Football, folk dancing and fascism: diversity and difference in multicultural Australia

Abstract

The paper contextualises the 'de-ethnicising' of Australian soccer debate within an attendant debate about multicultural practice. Underlying the 'de-ethnicising' issue is a contestation over the cultural representation of soccer. Those who call for 'de-ethnicising' correspondingly demand that the sport be 'Australianised'. In some cases this involves a rejection of multiculturalism, in others an acceptance of a multiculturalism which defers to an 'Australian way of life'. Either way, the continuing affiliation of soccer clubs to 'ethnic communities' is seen to encourage a set of cultural practices which are 'un-Australian'. The paper considers this view by locating it within the broader context of a discussion of the Australian sporting culture to which an 'ethnicised' soccer league is likely to remain offensive. The difficulties for multiculturalism evinced by soccer support are discussed with reference to the author's ethnographic case study of the Bad Blue Boys (BBB), a group of young men of Croatian background who follow the Sydney United team in the National Soccer League. A theoretical linkage is made to the work of Homi Bhabha with respect to his distinction between cultural diversity and cultural difference in the field of multicultural practice. In conclusion a position is developed which argues that existing theorising on Australian multiculturalism might need to be re-thought given the realities of multicultural life in such places as a soccer park in western Sydney.