İlk Bakışta Milliyetçilik ve Futbol: “Sonsuz Derbi” Örneği

Abstract

From the very beginning of its ‘invention’, football has been a major subject of politics, economy and other social disciplines. In this respect, the Yugoslav experience sets a great example for symbiotic relationship between football and politics. Yugoslav politics, evolved around nationalist tensions, has always had a complex and convoluted profile. In this context, it is argued that the ressentiment at the core of nationalism is a very observable dynamic of Yugoslav politics. Accordingly, the two major football clubs, Partizan FC and Red Star, were deeply influenced by Yugoslavia's founding political principles. Moreover, the rivalry between these two clubs known as the “eternal derby” also took on a symbolic representation of the conflict between nationalist and socialist ideas. Although we can only talk about the former Yugoslavia today, these clubs are still among the greatest living heirs of Balkan history. This paper provides ‘a first look’ at the political history of the “eternal derby” within the framework of Michael Billig and Liah Greenfeld's approaches to nationalism. In this context, it can be said that in addition to its irrational nature with a reference to ressentiment, nationalism is the subject of unconscious reproduction processes that take a place among the habits of daily life. While nationalism, shaped by psychosocial concepts such as existential envy, status inconsistency and identity crisis, the banal form of it can transform teams into armies, players into soldiers, pitches into battlefields, wins into military victories, columnists into embedded journalists. By simulating violence, the imaginary desire for revenge is also tried to be satisfied. The “eternal derby” serves a good model in this regard.