Football and Discrimination (Critical Research in Football)

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.

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.