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Football Fans, Social Movements and Contentious Politics: Cairo and Istanbul

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The Political Football Stadium

Part of the book series: Football Research in an Enlarged Europe ((FREE))

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Abstract

The occupation of the Tahrir Square and the Gezi Park protests were moments where football fan groups had emerged as crucial actors in social protests. In Egypt during the Battle of Camel and its aftermath, and in Turkey during the Gezi Park protests, the fan groups contributed resistance through gathering and organizing dispersed and unorganized masses in clashes with the police forces. This article offers a comparative perspective on Egyptian and Turkish cases, by analysing these unusual actors of social movements. Drawing on the contentious politics approach, the comparative perspective includes analyses on political opportunities, accumulated contention, experience and fan groups’ action repertoires. By focusing on these two cases, the article discusses the determining role played by football fan groups in protests, in political contexts where organized politics is not powerful and free.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    James Montague, “Egypt’s politicised football hooligans”, http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2012/02/20122215833232195.html.

  2. 2.

    Mahmoud El-Wardani, “The Ultras and the Egyptian Revolution”, http://www.jadaliyya.com/pages/index/3759/the-ultras-and-the-egyptian-revolution.

  3. 3.

    “The Ultras White Knights: Football hooliganism or social movement?”, http://www.masress.com/en/dailynews/132718.

    Mahmoud El-Wardani, “The Ultras and the Egyptian Revolution”, http://www.jadaliyya.com/pages/index/3759/the-ultras-and-the-egyptian-revolution.

  4. 4.

    “The Ultras White Knights: Football hooliganism or social movement?”, http://www.masress.com/en/dailynews/132718.

    Mahmoud El-Wardani, “The Ultras and the Egyptian Revolution”, http://www.jadaliyya.com/pages/index/3759/the-ultras-and-the-egyptian-revolution.

  5. 5.

    The Ultras White Knights: Football hooliganism or social movement? http://www.masress.com/en/dailynews/132718.

  6. 6.

    Sherif Tarek, “Egypt’s Ultras: Politically involved but not politically driven, yet”, http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContentPrint/1/0/31904/Egypt/0/Egypt%E2%80%99s-Ultras-Politically-involved-but-not-politi.aspx.

  7. 7.

    Amany Aly Shawky, “‘The Ultras Book’: Ethnography of an unusual crowd”, http://www.egyptindependent.com//news/%E2%80%98-ultras-book%E2%80%99-ethnography-unusual-crowd.

  8. 8.

    Mahmoud El-Wardani, “The Ultras and the Egyptian Revolution”, http://www.jadaliyya.com/pages/index/3759/the-ultras-and-the-egyptian-revolution.

  9. 9.

    The Ultras White Knights: Football hooliganism or social movement? http://www.masress.com/en/dailynews/132718.

  10. 10.

    Sherif Tarek, “Egypt’s Ultras: Politically involved but not politically driven, yet”, http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContentPrint/1/0/31904/Egypt/0/Egypt%E2%80%99s-Ultras-Politically-involved-but-not-politi.aspx.

  11. 11.

    James Montague, “Egypt’s politicised football hooligans”, http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2012/02/20122215833232195.html.

  12. 12.

    Sherif Tarek, “Egypt military rulers accused of instigating Port Said disaster”, http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/1/64/33589/Egypt/Politics-/Egypt-military-rulers-accused-of-instigating-Port-.aspx.

  13. 13.

    Amany Aly Shawky, “‘The Ultras Book’: Ethnography of an unusual crowd”, http://www.egyptindependent.com//news/%E2%80%98-ultras-book%E2%80%99-ethnography-unusual-crowd.

  14. 14.

    Sherif Tarek, “Egypt’s Ultras: Politically involved but not politically driven, yet”, http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContentPrint/1/0/31904/Egypt/0/Egypt%E2%80%99s-Ultras-Politically-involved-but-not-politi.aspx.

  15. 15.

    Here we use the concept of Giulianotti (2002) and Thornton (1995).

  16. 16.

    The documentary is available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5PI203fJwoU&t=14s (accessed June 2022).

  17. 17.

    Metin (anonymous name) is an active member of Çarşı and one of the intellectual leaders of the group whose opinions matter. In-depth interview on 5 March 2014.

  18. 18.

    Anonymous name. In-depth interview on 23 March 2014.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Istanbul Bilgi University, Istanbul, Turkey

    Burak Özçetin & Ömer Turan

Authors
  1. Burak Özçetin
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  2. Ömer Turan
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Correspondence to Burak Özçetin .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Middle East Technical University, Ankara, Türkiye

    Başak Alpan

  2. EU-Asia Institute, ESSCA School of Management, Angers Cedex 01, France

    Albrecht Sonntag

  3. Department of Arts and Cultural Sciences, Lund University, Lund, Sweden

    Katarzyna Herd

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Özçetin, B., Turan, Ö. (2023). Football Fans, Social Movements and Contentious Politics: Cairo and Istanbul. In: Alpan, B., Sonntag, A., Herd, K. (eds) The Political Football Stadium. Football Research in an Enlarged Europe. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-29144-9_10

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-29144-9_10

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  • Online ISBN: 978-3-031-29144-9

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