Face to Face with my Thesis

I know the blog has taken on a life of its own, that it has strayed far from the original concept - a blog/log of my work on the topic of Football and Politics. While this may be true, I can say that the topic is never far from my thoughts, and from time to time, I see something or experience something, which brings home one or more of my fundamental arguments.

I had such an experience on Sunday. I was playing with my usual team. We had fun, we scored goals, we made good and bad passes, and we scuffed a lot of shots. But no-one got angry; well, apart from Marco, who got angry when "the ball hit me in the face for the second time, and the fat guy laughed." But apart from that we all had a great time, and as usual, I felt the tensions melt away.

One of the regulars on my team, a giant of a man, is, it turns out, a real live hooligan. He is that guy, who follows Svezda around the country (both the football and basketball team) and watches the game with the Delije. He also has a tattoo, which expresses his opinion of the police; and he is no fan. But this guy, for all that he is close to 7ft, is one of the happiest, nicest, gentle and well mannered people I have met. There is nothing about him and the way he presents himself, which would suggest violence and allegiance to a ultra-nationalist organization. More over, he really likes me, and likes speaking in English, which also doesn't fit the Serbian hooligan image.

Thus we see the contradiction, and one that is seen in many hooligan cultures. How can a nice, friendly man, like my team-mate, have such a fascination with, and participate in, such a violent community? As I said, he is not exceptional though. In the heyday of English hooliganism, there were many "respectable" citizens (doctors, lawyers, etc...) who were in the various firms around the country. I don't know where the answer to this lies, except to suggest that, in my team-mate, we witness the artificial nature, the constructed nature, of identity. It is this construction that allows two seemingly contradictory persona to co-exist in a single individual.

When I returned home, I switched on the TV and found myself watching Shalke Vs. Hoffenheim. The game was the final game of this first part of the season. I was, I must say, a bit shocked at how nasty the game was. There were endless fouls and fights, two red cards, and continuous yelling. All of this on the pitch, not in the stands, where you might expect it. As I was watching it, I though, how is it possible that a game, being broadcast live on TV, with professional players, in a stadium, with no less than 4 referees, be so dirty? There is so much regulation, and real consequences to the fouls and fighting. Yet, the game I had just played had no regulation at all, except for the honor system (self-regulation), and not once has there been a fight, and excessive foul, or verbal abuse.

Again, I don't have the answer, except to suggest it may be the fact that in the Bundesliga, they are playing for a prize, and their wages; while in the little bubble next to the basketball stadium, we are not. So, while my game restored my faith that the game can be a simple, fun game, as I watched the Shalke game, I was once more disappointed.

Hello September...

Sunday was perfect. A football match followed by a football match. First stop was the Red Star game at Svezda stadium. The match was very poorly attended, I estimate about 5,000 people, but it was like being one step away from my thesis. The people in the stadium, at least the ones in the section where we were (North Curve, Red Star section), were only a generation away from their predecessors who went to Zagreb in 1991, who followed Arkan to the front line, and who fought in Vukovar.

Watching the leader of the firm stand on his bench and pump up the crowd, and seeing the many young (by young, I mean 10-15) I felt I was literally witnessing the moment of where the ideology was being transfered and propagated. It was both devastating and fascinating at the same time. The singing went, as the game deteriorated for Red Star, from encouraging support from the fans no matter what, to calling for the coaches head to threatening the players by telling them they were going to break into the training ground and beat them up.

But the most telling moment came as the game ended. The firm, en mass moved towards the very front rows of the north curve. They did this to call the players to come to them over. It was not an aggressive move, yet before they even got all the way down, the riot police appeared out of no where and formed a barrier along the fence. It seemed to me an unnecessary move on their part, and is actually what provoked the most violent behavior of the evening when the Delijer began to actually launch the flares and  at the cops. This in turn provoked a small stamped of people out of the stadium, I guess out of fear of what may happen. But that was also where it ended, and slowly the crowed dispersed.

During the match I watched three young boys smoke a joint in plain sight. They were not even hiding it from the security forces right on the other side of the fence. It made me think of something DB said a few weeks ago as we discussed the situation over the Karadzic riot. It appears as if the cops are a little less committed to the rule of law, than the hooligans are to chaos. Maybe it's a stretch to make the connection here, but the kids stood in plain sight breaking the law, the security force, clearly recognizing what was going on, did nothing. He just watched.