Negotiating spaces of urban sports and belonging: migrant football leagues in São Paulo and Rio De Janeiro

Abstract

Amateur football teams and leagues are a common phenomenon among migrants in many cities throughout the world: Not only in Brazil, but also in the United States and in major European cities, migrant amateur football leagues are part of the infrastructure of urban sports. Nevertheless, these spaces are contested, and migrant football leagues must compete with other groups for sports infrastructure. Although football does not require complex infrastructure, migrant groups are forced to find places to play football in the urban landscape. This article focuses on South American migrants that negotiate urban space for sports in São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro in very unequal conditions. Based on ethnographic data on migrant football in these two cities we analyse negotiations around sport infrastructures and how these can become spaces of belonging considering intersectional processes of exclusion and inclusion based on gender, social class, cultural and national origin.