Tag: Turkey

Known as a football-passionate nation comparable to Brazil, Turkey has enjoyed important successes in the world arena, such as 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. 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.

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 has also become a battlefield for political, social and cultural divisions, which makes the case of Turkey even more appealing for football scholars. 

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