Call for Participation | Football in Turkey 2021, a one day webinar | October 29, 2022

When it comes to football and its relationship with the society, Turkey is a unique case. Known as a football-passionate nation comparable to Brazil, Turkey has enjoyed important successes in the world arena, such the third place in the 2002 World Cup, the semi-final in Euro 2008, and Galatasaray’s UEFA Cup and Super Cup victories in 2000. 

On the other hand, as the country itself, the football world in Turkey presents complex peculiarities that are very difficult to understand for neutral observers. Born into the final years of the Ottoman Empire, football not only witnessed the birth of a new, modern nation-state, from day one, it became a vital part of Turkish modernism, along with other key concepts such as nationalism or secularism. Football also portrays an accurate picture of how the centre-periphery relationship plays a role within society, since the vast majority of football fans in Turkey support three Istanbulite teams, which function as “micro-nations” with around twenty millions of fans each, in the country and among Turkey’s diaspora communities. Football has also become a battlefield for political, social and cultural divisions, which makes the case of Turkey even more appealing for football scholars. 

In the webinar, organized by Vrije Universiteit Brussel and University of Huddersfield, this unique football country will be discussed through different aspects that concern social sciences. Registration is free but mandatory. Please follw this link: https://bit.ly/footballinturkey

Program

09.30 (CET/Heure Europe centrale)
Football in Turkey (working language: English)

• • Associational Debts, Rotating Creditors: Historicizing Soft Budget Restraint in Turkey’s Civic Soccer Teams
    Dr. Can Evren, Duke University
  • Gendered consumption experiences of female football fans in Turkey
    Utku Ay, University of Arizona (USA)
  • Football fandom as a surrogate for politics in Turkey
    Dr. Dağhan Irak, University of Huddersfield (UK)

12.00 (CET/Heure Europe centrale)
Football en Turquie (langue de travail: Français)

• • Forces et faiblesses de l’industrie du football en Turquie
    Dr. Mathieu Llorca, Université de Bourgogne (France)
  • Migrations de « footballeurs » africains vers la Turquie: des dynamiques de départ aux stratégies d’installation. Enquête ethnographique pendant la « Coupe d’Afrique d’Istanbul
    Clement Lopez, Université Paris Saclay (France)
  • Engagement(s) et mobilisation(s) : le cas des supporters de Galatasaray
    Derya Uygun, Université de Strasbourg (France)