Performing Fan Identities: the Role of Politics in the Antagonistic Communication of Football Fans in Cyprus
Date Issued
2013
Author(s)
Stylianou, Stelios
Abstract
Fan identities in sports are often constructed based on divides related to
locality, social class, ethnicity, nationality, or politics. At first glance, Cyprus football
is a case where party affiliation and political ideology seem to play a key role in the
maintenance of an intensely antagonistic fan culture. The performance of fan identity
through oppositional communicative practices seems to be guided by politics, in the
narrow sense, often conceptualized in the binary "left vs. right". This tendency, which
is, at least in part, justified by the notable fact that certain football teams are
historically associated with the Right or the Left, is expressed predominantly in
communicative actions (chanting, shouting, banner displays, etc.) of often excessively
provocative political content during football games. Our paper reports on the use of
political symbols (text, images, etc.) by football fans as a practice that creates,
sustains and reproduces binary oppositions that are elementary to the fan identity.
We use data from field observations of first division football games and from in-depth
interviews with football fans to address the following questions: (1) to what extent is
team selection and the observed intensely politicized antagonistic communication
guided by political identification and party affiliation, (2) to what extent is this fan
identity performance a case of persistence of an outdated rhetoric and old-fashioned
aesthetics, and (3) to what extent are these communicative elements a convenient or
even playful means of exercising exclusion-inclusion practices that satisfy the fans’
need for group belonging and differentiation.
locality, social class, ethnicity, nationality, or politics. At first glance, Cyprus football
is a case where party affiliation and political ideology seem to play a key role in the
maintenance of an intensely antagonistic fan culture. The performance of fan identity
through oppositional communicative practices seems to be guided by politics, in the
narrow sense, often conceptualized in the binary "left vs. right". This tendency, which
is, at least in part, justified by the notable fact that certain football teams are
historically associated with the Right or the Left, is expressed predominantly in
communicative actions (chanting, shouting, banner displays, etc.) of often excessively
provocative political content during football games. Our paper reports on the use of
political symbols (text, images, etc.) by football fans as a practice that creates,
sustains and reproduces binary oppositions that are elementary to the fan identity.
We use data from field observations of first division football games and from in-depth
interviews with football fans to address the following questions: (1) to what extent is
team selection and the observed intensely politicized antagonistic communication
guided by political identification and party affiliation, (2) to what extent is this fan
identity performance a case of persistence of an outdated rhetoric and old-fashioned
aesthetics, and (3) to what extent are these communicative elements a convenient or
even playful means of exercising exclusion-inclusion practices that satisfy the fans’
need for group belonging and differentiation.