Is there space for the left? Football fans and political positioning in Serbia

Abstract

This paper analyses the political position of football fans in Serbia, focusing on the fan groups of the two biggest Serbian clubs, Red Star and Partizan from Belgrade. The research focuses on the reasons why there is no left-wing platform among the fan groups. If politically active, the fan groups predominantly operate within a right-wing agenda, with strong nationalism as the main characteristic of their activism. The analysis presents a historical overview of football fans’ political engagements showing how nationalist ideologies became predominant. The bulk of the paper is based on ethnographic material relating to the contemporary ‘alternative’ movements within the fans groups. A special focus is placed on the so-called ‘brotherhood’ of Partizan Belgrade fans and Gate 4, a fan group that supports PAOK Thessaloniki, which is defined as anti-fascist and anarchist. The ethnographic analysis aims to explain why today it is not possible to create a leftist and antifascist football fan group in Serbia. The paper attempts to suggest how such groups may be formed in the future, placing special emphasis on the mobility of football fans as a mechanism for enabling political agendas that differ from the dominant nationalist platforms.