The Players' Tunnel

October 19, 2017 8:31 AM

The players' tunnel at Stadion Rajko Mitić in Belgrade is infamous. Why? Experience the walk for yourself (loud volume!) on the day of the Eternal Derby.
posted by Foci for Analysis (16 comments total)

The atmosphere depicted is precisely why I have never been to the Marakana other than for a concert one time. That, and my family are Partizan fans.
posted by Aubergine at 8:55 AM on October 19, 2017

passing what, 4 battalions of riot cops ?
posted by k5.user at 9:17 AM on October 19, 2017 [1 favorite]

This makes me wonder if there's been any academic work on the relationship between sport culture and fascism. Both are based on blind allegiance to a team, both love their public spectacles, and in fact very many fascist rallies take place inside of sport stadium. Impossible not to think about here, what with the endless line of riot cops and the burning bonfire in the stands.
posted by tobascodagama at 9:28 AM on October 19, 2017

This makes me wonder if there's been any academic work on the relationship between sport culture and fascism.

Not precisely an answer, but if you're interested in the subject, Bill Burford's Among the Thugs is well worth the read.
posted by The Bellman at 9:32 AM on October 19, 2017 [4 favorites]

It's not just blind allegiance to a team, it's also explicitly nationalist (I would venture in most countries but certainly as to Red Star fans in particular). The result is that there's a largely overlapping Venn diagram in Serbia between devoted football fans and the kinds of people who think Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic are national heroes.
posted by Aubergine at 9:38 AM on October 19, 2017 [1 favorite]

Hello Cleveland!
posted by rhizome at 9:48 AM on October 19, 2017 [1 favorite]

I'm sorry, is there a fire burning in the stands? What the fuck?
posted by selfnoise at 10:00 AM on October 19, 2017

Here's a video showing how crazy pyrotechnics can get during a Red Star Belgrade game.
posted by Foci for Analysis at 10:13 AM on October 19, 2017 [2 favorites]

I'm sorry, is there a fire burning in the stands? What the fuck?

Toto, we're not in Kansas any more.
posted by humboldt32 at 10:37 AM on October 19, 2017

This makes me wonder if there's been any academic work on the relationship between sport culture and fascism.

I'm not aware of any specifically about fascism per se, but the intersection of sports and politics is definitely something academics have been working on. Laurent Dubois's Soccer Empire is about precisely this. (Fascism obviously made explicit use of sport -- see Mussolini's treatment of the Italian national team at the 1934 World Cup -- but it's also been a mechanism for left-wing resistance.)
posted by asterix at 10:48 AM on October 19, 2017 [2 favorites]

Here is a summary of Giulianotti, R.  (2002)  'Supporters, Followers, Fans, and Flâneurs', in Journal of Sport and Social Issues, Vol 26, No 1: 25 - 46. This breaks down relationships of football consumers to clubs. It is very heavily cited but the full article is behind an academic journal paywall.
posted by biffa at 11:22 AM on October 19, 2017 [1 favorite]

Seconding the recommendation for Buford's "Among The Thugs". He describes, very vividly, the rush of hooliganism, the sensation of dissolving into this huge, undulating mass and together becoming, quite literally, unstoppable.

With regards to a general link between fascism and sports / body culture, I suppose you can establish all kinds of connections, all the way back to the ruthless Spartans to Riefenstahl and the 1936 Nazi Olympics.

But hooliganism is something that's specific to football (I hate the word "soccer"). It just doesn't happen in tennis or cycling or what-have-you. In some ways it appears as a European version of street gangs. It provides purpose, a sense of family, and power, as in, wreck-your-city power, sometimes with an actual (quasi)-paramilitary command structure, although the level of organization differs wildly. But some groups do function as a kind of nexus for all kinds of criminal activity, from drug trafficking to providing muscle to recruitment for criminal organizations. And like any good story these days, of course there's suspicion of a Russian connection.

With respect to the obvious fascist and nationalist tendencies, I would add that there is (also) a strong anarchist streak that, in a weird way, kind of resists co-option by 'conventional' political platforms. Perhaps it's a little bit like 4chan's "not your personal army". I guess in general you could say that, in terms of the purposeful chaos, the violence, the fierce tribalism, and general thuggishness, there are more than a couple of ways in which hooliganism and 4chan resemble eachother.
posted by dmh at 11:26 AM on October 19, 2017 [2 favorites]

dmh, reminds me of the chariot racing groups (Blues, Greens, Reds, and Whites) that started in Ancient Rome. They ended up important political factions in the Byzantium Empire. So I don't think it's a football specific thing.
posted by hydrobatidae at 12:19 PM on October 19, 2017 [6 favorites]

Terry Pratchett's Unseen Academicals is about local/mob/sport loyalty (and also charisma and fashion and expertise, because Pratchett).
posted by clew at 2:05 PM on October 19, 2017 [1 favorite]

This makes me wonder if there's been any academic work on the relationship between sport culture and fascism.

There are a bunch of football teams that are identified as "Jewish", either because they were once based in Jewish neighbourhoods or because "Jew" is a European term of abuse. The chants and abuse they receive from fans of opposing teams is literally like something from Nazi Germany.
Vice: What's Behind Football's Enduring Anti-Semitism Problem?

It's a well known issue and it isn't taken nearly as seriously as it should be.
posted by Joe in Australia at 3:51 PM on October 19, 2017 [2 favorites]

But hooliganism is something that's specific to football (I hate the word "soccer")

I think there may be zero soccer hooligans. One does not want blood in the Subaru.
posted by Ogre Lawless at 11:41 PM on October 20, 2017