FOOTBALL AS NATIONALISM/REGIONALISM

The Relationship between Footballs as Nationalism/Regionalism

The relationship between footballs as nationalism/regionalism

Introduction

Sport is an often overlooked aspect in the construction of nationality and nationalism. Despite E. J. Hobsbawm's observation that 'the imagined community of millions seems more real as a team of eleven named people' the role sport takes is under-researched.1 In Football and Fascism, Martin shows the complex relationship between the fascist regime in Italy and football. In doing so, he not only illuminates an under-researched area of fascism, but makes a welcome contribution to research into sport and the formation of national identity.

This is not to say that Martin's work is solely focused on nationalism; he also demonstrates how Mussolini utilised the powerful symbolism of sport, Fascism and Ancient Rome to instil a potent image of Fascist Italy both at home and abroad. The history of what is now the modern state of Italy began in the nineteenth century when the nation-builders of the Risorgimento sought to unite the peninsula. Prior to this geographical area was filled with a collection of city-states encapsulating many forms of political administration ranging from the Republic and Monarch to Oligarchy and Papacy. The challenge to unification ultimately led to extensive nationalism under the leadership of the Fascist Benito Mussolini. Mussolini utilised many tools to inspire national identity, including the symbols of Ancient Rome and extensive trans-national communication networks, but sport became a central tenet to his vision.

Although he attempted to use other more 'dignified' sports such as fencing and boxing, he came to realise that football had the means to reach a wider audience. Mussolini's approach entailed utilising history, language and geography to permeate the national and cultural politics of the time. Fascists argued that the origin of the game was Calcio Fiorentino and the medieval game played in Florence, which contrasted with the previous notion that it had been brought to Italy by English sailors. Ultimately, the word calcio was adopted for the sport, in opposition to most international derivatives of football. Furthermore, Mussolini created a national body to administer the sport and consolidated the regional leagues into a national league. Serie A was created and showed football fans the extent of Italy's boundaries. Trieste became part of Italy in the post-World War I settlement, and its inclusion in the newly formed league reinforced the fact that it was now part of Italy. The recently formed international competitions also provided an apposite opportunity to demonstrate Italy's image at home and abroad. (Sznajder, 1995, p. 83-102)

The Italian national team won Olympic gold in 1928 and, six years later, Italy hosted the second World Cup, unsurprisingly winning at home, and then retained the title in France in 1938. In post-industrial age with permeable borders and increased migration, it is sobering to see the same tropes surfacing as during the fascist regime. During 2004 the former Celtic and West Ham striker, Paolo Di Canio of Lazio blasted the Italian authorities for picking Mauro Camoranesi, an Argentine with Italian grandparents, for the Italian ...