What a party! Chanting fans, fireworks, cheering and applause coalesce in a sea of flags – for many people, these scenes are rowdy, intimidating, uncivilised and uncouth. For others this is the highest of highs, an eruption of fan euphoria representing a cultural phenomenon that is now widespread, but about which very little is known.
This year’s hosting of the Winter Olympics and the Football World Cup by, respectively, China and Qatar – both authoritarian states – has sparked debate about the influence of politics in sport. A look at history shows that sport and politics have always gone hand in hand.
In the 1980s the footballer was a fighter; a decade later, he was a sporty pop star, and now he’s a model. Nowhere is the change in the image of masculinity more apparent than on the football pitch.
The image of masculinity has changed constantly over the past few decades. Nowhere is this more apparent than in football. A look back at the stadiums of the past.
Football is more than just a sport. Football is culture and entertainment, the regular crowd around their usual table and the select few in the VIP lounge. And football is also politics and business.
Football is more than just a sport. Football is culture, entertainment and even politics. As, for example, when Uli the Tenant played for Grasshopper Club Zurich. Or when carrots were grown in FC Baden’s stadium.
1968 marked a turning point in the history of Swiss football. It was the year the sport finally became accessible to everyone: on 28 February, with the establishment of ‘Damen-Fussball-Club Zürich’ (DFCZ), Switzerland’s first women’s football club was founded.
