The Palgrave International Handbook of Football and Politics

This Handbook offers an analysis of the relation between football and politics, based on over 30 case studies covering five continents. It provides a detailed picture of this relation in a wide number of European, American, African, and Asian states, as well as a comparative assessment of football in a global perspective, thus combining the general and the local. It examines themes such as the political origins of football in the studied country, the historical club rivalries, the political aspects of football as a sports spectacle, and the contemporary issues linked to the political use of football. By following the same structure with each study, the volume allows for the comparison between largely investigated cases and cases that have seldom been addressed. The Handbook will be of use particularly to students and scholars in the fields of sport studies, political science and sociology, as well as cultural studies, anthropology and leisure studies.

Jean-Michel De Waele is Professor of Political Science at the Universite libre de Bruxelles, Belgium. His areas of expertise include Central and Eastern European politics, social-democracy, as well as the relations between sport and politics.

Suzan Gibril is F.R.S-F.N.R.S Fellow at the Universite libre de Bruxelles, Belgium. Her fields of expertise include contentious politics in the Middle East and the relations between sport and politics in the region.

Ekaterina Gloriozova is F.R.S-F.N.R.S Fellow at the Universite libre de Bruxelles, Belgium. Her research interests are the relations between sport and politics in post-Soviet and contemporary Russia.

Ramon Spaaij is Associate Professor and Research Program Leader (Sport in Society) at Victoria University, Melbourne, Australia. His overarching research interests centre on questions of social cohesion, conflict and social change in sport and violent extremism.