The World Cup in Canada, Mexico and the USA is in full swing. Even aside from the action on the pitch, the tournament has already made numerous headlines. Dr. Resul Karaca is a researcher at the Institute of Romance Studies at Paderborn University and has been researching football from a cultural and literary perspective for many years. In this interview, he discusses, amongst other things, his perspective on football, its current and historical politicisation, and the question of whether major sporting events such as the World Cup can still bring people together at all.
How relevant is the topic of ‘football’ to cultural and literary studies in the first place? Why do you, as a scholar of Romance languages, engage with it?
In cultural studies, we examine the phenomenon of ‘culture’ and develop various explanatory approaches to ‘cultural phenomena’. The term ‘culture’ can be defined in various ways, for example as those ‘distinctive traits and characteristics that are characteristic of a people’. Cultural forms of expression include not only customs, art and literature, but also social leisure and sporting activities. Football, in particular, has developed into a significant cultural phenomenon and is now widespread throughout the world.
Romance Studies deals with the languages derived from Latin, as well as their associated literatures and cultures. These include, amongst others, the Spanish language, which is the most widely spoken language in South America. My research explores the question of how football in general, as well as the central figures of Argentine football (e.g. the ‘futbolista-pibe’, an idealised figure of the young street footballer, and the ‘hincha’, the dedicated supporter of a club), are constructed narratively, and how these constructions are linked to specific places such as the local football pitch. The focus is on Argentina, one of the pioneers of South American football. In Argentina, there is extensive sociological research dedicated to football fan culture, which is understood as an important subculture within Argentine society. Here, football holds central cultural and social significance and shapes discourses on identity, belonging and nation-building. It functions as an ‘instrument of nation-building’.
The current FIFA World Cup is also accompanied by numerous political discussions in the media. The situation was similar at the 2018 tournament in Russia and the 2022 tournament in Qatar. Are World Cups more political today than they used to be?
There is no question that we are living in an era of increasing social politicisation. The social, economic and political consequences of international conflicts have long been felt in our immediate surroundings. Consequently, public interest is no longer focused primarily on domestic political developments, but increasingly on global and foreign policy events as well. Against this backdrop, it is hardly surprising that football, as a sport that is particularly popular and socially significant worldwide, is not left untouched by political developments. Football officials often emphasise that football has nothing to do with politics. However, a look at the history of the World Cups shows the opposite: football has time and again been used as a political stage, and by no means only in recent times, such as in 2018 or 2022.
Even the first World Cup held in Europe in 1934 was used by the Italian dictator Benito Mussolini as a propaganda platform to promote his ideology and his vision of a free and united Italy. The 1978 World Cup in Argentina was also marked by political exploitation. During the tournament, the country was under the rule of a military dictatorship which, between 1976 and 1983, was notorious for systematic oppression and serious human rights violations. General Jorge Rafael Videla saw the World Cup on home soil as an opportunity to bolster his nationalist ideology whilst at the same time projecting a positive image of Argentina abroad. Particularly symbolic: the World Cup final stadium was just 1,000 metres away from the ESMA naval academy, a centre of torture. It is therefore nothing new that political interest rises in the context of such major events. Rather, such major events have always served as arenas for political self-promotion and symbolic staging.
Supporters of events such as the World Cup like to claim that football creates unity and brings people together. Is this verifiable from a cultural studies perspective?
Football World Cups are often compared to a huge celebration that brings people together across national, political and religious boundaries. Festivals do indeed possess a powerful integrative force. The sociologist and ethnologist Émile Durkheim argues that societies need certain moments, such as festivals, in which their unity and cohesion become visible. He describes such moments as forms of ‘collective excitement’. The gathering of many individuals gives rise to a special social energy in which emotions, passions and instincts are expressed collectively. According to Durkheim, these collective ecstasies fulfil an important social function, as they contribute to the stabilisation and cohesion of the community. Festivals are characterised by rituals and their regular recurrence. In a sense, festivals form a counterpoint to everyday life, as social rules and hierarchies recede into the background whilst they are taking place.
These are all characteristics that are also attributed to football. It can foster a sense of social belonging, strengthen collective identities and generate shared emotions. At the same time, it offers individuals the opportunity to express their connection to a particular territory – that is, the desire to be part of a collective, a nation. In this sense, football acts as a vehicle for collective forms of expression and conveys notions of so-called ‘imagined communities’, such as nations.
However, with the end of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st, an increasing commercialisation and industrialisation of football finally set in. At this point, at the very latest, this was accompanied by a critical re-examination of the representative notion that football fosters social unity and brings people together. Due to the commercialisation of football, more and more fans are turning their backs on their teams, criticising the economic practices of those in charge of the sport and perceiving the development of modern football as a departure from the sport’s original ideals.
Even though public interest in football is growing in the run-up to the 2026 World Cup, the tournament raises many questions. From an economic perspective, the 2026 World Cup could well live up to the expectations set out by FIFA President Gianni Infantino, who has already described the tournament in the run-up to the event as the ‘biggest and best World Cup of all time’. At the same time, the commercialisation of the tournament, the high ticket prices and the social and political distance between the host nations raise the question of to what extent such a World Cup can still embody the ideal of a unifying global football festival that brings people together and leaves a lasting positive impression.
About Dr Resul Karaca
Dr Resul Karaca has been a research fellow at the Institute of Romance Studies at Paderborn University since 2015. Since July 2021, as part of a postdoctoral research project in the field of Spanish literary studies, he has been conducting research into short stories about football in Argentina. The country boasts a very extensive literary engagement with this sport. In his analysis, grounded in cultural and literary studies, Dr. Karaca demonstrates how football is narratively constructed and what role specific characters and spaces play in these representations. As the renowned Argentine author of football short stories, Eduardo Sacheri, emphasises, ‘football literature’ opens up a window into those inner worlds in which fundamental human questions are explored. At the heart of narratives about football lie not so much tactical or sporting aspects as existential and emotional themes such as love, friendship and brotherhood, as well as questions of collective belonging and national identity. To date, there has been no in-depth academic research into football literature and its significance for Argentine culture or the nation’s sense of identity. Dr. Karaca’s work aims to fill this research gap. It is dedicated to investigating how football is portrayed and addressed in Argentine literature.
“¿11 Amigos?”: Popkritik XXIII discusses the World Cup as a pop-cultural and political event
On Thursday 2 July, Dr. Karaca will also take part as a panellist in the “Popkritik” event organised by the“Popular Music and Media”study programmes at Paderborn University. Under the theme “¿11 Amigos? Football & Pop Culture”, the 2026 Football World Cup will be examined and discussed in greater detail. The event takes place from 6.30 pm at the iconic Paderborn pub “Sputnik”. Admission is free and no registration is required.
This text was translated automatically.
