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The book is devoted to the phenomenon of football in the Balkans. It provides an interdisciplinary perspective on the political instrumentalisation of football and its social significance in the region. In doing so, it offers readers an in-depth look at Balkan societies and the determinants of their political and social functioning. The topics are geographically wide-ranging, covering Greece, Romania, the former Yugoslavia and the states that emerged from its disintegration: Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina. Across these regions, the contributors cover issues including the legitimacy of power, political manipulation, problems of political transition, corruption, collective identity, nationalism and antagonism between the Balkan nations, and armed conflicts in the former Yugoslavia. Collectively they offer a number of fresh perspectives in conveying a sense of the complexity and diverse historical experiences of football across the Balkans. The book is aimed at a wide academic audience as well as journalists, analysts, and enthusiasts of sport and the Balkans.
About the author
Dariusz Wojtaszyn is Professor of Modern History at the University of Wroclaw (Poland), Visiting Professor at the University of Vienna (Austria), a member of the Expert Board for the history of football in the GDR at the German Football Association, and a member of Sport History/Sport Studies Austria and ISHPES.
Maroš Melichárek is Assistant professor of Modern European and Balkan History at Pavol Jozef Šafárik University in Košice, Visiting Researcher at Balkan Studies Center (BSC)-International University of Sarajevo (IUS), Bosnia and Herzegovina, and a member of the Balkan History Association. Melichárek has received several domestic and international grants and is a two-time Visegrad scholarship holder.
Report
"This is an eclectic and geographically wide-ranging collection of essays. In conveying a sense of the complexity and diverse historical experiences of football across the Balkans, authors based both in the region and beyond offer a number of fresh perspectives. From a consideration of Greek football through the eyes of coaches and footballers hailing from the Polish People's Republic, via original archival research into the highly irregular sporting world of post-Tito Yugoslavia, to the survival battle between privatised Romanian clubs and their fan-backed 'clones', this book makes some intriguing contributions to the burgeoning literature on the (not so) beautiful game." Richard Mills, Associate Professor, University of East Anglia (United Kingdom); Author of The Politics of Football in Yugoslavia
