Football and Discrimination Antisemitism and Beyond Critical Research in Football Series

This book takes a close look at discrimination in football in order to illuminate our understanding of the interaction between sport and wider society, politics and culture, particularly in terms of the (re)production of identity.

It presents insightful and diverse international case studies, including the shadow of fascism in Italian football; fan activism against racism, sexism, and homophobia in US soccer; migrant football clubs in Germany, and the use of football club history in the teaching of antisemitism. Together they demonstrate the damaging societal consequences of unchecked resentment and discrimination in football fan cultures but also the potential for fan activism as a socio-positive force.

This is fascinating reading for anybody with an interest in football or fandom, the sociology of sport, cultural studies, or political science.

Introduction, Part I: Prologue, 1. Collective Identity and Forms of Abuse and Discrimination in Football Fan Culture: A Case Study on Antisemitism, Part II: Ressentiment, 2. The Image of the “Judenklub” in Interwar European Soccer: Myth or Reality?, 3. The Sociopolitical Roots of Antisemitism Among Football Fandom: The Real Absence and Imagined Presence of Jews in Polish Football, 4. Antisemitism in German Football Since the 1980s, 5. Antisemitic Ressentiment-Communication Directed at RB Leipzig in German Football Fan Culture: The Third Other, Part III: Identity, 6. Self-Directed Racialized Humor as In-Group Marker Among Migrant Players in a Professional Football Team: “Dude, Just Draw the Racist Card!”, 7. Racism and Interethnic Conflict in Amateur Football: The Case of Migrant Sport Clubs in Germany, 8. Struggling to Belong in the Face of Otherness: The Atlanta Fútbol Club of Buenos Aires, Part IV: (Anti-)discrimination, 9. Appealing to a Common Identity: The Case of Antisemitism in Dutch Football, 10. Eintracht Frankfurt Fans and the Museum: Football History, Remembrance Culture, and the Fight Against Antisemitism, 11. A Comment on Several Specific Aspects of Remembrance and Education Projects in Football, 12. The Twofold American Exceptionalism in Soccer Fandom: Anti-Discriminatory Activism Among Organized Soccer Supporters in the United States, Part V: Epilogue, 13. What Is It About Association Football – the Arrogantly Self-Appointed ‘Beautiful Game’ - That Renders Most (Though Not All) of Its Fan Cultures So Ugly?

Pavel Brunssen is a PhD candidate at the Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures at the University of Michigan, USA, where he is also pursuing a graduate certificate in Judaic Studies at the Frankel Center for Judaic Studies. His main research interests include antisemitism and antigypsyism in European football fan cultures. In 2011, Pavel cofounded a magazine called Transparent, of which he was editor in chief until 2017, that focuses on the political aspects of soccer fan cultures.

Stefanie Schüler-Springorum is a historian and Director of the Center for Research on Antisemitism, Germany. She is also Co-Director of the Selma-Stern- Center for Jewish Studies, Germany, and directs the Berlin branch of the Center for Research on Social Cohesion. Her fields of research include Jewish, German, and Spanish history.