Constructing self-identity through the spectrum of global gaze
Football and national identity in Saudi Arabia
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 12330002 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Xiaoya Wang (0000-0003-0519-8661, Tsinghua University), Xiaoqian Richard Hu (0000-0001-8227-4280, Tsinghua University, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2025 |
| Publication date | 2025-12-24 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | International Review for the Sociology of Sport (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1012-6902 • E-ISSN: 1461-7218 |
| Publisher | SAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1177/10126902251407266 |
| OpenAlex | W7117118731 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 35 |
Football plays a dual and dialectical role in contemporary global culture: as a powerful driver of the globalisation of Western ideology and as a potent apparatus for the construction of local identities. Within the context of rising football enthusiasm and entrenched identity politics in the Arab world, this study examines Saudi Arabia's strategic functionalisation of football in the construction of national identity by analysing state-aligned media discourse surrounding its successful – albeit uncontested – bid to host the 2034 FIFA World Cup, following Australia's withdrawal. It reveals that state-aligned media stage outward compliance with universal standards while simultaneously inscribing ‘Saudi values’, culture, and royal authority at the core. In doing so, the Kingdom projects symbols catering to Western expectations even as it ambiguously articulates a distinctive national essence. As a late-forming nation-state under strong international benchmarking pressures, Saudi Arabia leverages modern sport as a potent instrument of nation-building. While Saudi Arabia is often framed through the lens of ‘sportswashing’ in scholarly and public debate, overreliance on this label narrows analysis to image-building abroad, obscures sport's domestic functions, and is applied unevenly – largely to non-Western states. Accordingly, we advance a broader analytical frame – grounded in systematic evidence – that links state-aligned media discourse to concrete mechanisms of nation-building
Context (archaeology · Dialectic · Football · Globalization · Identity (music · Ideology · Mainstream · National identity · Nationalism · Socioeconomic Development in MENA · Sport and Mega-Event Impacts · Sports, Gender, and Society
Methodological rigour within a qualitative framework
Role Theory, Narratives, and Interpretation
The Rebellious Game
The Son King
A new flagship of global football
The transformation of Saudi Arabia’s rentier state and ‘the international’
From football riot to revolution. The political role of football in the Arab world
The ball may be round but football is becoming increasingly Arabic
Globalized, yet local
Soccer in the Middle East
The roles states play
Toward a Theory of Sportswashing
Saudi Arabia 1950–80
Role theory in symbolic interactionism
Media Power and Global Television News
National Role Conceptions in the Study of Foreign Policy
Saudi Arabia and the Limits of Religious Reform
Kin-aesthetics, ideology, and the cycling tour
Life as Narrative
The soft power-soft disempowerment nexus
Ideas for the Philosophy of the History of Mankind
Regional Television and Collective Ethnic Identity
Sportswashing
Football in Arabic literature in diaspora
Who are we? My club? My people? My state? The dilemma of the Arab soccer fan in Israel
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |