Weah was awarded the Golden Ball in 1995
that recognizes the best player of each season, assigned a peacemaking function to football.
He declared that he will show to the confronted army groups in the country that there was
another way to fight in favour of the country (cfr. Boniface, 2002: 54-55). The politicians
understood that in order to improve community relations by means of football they ought to
involve the people outside the capital Monrovia. In fact, the sport had the capacity to distance
the young people from the war. After having played the matches and having achieved social
acceptance with others, they tended to refuse the calls to go to war. Gary Armstrong
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highlights the fact that while at the beginning of the XX century the sport was a means to
prepare young people to go to war; the sport is used on the contrary actually to promote
reconciliation and avoid a bloody conflict. Nevertheless, as Armstrong explains, although
football is able to address political and ethnic hostilities for a while, the case of Liberia shows
that it is unable to unite all the opposed groups existing in the country on its own for a long
term (Armstrong, 2002: 490). More of the passion generated by the football game across the
country among Muslims and Christians, rich and poor and men and women is needed.
That being said, the emphasis should be placed on the influence of football for the further
purpose of understanding within societies. Concerning Ivory Coast, football and national side
is considered by politicians and medias as a tool to assure the common future of the country.
In the words of Andreas Mehler, football is the only thing that unites the citizens of Ivory
Coast (Mehler, 2008: 99-100). Furthermore, in Rwanda, only a decade after the war between
the Hutu and Tutsi ethnic groups who caused 800.000 deaths – most of them, members of the
Tutsi Ethnic group killed by the Hutus – thousands of people from both groups celebrated in
July 2003 the victory obtained against the national team of Uganda (Jarvie, 2006: 187). On
the other hand, in Angola, in the context of the 2010 African World Cup, the bus that was
transporting the football team of Congo was attacked by unidentified gunmen while they were
riding across the region of Kabinda. As a result, there were two deaths and six more were
injured. The militants of Kabinda who had been fighting the Angolan Army claiming for the
independence of the region took responsibility for the attack. They argued that they had put
the organization on notice to prevent the matches from being played in the territory of
Kabinda. Whichever the case, the attackers benefited from the international influence of
football to make their claims heard worldwide. This is certainly a proof that this sport is an
indicator of the currents conflicts existing in the world. But this is not a barrier to conclude
the importance of football in peacemaking efforts as it is to bring to the surface the need for
understanding. In any case I agree with John Sugden (2010) when he warns about the
complexity of improving social relationships through sports, and that the participation of key
actors of any field of the society is needed in order to make small steps toward progress.
4. Conclusions
This article has sought to analyse the football phenomenon in its entirety and from a
comparative approach involving different and specific cases all over the world. Therefore it
has attempted to have been able of reflecting the apparent contradictions of the football
phenomenon concerning its different functions depending on the context and the usage made
from it. Football is a synonym of conflict on the one hand, as it tends to confront two sides
representing two collectives or nations against the other. Therefore certainly violent incidents
can be a direct effect of the conflict. However, on the other hand, this study has attempted to
capture in a realistic way, and based on the historical facts, the reconciliation further steps that
are possible to produce through the way of the football competition and its involving patriotic
scope. Having said that, the article concludes that in order to attain better societal
understanding between the opposed groups, willingness is required on the part of the majority
of the concerned society. The differences which are perceived between the cases of Korea and
Cyprus are an example of the above. As Nicos L. Kartakoullis and Christina Loizou state,
while North and South Korea are parts of the same long standing nation, the Greek Cypriots
and the Turkish Cypriots moreover originate from the Greek and the Turkish nations
respectively. As a result, Koreans are more likely to overcome their dispute by the means of
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the patriotic enthusiasm created in football, than the Cypriots who have never formed a nation
(Kartakoullis and Loizou, 2009: 1664). The scope of football is not able to resolve by itself
the unstifled conflicts. Actually, it is a means of producing better mutual understanding
between confronted parties through the way of the mimetic representation.
In the same way, this article culminates by saying that the efforts aimed at achieving a
state of peace through the means of football could not be based on covering up the
unavoidable conflicts in modern human organizations. As Montesquieu declared in the XVIII
century, if you do not hear any noise of conflict inside a state, you can be sure that there is no
freedom inside of it (Montesquieu, 2008). Football has been both a representation and
reflection of freedom and conflict in the history. The aim of constructing peace by denying
the inherent conflict of current societies is opposed to the real object attained by the sport in
bloody conflict environments such as Sierra Leone or in very long-rooted antagonism
atmospheres like in Korea or South Africa. The comparative character of this article brings to
light the importance of football as a socially contradictory object and as a medium to analyse
the trend of disparity and contention in the recent history of mankind. Football and sports
could become a tool for overcoming the boundaries without concealing them.
5. Acknowledgments
This article was prepared in the framework of the call for aid in contracting recently
qualified PhDs for their integration in post-doctoral training programs of the University of the
Basque Country (UPV/EHU)
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