Fascist Football Foundations PCQ

This article discusses the ways Italy wanted to restructure its approach to the game of football. The government sought to use football as a way to unite the nation through the cultural bond of sport, while also recognizing football as a vehicle for political cohesion. Football in Italy after 1926 not only represented physical dominance over other teams, but also was publicly viewed as fascism’s way of displaying its confidence.

Calcio-chaos: The Road to Viareggio

This section talks about some of the difficulties faced when the popularity of football or calico began to rapidly increase. Teams began to see their number of fans steadily increase and also fans began to travel to games just to further support their home teams. Teams made it easy for such devoted teams to travel through travel aids that allowed for larger groups to afford the trip. The popularity of football led to the idea of traveling to see teams play to be a common and widely accepted means of spending leisure time. Continue reading →

Chapter 3:

It’s fascinating to see how the Fascist government used soccer to manipulate the people.  The article says, “The intro­duction of cup competitions was Fascism’s attempt to protect both big and small teams, while bringing the composite pieces of the puzzle closer towards an integrated national picture that would further develop the Italian game.” (Pg. 60)  It was used to galvanize the people and contribute positively to the Fascist Regime, which used the game to change the cultural identities of the people. The article continues “It was an argument often employed during the Fascist era, whereby the roots of football were attrib­uted to the ancient sport of calcio Fiorentino or calcio storico, a tradi­tional folk game of the Middle Ages, which was also restored to prominence by the regime.82 (Pg 66) This is an example of how they used soccer to build a new national identity, by creating the game as a past time with cultural values that they could build.  Then once they began having success with football and “as II Bargello was proud to proclaim in 1931: ‘even in sport, Fascism is teaching the old Europe and showing its greatest export.’ (pg. 72)  It’s really cool to see how the government built this and compare it to how Spain, thanks to Isabelle and Fernando, united their nation through Christianity and the newly reformed language of Castellano.

Continue reading →

About a month ago a Brazilian player walked off the field in La Liga after he was racially abused throughout the match. This incident was reported and fines were slapped on the alleged culprits of this act, but many feel that while FIFA has technically made efforts to cease racist remarks, it is “nonsense to fight racism with fines”. And while FIFA is under the spotlight with the impending 2014 World Cup in Rio De Janeiro, there is now another incident of not allowing a black couple to host the final World Cup event and decided to elect a white couple for the job. While this is still only an alleged accusation, this is simply a continued view that FIFA does not want to have and is furthering the image that they are racially intolerant.

Fascist Football Foundation

Introduction:

-Italy felt the need to restructure football in order to gain the support of the masses. This in turn becomes another form of nationalism.

-The new league of calico formed in the early 20^th century was the cause of much disapproval from the smaller clubs, which in turn caused a divide in big and small clubs and strayed away from the initial belief of “a healthy and chivalrous game that tempers the energies of the race”. Continue reading →

Here is the article I’ve found.

I think it’s really cool to look at the perspectives at play in this article.  The people of Cataluña and the Basque country want these teams to represent and be the forefront for their nationalist movements, but at least the Catalan players continue the tradition of saying whatever the people want to hear.  Xavi’s quote is an example of this, how he says the likes to play for Cataluña but ultimately would play for Spain, not Cataluña.  This quote is classic, “The players do so carefully stressing their allegiance to Catalonia, while never publicly championing it ahead of their loyalty to a Spain they have all represented with distinction.” Why would these Catalan players try to change a system that they are extremely successful at?  The Catalans have always been known as “wheeler-dealers” and negotiators, so it’s really cool to watch this play out.