Football and Patria, Ten Years Later: Sports Nationalism as a Commodity

ALABARCES, PABLO

Sport and Nationalism in Latin/o America

Palgrave/McMillan

Lugar: New York; Año: 2015; p. 29 - 44

Fútbol y Patria was my PhD thesis at the University of Brighton. I finished it in December of 2001, in the middle of the Argentine crisis of that year. The dating is literal: I was in the protests in Plaza de Mayo on the night of December 19 with 300 pages under my arm. I presented my thesis on December 21 and it was approved on February 8 of 2002. When my editor proposed its publication as a book, I reviewed the last chapter in order to supplement the analysis of the Korea-Japan World Cup held during the crisis: with that addition, the thesis was published in December of 2002. I attempted to analyze the relationship between national narratives and soccer during the Argentine twentieth century?that is, during the entire Argentine history of soccer?with different focal points, organized by a complex periodization that combined elements of key sporting events?for example, the World Cups or the appearances of the figure of Diego Maradona?crossed with political history?Peronism or the military dictatorships. I combined methodologies?the analysis of audiovisual texts, historical documentation, journalistic clippings, ethnographic interviews?and disciplines; the book is inscribed within the sociology of culture and of sports, cultural studies, and history. I basically wanted to analyze the relationship between sports, politics, national identity narratives, and mass culture.