The question of sport as a tool for alienation or emancipation entered
many homes during the FIFA World Cup organized in Qatar at the end of2022. And it was rather the critical aspects that predominated in the
debates, around the question of respect for human rights and
environmental issues. An update on football taken in a broader
reflection on its social implications therefore seems necessary.
Football is not an object that floats outside the society that created
it. It is a multifaceted reality that affects to varying degrees:
players, fans, organizers and financiers themselves shape it, like a
prism of which looking at only one facet would be bad faith. Limiting
ourselves to denouncing the hegemony of a football-spectacle that has
become a commodity aimed only at profit would be as reductive and
partial as only praising its beginnings in the working world and its
place in popular culture.
Putting social values back at the heart of sport
In recent decades, football has taken on the appearance of a product
whose trade generates billions in turnover, aberrant in view of social,
economic and environmental emergencies. It has become the archetype of
sports-business and of a world where spectacle replaces effective
participation to confine citizens to the rank of simple consumers. In
this sense, it no longer resembles us and is transformed into sterile or
even harmful entertainment for the maintenance of living values such as
solidarity, sharing, fairness, the pleasure of effort or of its pooling.
However, is it only that? No. We only need to look closely at what makes
up this global "football ecosystem" to realize that there are much more
interesting facets that deserve to be looked at closely.
First, let's talk about the militant reality of the professional club
from Hamburg's red light district, FC Sankt Pauli, recently promoted to
the Bundesliga, the German "League 1". It is often presented as the
archetype of a form of resistance to football business. A resistance
that is played out within the very system against which the club has
stood since the mid-1980s when the movement of occupations of vacant
buildings was in full swing in the Hanseatic city. Since then, the
supporters, mostly from local social movements, have taken over the
stands but also (and this is where the exemplary nature lies) the club's
authorities, and have organized themselves around strong slogans and
principles that stand out in the sports-business landscape: anti-sexism,
anti-homophobia, anti-fascism, international solidarity, local social
commitment, sustainable economic development model...
Officially founded in 1910, it was in the 1980s that FC St. Pauli began
to develop its own identity, anchored in progressive ideas and social
struggles.
MORTEN F
Islands of resistance to capitalist football
All this is manifested on a daily basis by the constant decisions of a
highly responsible "fan scene" fully aware of the struggles to be waged,
the club's professional football team serving mainly as a showcase for
these. It is difficult to list the club's commitments as the axes and
methods of implementation are so varied: from supporting a palliative
care center for HIV patients to creating autonomous wells in regions of
the world where access to water is deficient, FC St. Pauli tries to
reconcile being an island of resistance and participating in a "system"
that does not value this kind of position.
It is however worth noting the total lack of solidarity of FC St. Pauli
towards the Gazans who are victims of the atrocities of the Israeli army
that followed the barbaric attacks by Hamas on October 7th. On the
contrary, it is a very pro-Israeli position that has been expressed by
the voice of the Ultras Sankt Pauli and other groups of supporters[1].
All to the great displeasure of international fan clubs, a certain
number of which have simply ceased their activities in connection with
the club[2]. The fault lies among others with the influence of the
anti-German movement, a fashionable movement in the German radical left,
claiming to be anti-fascist and holding radically Zionist positions...
out of German anti-nationalism[3].
"Such is the path of a revolutionary: from disillusionment to hope, and
not the other way around!" It is in Florence that CS Lebowski is
located, the Italian version of a self-managed and committed club.
Coming from the depths of the ninth and last Italian division, it has
progressed to the sixth division over the last ten years.
CLAPTON FC
While it is easy to find left-leaning stands in other countries
expressing themselves in the form of banners or flags in favour of a
struggle or a claim (Rayo Vallecano in Spain, Red Star in France, West
Ham in England, Livorno in Italy, Besiktas in Turkey, etc.), it is much
rarer to see supporters managing to shape the life of their club
according to their commitments. This is because in Germany there is a
kind of exception to the usual operation in which the club owner and his
board of directors decide everything: here, the members of the FC St.
Pauli association are its democratic base.
Building a libertarian football
On the other hand, there are examples of resistance to the dominant
model on completely different scales. Many clubs smaller than FC St.
Pauli are also fighting to restore football to its popular character and
its dimension as a local social actor, like CS Lebowski (Florence),
Atletico San Lorenzo (Rome), Ménilmontant FC 1871 (Paris), or Clapton FC
(London). For each of them, rooting in the reality on the ground and
developing an inclusive sports culture are essential foundations. They
provide a counterpoint to the unbridled and deleterious search for
performance promoted by professional football stamped UEFA or FIFA. And
if FC St. Pauli is cautious about the Palestinian question, it is quite
the opposite for Ménilmontant FC.
In the stands of these sporting realities on a human scale, there are no
diktats, no censorship of solidarity between peoples. The jerseys of
these teams often display symbols linked to the history of the
libertarian political camp (like Clapton FC and its legendary jersey in
the colours of the Spanish Republic). And above all, solidarity is
organised in a concrete way with actions to support refugees or a whole
range of causes that libertarian communists support on their side at the
level of the UCL or other organisations. They also find an application
in a practical field that goes beyond strictly political organisations.
"No Pasaran" on the back, three arrows on the chest, the Clapton FC
jerseys proudly claim the anti-fascist values of the London club.
CLAPTON FC
So, if the prism offers variously attractive facets, we have the choice
to set our sights where the horizon is most interesting. We have the
possibility of looking around us for these initiatives, these clubs that
oppose a de facto resistance to the hegemonic and gangrenous model of
professional football. These local clubs have a strong tendency to
multiply and there may even be one in your area that needs players,
facilitators, trainers, etc. It is therefore up to football enthusiasts
to put on their boots to support these realities and tackle the
preconceived idea that this sport would be definitively lost for those
who like shared commitment: in other words, it is up to the libertarians
to play!
Accattone (UCL Lille)
For further information:
* In Praise of the Pass: Sport as an Apprenticeship in Libertarian
Practices, Collective, Éditions Libertaires, 2012
* A Popular History of Football, Mickaël Correia, Éditions La
Découverte, 2018
* The Great Football, Collective, Solar Éditions, 2022
* Atlas of Popular Football: Europe - Latin America, Yann Dey-Helle,
Éditions Terres de Feu, 2024
Validate
[1]"Behind the Support of Certain German Ultra Groups for Israel",
Dialectik Football, November 19, 2023.
[2]"FC St. Pauli: Break Completed with Several Fan Clubs in Solidarity
with the Palestinians", Dialectik Football, November 13, 2023.
[3]"The Anti-Deutsch Phenomenon: A Singularity of the German Radical
Left", Anne Joly, The Book Review, July-August 2012.
https://www.unioncommunistelibertaire.org/?Football-Carton-rouge-et-noir
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