Word: sectarian
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...Foer takes his readers onto the Glasgow terraces for an engaging first-hand account of the sectarian rivalry, a theme he echoes in his discussions with an organized group of hooligan supporters of Red Star Belgrade whose fan base were the shock troops of Slobodan Milosevic's "ethnic cleansing" campaign, and were later organized into militias...
...while Foer offers great reporting on sectarian fans and the experience of African players in Eastern Europe, he doesn't necessarily deliver much by way of analysis of his chosen topic of the impact of globalization on the game and its fans...
...have to position ourselves for that." Jacques goes further than Foer in posing some of the questions and tensions raised by globalization on the way the game is played, watched and organized. Where the loyalty of a fan base has traditionally been organized on the basis of local, often sectarian or political affinities, he notes, that hardly helps turn it into a global brand. In Spain, encounters between Real Madrid and Barcelona still carry the stamp of the team of General Franco (Madrid) clashing with the irrepressibly rebellious and republican Catalans (Barcelona), but that encoded history which enflames the home...
...While clubs (they'd be called franchises in the U.S.) are the principle venue in which the game is played week in and week out - and where it operates as a business for both owners and players - and often expresses longstanding sectarian rivarly, the primary form of tribal identification in the game worldwide remains with the national team rather than the local club. The nationalist passions aroused by international competition are plain to see at every World Cup and regional tournament: There are painful histories in play every time Germany clashes with Holland or the Czech Republic, for example...
...dynamics of globalization of the game are now such that it's no longer wholly inconceivable, particularly in light of the emerging cartel spirit among the G-14. The political events of the past decade suggest that despite the optimism of globalization's cheerleaders, the process has hardly dissipated sectarian and ethnic political passions in historical trouble spots. But the dynamics of globalization in the game suggest it may become increasingly hard to sustain soccer as an outlet for them...