UNIVERSITÁ DEGLI STUDI DI PAVIA
Corso di Laurea Specialistica Interfacoltà in
Editoria e Comunicazione Multimediale
Il calcio e un’identità nel pallone
Perché la domenica si va allo stadio anziché a messa
Relatore:
Prof. Mario Dossoni
Tesi di Laurea di:
Stefano Ghiozzi
Matr. 367891/45
Correlatore:
Dott. Carlo Genta
ANNO ACCADEMICO 2009 - 2010
1
Liquid modernity of the
western society
The Polish sociologist Zygmunt Bauman introduced
the idea of liquid modernity. He wrote that its
characteristics are the increasing feelings of
uncertainty. It is a kind of chaotic continuation of
modernity, where one can shift from one social
position to another, in a fluid manner.
Nomadism becomes a general trait of the liquid
modern man, as he flows through his own life like a
tourist, changing places, jobs, spouses, values and
sometimes even more (such as political or sexual
orientation), (self-)excluded from the traditional
networks of support.
2
Crisis of:
Religion
Work
but…
Politics
3
Rise of:
Sport
and especially…
Football
Why?
4
P. P. Pasolini and M. V.
Montalbán
«Football is the last sacred representation
of our time. It is the rite in the end, even if
it is a leisure. While other sacred
representations, even the religious mass,
is sloping down, football is the only one
left. Football is the show that replaced the
theater».
«Football is turning into a
secular substitute of religion,
with its rituals, its symbols,
its cathedrals , its sects».
5
The social influence of
sport and football
Gino Bartali’s historic victory in the Tour de France in
1948 avoided the risk of an armed mass revolt after
the attack committed against the leader of the Italian
Communist Party, Palmiro Togliatti. The instinct took
over insurrectionary desire and people celebrated
extraordinary international success of our compatriot,
a real legend of Italian cycling and sport.
Brazil defeat in the 1950 World Cup played at home
was one of the biggest upsets in football history, and
the term Maracanazo, roughly translated as "The
Maracanã Blow") has become synonymous with the
match. When hosts Brazil lost the 1950 World Cup
final against Uruguay 2-1, two of the 175,000
crammed into Rio's Maracana stadium committed
suicide by throwing themselves off a stand.
6
What is sport?
Sport: an organized, competitive, entertaining, and skillful activity requiring
commitment, strategy, and fair play, in which a winner can be defined by objective
means. It is governed by a set of rules or customs. Etymologically, it is said that
“Sport” comes from the Old French desport meaning “leisure”.
Sociology of sport is an area of sociology that focuses on sport as a social
phenomenon and on the social and cultural structures, patterns, and organizations or
groups engaged in sport that is a useful way for people to increase their mastery of
nature and the environment. The history of sport can teach us a great deal about social
changes and about nature of sport itself.
7
N. Elias and the
Configurational Theory
The Quest for Excitement, written by Norbert
Elias with Eric Dunning, and published in 1986
proved a seminal work for the sociology of sport,
and of football in particular.
According to this theory, every social context
takes on a specific configuration, which can be
captured and represented sociologically by
looking at the inter-dependencies between
cooperation and conflict.
This theory predominantly focused on the analysis of modern civilization in the sport field, which not
only operates through the strengthening and improvement of coercive instruments of social control, but
also builds and provides paradigms of behavior, rules, distinctive lifestyles whose preparation
acquisition and transmission is intended to make visible the social hierarchy.
8
The civilizing process in sport: the fox hunting
Fox hunting in England is an
example
of
the
increasingly
restrained and ritualized expression
of pleasure in hunting. In his words
«with the submission of the hunting
gentleman to a elaborate, self
imposed code of restraints, part of
the enjoyment of hunting had
become a visual enjoyment; the
pleasure derived from doing had
been transformed into the pleasure
seeing it done». The dog, and not
the master, has the order to kill the
prey: this is an example of civilizing
process.
9
A. Guttmann’s
From Ritual to Record
Allen Guttmann makes us understand how sport can be
considered as the mirror of society. The central purpose
of From Ritual to Record is to show what is modern
about modern sports, to explain how modern sports got
the way they are. “The basic explanatory factor,” what
makes modern sports unique, Guttmann argues, “is the
scientific world-view.”
He identifies 7 characteristics of modern sport:
• secularism
• equality
• bureaucratization
• specialization
• rationalization
• quantification
• record obsession
10
Play, Game, Contest and Sport
The German theorist the
creator of the Olympic torch
Carl Diem wrote: «Play is
purposeless activity, for its
own sake, the opposite of
work».
According to Guttmann’s theory, physical contests pursued for the goals and
challenges they entail. Sports are part of every culture past and present, but each
culture has its own definition of sports. The most useful definitions are those that
clarify sport’s relationship to play, games, and contests. Humans work because they
have to; they play because they want to. Play is autotelic—that is, it has its own goals.
It is voluntary and spontaneous.
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The ritualistic nature of sport
A ritual is a set of actions, performed
mainly for their symbolic value. It may
be prescribed by a religion or by the
traditions of a community.
A ritual may be performed on specific
occasions, or at the discretion of
individuals or communities.
A ritual may be restricted to a certain
subset of the community, and may
enable or underscore the passage
between religious or social states.
Haka (singular is the same as plural: haka) is a ritual dance form of the Maori of New Zealand. It is a
posture dance performed by a group, with vigorous movements and stamping of the feet with
rhythmically shouted accompaniment. New Zealand’s national rugby team, All Blacks, performs the
Haka, a Maori war dance that has become an iconic pre-game ritual today.
12
The Soccer Tribe
Desmond Morris compares the
game with hunting. The
footballer is the hunter with his
weapon, the ball. He uses his
weapon to catch the prey - the
goal. When he achieves scoring
a goal, he enjoys the hunter's
triumph of killing his prey.
He traces the roots of sports
such as football to the activities
of our evolutionary ancestors.
In his 1981 book, The Soccer Tribe, Morris starts off by describing the survival hunters, who relied on the chase
and kill to stay alive. When hunting for food was no longer necessary for survival, men became sports hunters,
keeping alive the thrill of the chase. The third stage of development was marked by the creation of arena bloodsportsmen who brought the hunting activities of the countryside to the center of cities: Spanish bullfighting for
instance. These were finally replaced in relatively recent times by the arena ball-sportsmen, who adapted the
rules and rituals of blood sports to create more socially acceptable games.
13
Similarities between
hunting and football
Most sports involve skills that were once essential for
survival within hunting communities: strength, stamina,
agility, territorial defense and accurate aim. These skills
are no longer essential in contemporary societies but
they have filtered down to the sports we engage in
today.
More importantly, these skills are of no value without
coordination with other players. Strong bonds between
teammates are essential for a win, just as strong bonds
between tribesmen were essential for group hunting.
In football, the two teams are not trying to destroy
each other, they are trying to get past each other to
make a goal, a symbolic killing.
14
With modern societies marked by mechanism, sports offer deliberately sought-after
emotional risks. They bring about ritual activity and heighten bonds between people.
They evoke a sense of belonging and help people find their own identity. Here is the
process of the construction of the individual identity:
IDENTITY
IDENTIFICATION
DETECTION
A person compares himself to the
figures whom he feels like his own
and with whom he shares the same
characteristics and treats. This
produces the membership in a
collective entity (family home, a
group of friends, supporting a
football team) that the individual
feels as "we".
A
person
refers
to
the
characteristics that distinguish
himself from “others”, whom he
feels as different and threatening. In
this sense, any identification/
inclusion
implies
detection/
exclusion.
15
Football Hooliganism
The behavior known as football hooliganism originated in England in the early
1960s. It is unruly and destructive phenomenon—such as brawls, vandalism and
intimidation—by association football club fans. Fights between supporters of rival
teams may take place before or after football matches at pre-arranged locations
away from stadiums, in order to avoid arrests by the police, or they can erupt
spontaneously at the stadium or in the surrounding streets.
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
In the late 1960s and early 1970s, Ian Taylor argued that football hooliganism was
caused by young, working class fans, who were showing resistance to the forces
of modernization in football. Taylor wrote about the attempt to bourgeoisify
football, and argued that the so-called football hooligans were actually expressing
a form of resistance to this take-over of a working class game.

In the late 1970s, Peter Marsh carried out research with young football fans. They
argued that football hooliganism was primarily a harmless ritual, and a way of
releasing natural, aggressive impulses within a young, male social context. They
argued that the general public, the politicians, the judges, and the press, all had a
tendency to exaggerate the scale and the danger of 'football hooliganism' or what
they called 'football aggro'. This exaggeration or amplification tended to give rise to
real violence among fans, as a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Accorging to Eric Dunning and University of Leicester’s theory, football hooligans
tend to come from the rough working class social groups. Violence at football is not
a new phenomenon. However, the general public do not tolerate violence as much
as in the past, because they have become more civilized.
17
Ultras
The ultras movement originated in Italy in the early 1970s, 10 years later hooligan’s
birth. Officially the first ultra group in Italy was created in 1967 and was named
“Moschettieri Nerazzurri” that supported FC Inter (it was an idea promoted by the
legendary Spanish coach Helenio Herrera) but historically the largest one was AC
Milan-supporting group “Fossa dei Leoni” that was composed by over 20.000 ultras.
18

1.
2.
3.

Alessandro Dal Lago views football fan behaviour as essentially ritualistic and much of his
approach stems directly from the work of Peter Marsh and his colleagues in England. He
hypothesises three main factors which underlie the expressive behaviour of football fan
groups:
Football allows for identification by fans with with a specific set of symbols and linguistic
terms. These enable and encourage the division of the social world: friends and enemies.
Football match in Italy is not simply a meeting between the two teams. For the fans it is an
opportunity for an “friend/enemy” ritual confrontation. Such rituals can, in specific and
foreseeable circumstances, be transformed into physical clashes.
Stadium where football is played is much more than a physical environment. For fans it is
the symbolic stage on which the ritual of friend/enemy is enacted.
Alessandro Salvini’s theoretical model to explain more general aspects of football fan
aggression is based on cognitive social learning theory, which he uses to explain the
phenomena of dominance and aggression, self-identity and group affiliation and
acceptance of group norms with the ultras. He also examines the role of situational
variables and the impact these have on transforming ritual behaviours.
Differences hooligans/ultras:
 HOOLIGANS come from most disadvantaged social classes (i.e. low working class). Their real
aim is just the physical violence against opponents and establishment. To them political issues
are useless and heavy drinking is considered a social value.
 ULTRAS come from several social classes, concern especially about choirs and choreography.
Italian curves are highly politicized (extreme left or right wing, even if in the last years most of
the curves declare themselves as fascist and racist).
19
Media coverage
Football hooliganism is a highly visible
phenomenon, as journalists and TV cameras are
present at virtually every match. Since the 1960s,
journalists have been sent to football matches to
report on crowd behavior as much as on the game
itself. As a result, media coverage of footballrelated disorder and violence is extensive, and the
British tabloid press in particular devote apparently
unlimited column inches to any incident that
occurs, complete with sensationalist headlines.
Many researchers argued that this sensationalism,
together with a “predictive approach” whereby
violence at certain matches is anticipated by the
media, actually contributed to the problem.
20
The marriage of media
and sport
The relationship between mass media and sports has
profoundly influenced both institutions. This
relationship has passed through a series of stages, the
first of which was parallel development, with the mass
media reaching a broader audience through new
technologies and market growth while sports were
attracting a growing base of paying spectators.
Sports were correctly perceived as ideal for capturing
audiences for advertisers. Public or state media also
recognized sporting events as opportunities to reaffirm
national culture and to bolster patriotism. Sports
entrepreneurs began to see the mass media as
important for generating interest among spectators and
sponsors.
Finally, by the late 20th century, mass media and elite sports formed a marriage of convenience,
becoming in this last stage so economically interdependent as to be virtually inseparable. It is now, for
example, impossible to imagine the continued existence of professional sports—football, basketball
or baseball—without billion-dollar broadcast rights in the sports pages.
21
Conclusion
Finally we have understood that:






despite its apparent rationality, our society is as ritualistic as others that are
considered extremely traditional. Rituals are important because make our lives
dense and significant;
rituals are effective when producing mental states that unite a collective group.
There is no society that does not want to occasionally revisit and strengthen the
collective feelings at certain times;
sport, and football in particular, is a powerful way to channel passions and helps
people find their own psychological and social identities;
although few of them are real punks, most ultras stage a certain conception of
justice, aesthetics, protest and identity. The stadium is one of the arenas where it
is possible to represent frustrations and needs which remain unexpressed and
hidden in everyday life;
the bond between sport and media is extremely strong. Media magnates such as
Ted Turner, Rupert Murdoch, and Silvio Berlusconi, along with the Walt Disney
Company, have developed this logic of convergence to the highest level, becoming
the owners of sports teams—the Atlanta Braves and Los Angeles Dodgers baseball
teams, football’s AC Milan, and the National Hockey League’s Mighty Ducks,
respectively;
football has become the secular religion of rich and relativist western society.
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