Why Win a World Cup in Times of Crisis? 36 Years of Football, Politics and Nation(alisms) in Argentina

ALABARCES, PABLO

Darmstadt

Conferencia; Sportsoziologie als Krisenwissenschaft, Jahrestagung 2024 der dvs-Sektion Sportsoziologie; 2024

Technische Universität Darmstadt

This conference analyses the categories established to study the connections between national identities and football in Latin America. It focuses particularly on that of the ‘public arena,’ inspired by the work of Clifford Geertz, and that of ‘free zones’ in culture, introduced by the Argentine anthropologist Eduardo Archetti in his research into a ‘popular sports nationalism’ at the dawn of the twentieth century. As part of the analysis, it looks at the narrative of Argentina’s recent victory of the Qatar World Cup 2022 on television and in the experience of fans, as well as the (futile) attempts by politicians to channel the fervour. Finally, the conference explores how the political hero moves into post-politics: the narrative twists that enable the shift from Maradona to Messi.