Ready for the homeland? Ritual, remembrance, and political extremism in Croatian football

Datos Bibliográficos

ID11047135
AutoresDario Brentin (0000-0003-4271-8996, University of Graz, autor de correspondencia)
Año2016
Volumen44
Número6
Páginas860-876
Fecha de publicación2016-11-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaNationalities Papers (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0090-5992 • E-ISSN: 1465-3923
EditorialCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1080/00905992.2015.1136996
OpenAlexW2297006162
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas18
Referencias citadas34

In the case of Croatia, sport has proved to be a highly politicized form of national expression, functioning as a salient social field in which its “national habitus codes” are most intensively articulated, debated, and contested. An incident emblematizing this argument occurred on 19 November 2013, when the Croatian national football team secured their qualification for the 2014 Football World Cup in Brazil. In front of the 25,000 people at Zagreb's Maksimir stadium, the national team player, Josip Simunić, grabbed the microphone and “greeted” all four stands with a loud chanting of Za dom (For the home(land)), to which the stands thunderously responded spremni (ready), the official salute of the Independent State of Croatia, a fascist WWII quisling-state. This paper argues that the issue extends beyond politically radicalized football hooligans and has to be understood from the standpoint of “social memory.” By focusing on football, the article scrutinizes debates in the Croatian public sphere dealing with the salute Za dom – spremni. Providing an insight into its complex and multi-layered nature, this paper illustrates that Croatian football has to be understood as a field in which social memory is prominently constructed, heatedly articulated, and powerfully disseminated

Croatian · Football · Homeland · Media studies · Political science · Politics · Sociology · State (computer science · Balkans: History, Politics, Society · History · Law · Sport and Mega-Event Impacts · Sports, Gender, and Society