Football, Violence and Social Identity

As the 1994 World Cup competition in the USA will again demonstrate soccer is one of the most popular participant and spectator sports around the world. The fortunes of teams can have great significance for the communities they represent both at the local and national levels. Social and cultural analysts have only recently started to investigate the wide variety of customs, values and social patters that surround the game in different societies. This volume contributes to the widening focus of research by presenting new data and explanations of soccer-related violence. Epsiodes of violence associated with soccer are relatively infrequent. But the occasional violent events which attract great media attention have their roots in the rituals of the matches, the loyalties and identities of players and crowds and the wider cultrues and politics of the host societies. This book provides a unique cross-national examination of patterns of order and conflict surrounding soccer matches from this perspective with examples provided by expert contributors from Scotland, England, Norway, the Netherlands, Italy, Argentina and the USA. This book will be of interest to an international readership of informed soccer and sport enthusiasts and students of sport, leisure, society, deviance and culture. Richard Giulianotti, Norman Bonney and Mike Hepworth are repsectively Research Assistant, Senior Lecturer and Reader in the Department of Sociology, Abderdeen University, Scotland.