The Rise and Fall of Yugoslavia: Politics and Football in the Service of the Nation(s)
The Rise and Fall of Yugoslavia: Politics and Football in the Service of the Nation(s)

Summary/Abstract: Abstract. The modern history of the South Slavs has attracted political, economic, historical, sociological, and anthropological analysis seeking to discover the reasons for the one-time unity and the final violent dissolution of a shared country. Mainstream political, social, cultural, and economic developments have provided the background to behavior and developments in the field of sports, football in particular. Comparative analysis of these events offers the possibility of ascertaining whether it was nationalism from below or from above that led to violence first at football stadiums and then in society. During different historical periods, various forms of nationalism dominated South Slavs’ societies and could be traced in the behavior of elites and ordinary football fans. The latter groups radicalized each other during these processes. Nationalism, as often expressed at football stadiums, emerged on the ruins of the second Yugoslavia.

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