Research Article
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Nationalism and Football at First Glance: The Case of “Eternal Derby”

Year 2022, Volume: 10 Issue: 1, 310 - 322, 28.04.2022
https://doi.org/10.18795/gumusmaviatlas.1096150

Abstract

From the very beginning of its ‘invention’, football has been a major subject of politics, economy and other social disciplines. In this respect, the Yugoslav experience sets a great example for symbiotic relationship between football and politics. Yugoslav politics, evolved around nationalist tensions, has always had a complex and convoluted profile. In this context, it is argued that the ressentiment at the core of nationalism is a very observable dynamic of Yugoslav politics. Accordingly, the two major football clubs, Partizan FC and Red Star, were deeply influenced by Yugoslavia's founding political principles. Moreover, the rivalry between these two clubs known as the “eternal derby” also took on a symbolic representation of the conflict between nationalist and socialist ideas. Although we can only talk about the former Yugoslavia today, these clubs are still among the greatest living heirs of Balkan history. This paper provides ‘a first look’ at the political history of the “eternal derby” within the framework of Michael Billig and Liah Greenfeld's approaches to nationalism. In this context, it can be said that in addition to its irrational nature with a reference to ressentiment, nationalism is the subject of unconscious reproduction processes that take a place among the habits of daily life. While nationalism, shaped by psychosocial concepts such as existential envy, status inconsistency and identity crisis, the banal form of it can transform teams into armies, players into soldiers, pitches into battlefields, wins into military victories, columnists into embedded journalists. By simulating violence, the imaginary desire for revenge is also tried to be satisfied. The “eternal derby” serves a good model in this regard.

References

  • Amstrong, G. & Vest, E. (2013). Mirror to the state: Politicisation of football clubs in the history of Bosnia-Herzegovina. International Centre for Sport Security Journal, 1(1), 44-51. https://theicss.org/2019/03/07/icss-journal-vol1-no-1/
  • Billig, M. (1995). Banal nationalism. Sage.
  • Blasius, M. (2017). FC Red Star Belgrade and the multiplicity of social identifications in socialist Yugoslavia: Representative dimensions of the “big four” football clubs. The International Journal of The History of Sport, 34(9), 783-799. https://doi.org/10.1080/09523367.2017.1402763
  • Bunce, V. (1995). Should transitologists be grounded?. Slavic Review, 54(1), 111-127. https://doi.org/10.2307/2501122
  • Djordjević, I. & Pekić, R. (2018). Is there space for the left? football fansand political positioning in Serbia. Soccer & Society, 19(3), 355-372. https://doi.org/10.1080/14660970.2017.1333678
  • Đorđević, I. (2016). The role of red star football club in the construction of Serbian national identity. Traditiones, 45(1), 117-132. https://doi.org/10.3986/Traditio2016450108
  • Đorđević, A. Đ. (2020). Stadion Partizana, [Image]. https://streetartbelgrade.com/galerija/gtr-slobodan-aligrudic-dorcol/
  • Eco, U. (1986). Travels in hyperreality. Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.
  • Geiger, V. (2012). Human losses of Croats in World War II and the immediate post-war period caused by the Chetniks (Yugoslav army in the fatherland) and the partizans (People's Liberation Army and the partizan detachment of Yugoslavia/Yugoslav army) and the Yugoslav communist authoritities: Numerical indicators. Review of Croation History, 8(1), 77-121. https://hrcak.srce.hr/103223
  • Greenfeld, L. & Chirot, D. (1994). Nationalism and aggression. Theory and Society, 23(1), 79-130. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00993674
  • Greenfeld, L. (2013). Mind, modernity, madness: The impact of culture on human experience. Harvard University Press.
  • Greenfeld, L. (1994). Nationalism: Five roads to modernity, Harvard University Press.
  • Hayden, R. M. (1992). Constitutional nationalism in the formerly Yugoslav republics. Slavic Review, 51(4), 654-673. https://doi.org/10.2307/2500130
  • Jiang, E. (2016). Football as a social device: The sport’s relation to the Balkan antagonism. The Literary Journal of Students in Balkan Studies, 13(1), 70-73.
  • Karge, H. (2009). Mediated remembrance: Local Practices of remembering the Second World War in Tito’s Yugoslavia. European Review of History, 16(1), 49-62. https://doi.org/10.1080/13507480802655394
  • Karpat, K. (1997). The Balkan national statesand nationalism: Image and reality. Islamic Studies, 36(2/3), 329-359. https://doi.org/10.1163/9789047400899_019
  • Milazzo, M. J. (2019). The Chetnik movement and the Yugoslav resistance. John Hopkins University Press.
  • Mills, R. (2009). ‘It all ended in an unsporting way’: Serbian football and the disintegration of Yugoslavia, 1989-2006. The International Journal of The History of Sport, 26(9), 1187-1217. https://doi.org/10.1080/09523360902941829
  • Mills, R. (2018). The politics of football in Yugoslavia, I. B. Tauris.
  • Mutlu, E. (1996). Avrupa’yı salladık, İngiltere’yi sarsacağız: Futbol, milliyetçilik ve şiddet. Cogito, 6-7, 367-378.
  • Neuberger, B. (2010). National self-determination and democracy. In A. Lecours & L. Moreno, (Eds.), Nationalism and democracy: Dichotomies, complementarities, oppositions (1st ed., pp. 52-79). Routledge.
  • Nietzsche, F. (2008). First essay: ‘Good and evil’, ‘good and bad’ (C. Diethe, Trans.). In Keith A., (Ed.), On the genealogy of morality (2nd ed., pp. 10-34). Cambridge University Press. (Original work published 1887).
  • PA Archive/Press Association. (2016). A graffiti painted by The Red Star supporters, [Image]. https://www.the42.ie/ireland-serbia-world-cup-qualifier-belgrade-2964226-Sep2016/
  • Pavković, A. (2000). Constructing a European identity: Problems of supranationalism. In J. Andrew, M. Crook & M. Waller (Eds.), Why Europe? Problems of culture and identity (1st ed., pp. 115-130) Palgrave Macmillan.
  • Perica, V. (2002). Balkan idols: Religion and nationalism in Yugoslav states. Oxford University Press.
  • Pesic, V. (1996). Serbian nationalism and the origins of the Yugoslav crisis. United States Institute of Peace.
  • Pipini, M. (2019). Exploring the digitalization of football violence: Ultras, disembodiment, and the internet. In S. Lawrence & G. Crawford (Eds.), Digital football cultures: Fandom, identities and resistance (1st ed., pp. 125-138) Routledge.
  • Porter, D. (2017). Sport and national identity. In R. Edelman & W. Wilson (Eds.). The Oxford handbook of sports history, (1st ed., pp. 1-15) Oxford Handbooks Online. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199858910.013.33
  • Radoja, Z. (2021). Ratko Mladić salutes in front of Partizan FC emblem, [Image]. https://www.rferl.org/a/serbia-mladic-mural-protests/31555357.html
  • Roger, A. (2008). Milliyetçilik kuramları. (A. U. Kılıç, Çev.). Versus.
  • Sack, A. L. & Suster, Z. (2000). Soccer and Croatian nationalism: A prelude to war. Journal of Sport & Social Issues, 24(3), 305-320. https://doi.org/10.1177/0193723500243006
  • Scheler, M. (1992). Negative feelings and the destruction of values: Ressentiment. In H. J. Bershady (Ed.), On feeling, knowing, and valuing: Selected writings (1st ed., pp. 116-143). The University of Chicago Press.
  • Sinčić, M. (2013). Do you remember Milena and Merlinka? Gender imagery from the Yugoslav supra nationalism to the super nationalisms and war in the Nineties. West Croatian History Journal, 8, 133-149. https://hrcak.srce.hr/file/212289
  • Spasić, I. (2017). The universality of banal nationalism, or can the flag hang unobtrusively outside a Serbian post office?. In M. Skey & M. Antonsich (Eds.), Everyday nationhood: Theorising culture, identity and belonging after banal nationalism (1st ed., pp. 31-51). Palgrave Macmillan.
  • WM/Darwinek. (2009). A Nationalist Graffiti Painted by The Red Star Fans, [Image]. https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/can-europe-make-it/red-star-serbia-never-yugoslavia-football-politics-and-national-i/
  • Vrcan, S. & Lalic, D. (1999). From ends to trenches, and back: Football in the former Yugoslavia. In G. Armstrong & R. Giulianotti (Eds.), Football Cultures and Identities (1st ed., pp. 176-185). Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230378896_15
  • Zec, D. – Paunović, M. (2015). Football's positive influence on integration in diverse societies: The case study of Yugoslavia. Soccer & Society, 16(2-3), 232-244. https://doi.org/10.1080/14660970.2014.961387
  • Zimmermann, W. (1995). The last ambassador: A memoir of the collapse of Yugoslavia. Foreign Affairs, 74(2), 2-20.

İlk Bakışta Milliyetçilik ve Futbol: “Sonsuz Derbi” Örneği

Year 2022, Volume: 10 Issue: 1, 310 - 322, 28.04.2022
https://doi.org/10.18795/gumusmaviatlas.1096150

Abstract

Futbol, ‘icadından’ bu yana siyasetin, ekonominin ve diğer sosyal disiplinlerin önemli bir konusu olmuştur. Bu açıdan Yugoslav deneyimi, futbol ve siyaset arasındaki simbiyotik ilişkiye iyi bir örnek teşkil etmektedir. Milliyetçi gerilimlerle evrilen Yugoslav siyaseti, her zaman karmaşık ve dolambaçlı bir profile sahip olmuştur. Bu bağlamda, milliyetçiliğin özündeki hıncın Yugoslav siyasetinin çok gözlemlenebilir bir dinamiği olduğu öne sürülmektedir. Buna bağlı olarak iki büyük futbol kulübü Partizan FK ve Kızılyıldız, Yugoslavya'nın kurucu siyasi ilkelerinden derinden etkilenmiştir. Dahası, bu iki kulüp arasında “ebedi derbi” olarak bilinen rekabet, milliyetçi ve sosyalist fikirler arasındaki çatışmanın sembolik bir temsilini üstlenmiştir. Bugün sadece eski Yugoslavya'dan bahsedebiliyor olsak da bu kulüpler halen Balkan tarihinin yaşayan en büyük mirasçıları arasında yer almaktadır. Bu makale, Michael Billig ve Liah Greenfeld'in sunduğu çerçevede “ebedi derbinin” politik tarihine yönelik bir ‘ilk bakış’ sunmaktadır. Bu bağlamda hınç referanslı irrasyonel doğasına ek olarak milliyetçiliğin gündelik hayatın alışkanlıkları arasında kendine yer edinen, daha ziyade bilinçdışı yeniden üretim süreçlerine konu olduğu söylenebilir. Buradan hareketle, varoluşsal haset, statü tutarsızlığı ve kimlik krizi gibi psikososyal kavramlar tarafından biçim verilen milliyetçiliğin banal formu takımları ordulara, oyuncuları askerlere, sahaları savaş alanlarına, galibiyetleri askeri zaferlere, spor yazarlarını savaş muhabirlerine dönüştürebilmektedir. Şiddetin simule edilmesiyle hayali intikam arzusu da tatmin edilmeye çalışılır. “Sonsuz derbi” bu konuya iyi model teşkil etmektedir.

References

  • Amstrong, G. & Vest, E. (2013). Mirror to the state: Politicisation of football clubs in the history of Bosnia-Herzegovina. International Centre for Sport Security Journal, 1(1), 44-51. https://theicss.org/2019/03/07/icss-journal-vol1-no-1/
  • Billig, M. (1995). Banal nationalism. Sage.
  • Blasius, M. (2017). FC Red Star Belgrade and the multiplicity of social identifications in socialist Yugoslavia: Representative dimensions of the “big four” football clubs. The International Journal of The History of Sport, 34(9), 783-799. https://doi.org/10.1080/09523367.2017.1402763
  • Bunce, V. (1995). Should transitologists be grounded?. Slavic Review, 54(1), 111-127. https://doi.org/10.2307/2501122
  • Djordjević, I. & Pekić, R. (2018). Is there space for the left? football fansand political positioning in Serbia. Soccer & Society, 19(3), 355-372. https://doi.org/10.1080/14660970.2017.1333678
  • Đorđević, I. (2016). The role of red star football club in the construction of Serbian national identity. Traditiones, 45(1), 117-132. https://doi.org/10.3986/Traditio2016450108
  • Đorđević, A. Đ. (2020). Stadion Partizana, [Image]. https://streetartbelgrade.com/galerija/gtr-slobodan-aligrudic-dorcol/
  • Eco, U. (1986). Travels in hyperreality. Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.
  • Geiger, V. (2012). Human losses of Croats in World War II and the immediate post-war period caused by the Chetniks (Yugoslav army in the fatherland) and the partizans (People's Liberation Army and the partizan detachment of Yugoslavia/Yugoslav army) and the Yugoslav communist authoritities: Numerical indicators. Review of Croation History, 8(1), 77-121. https://hrcak.srce.hr/103223
  • Greenfeld, L. & Chirot, D. (1994). Nationalism and aggression. Theory and Society, 23(1), 79-130. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00993674
  • Greenfeld, L. (2013). Mind, modernity, madness: The impact of culture on human experience. Harvard University Press.
  • Greenfeld, L. (1994). Nationalism: Five roads to modernity, Harvard University Press.
  • Hayden, R. M. (1992). Constitutional nationalism in the formerly Yugoslav republics. Slavic Review, 51(4), 654-673. https://doi.org/10.2307/2500130
  • Jiang, E. (2016). Football as a social device: The sport’s relation to the Balkan antagonism. The Literary Journal of Students in Balkan Studies, 13(1), 70-73.
  • Karge, H. (2009). Mediated remembrance: Local Practices of remembering the Second World War in Tito’s Yugoslavia. European Review of History, 16(1), 49-62. https://doi.org/10.1080/13507480802655394
  • Karpat, K. (1997). The Balkan national statesand nationalism: Image and reality. Islamic Studies, 36(2/3), 329-359. https://doi.org/10.1163/9789047400899_019
  • Milazzo, M. J. (2019). The Chetnik movement and the Yugoslav resistance. John Hopkins University Press.
  • Mills, R. (2009). ‘It all ended in an unsporting way’: Serbian football and the disintegration of Yugoslavia, 1989-2006. The International Journal of The History of Sport, 26(9), 1187-1217. https://doi.org/10.1080/09523360902941829
  • Mills, R. (2018). The politics of football in Yugoslavia, I. B. Tauris.
  • Mutlu, E. (1996). Avrupa’yı salladık, İngiltere’yi sarsacağız: Futbol, milliyetçilik ve şiddet. Cogito, 6-7, 367-378.
  • Neuberger, B. (2010). National self-determination and democracy. In A. Lecours & L. Moreno, (Eds.), Nationalism and democracy: Dichotomies, complementarities, oppositions (1st ed., pp. 52-79). Routledge.
  • Nietzsche, F. (2008). First essay: ‘Good and evil’, ‘good and bad’ (C. Diethe, Trans.). In Keith A., (Ed.), On the genealogy of morality (2nd ed., pp. 10-34). Cambridge University Press. (Original work published 1887).
  • PA Archive/Press Association. (2016). A graffiti painted by The Red Star supporters, [Image]. https://www.the42.ie/ireland-serbia-world-cup-qualifier-belgrade-2964226-Sep2016/
  • Pavković, A. (2000). Constructing a European identity: Problems of supranationalism. In J. Andrew, M. Crook & M. Waller (Eds.), Why Europe? Problems of culture and identity (1st ed., pp. 115-130) Palgrave Macmillan.
  • Perica, V. (2002). Balkan idols: Religion and nationalism in Yugoslav states. Oxford University Press.
  • Pesic, V. (1996). Serbian nationalism and the origins of the Yugoslav crisis. United States Institute of Peace.
  • Pipini, M. (2019). Exploring the digitalization of football violence: Ultras, disembodiment, and the internet. In S. Lawrence & G. Crawford (Eds.), Digital football cultures: Fandom, identities and resistance (1st ed., pp. 125-138) Routledge.
  • Porter, D. (2017). Sport and national identity. In R. Edelman & W. Wilson (Eds.). The Oxford handbook of sports history, (1st ed., pp. 1-15) Oxford Handbooks Online. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199858910.013.33
  • Radoja, Z. (2021). Ratko Mladić salutes in front of Partizan FC emblem, [Image]. https://www.rferl.org/a/serbia-mladic-mural-protests/31555357.html
  • Roger, A. (2008). Milliyetçilik kuramları. (A. U. Kılıç, Çev.). Versus.
  • Sack, A. L. & Suster, Z. (2000). Soccer and Croatian nationalism: A prelude to war. Journal of Sport & Social Issues, 24(3), 305-320. https://doi.org/10.1177/0193723500243006
  • Scheler, M. (1992). Negative feelings and the destruction of values: Ressentiment. In H. J. Bershady (Ed.), On feeling, knowing, and valuing: Selected writings (1st ed., pp. 116-143). The University of Chicago Press.
  • Sinčić, M. (2013). Do you remember Milena and Merlinka? Gender imagery from the Yugoslav supra nationalism to the super nationalisms and war in the Nineties. West Croatian History Journal, 8, 133-149. https://hrcak.srce.hr/file/212289
  • Spasić, I. (2017). The universality of banal nationalism, or can the flag hang unobtrusively outside a Serbian post office?. In M. Skey & M. Antonsich (Eds.), Everyday nationhood: Theorising culture, identity and belonging after banal nationalism (1st ed., pp. 31-51). Palgrave Macmillan.
  • WM/Darwinek. (2009). A Nationalist Graffiti Painted by The Red Star Fans, [Image]. https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/can-europe-make-it/red-star-serbia-never-yugoslavia-football-politics-and-national-i/
  • Vrcan, S. & Lalic, D. (1999). From ends to trenches, and back: Football in the former Yugoslavia. In G. Armstrong & R. Giulianotti (Eds.), Football Cultures and Identities (1st ed., pp. 176-185). Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230378896_15
  • Zec, D. – Paunović, M. (2015). Football's positive influence on integration in diverse societies: The case study of Yugoslavia. Soccer & Society, 16(2-3), 232-244. https://doi.org/10.1080/14660970.2014.961387
  • Zimmermann, W. (1995). The last ambassador: A memoir of the collapse of Yugoslavia. Foreign Affairs, 74(2), 2-20.
There are 38 citations in total.

Details

Primary Language English
Journal Section Research Article
Authors

Tevfik Orkun Develi 0000-0003-2768-111X

Publication Date April 28, 2022
Submission Date March 30, 2022
Published in Issue Year 2022 Volume: 10 Issue: 1

Cite

APA Develi, T. O. (2022). Nationalism and Football at First Glance: The Case of “Eternal Derby”. Mavi Atlas, 10(1), 310-322. https://doi.org/10.18795/gumusmaviatlas.1096150

e-ISSN: 2148-5232