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The goalposts of transition: football as a metaphor for Serbia's long journey to the rule of law

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 November 2018

Christian Axboe Nielsen
Christian Axboe Nielsen*
Affiliation:
Institute of History and Area Studies, Aarhus University, Denmark
*
*Email: [email protected]
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Abstract

Football (soccer) provides a useful prism for analysis of the long transition of the Serbian state and society since 1991. To a striking extent, the world of professional football and the attendant phenomena of financial corruption and football hooliganism have informed both the dissolution of the former Yugoslavia and the current concerted attempt to create a “European Serbia.” During the 1990s, football in Serbia to a significant extent became synonymous with organized crime and the criminalization of the Serbian state. Since 2000, the persistent phenomena of crime, violent hooliganism and lethargic reforms have mirrored the difficult and halting transition of the post-Milošević state. Although recent events highlight the reluctance of the Serbian authorities to confront these problems, both government and sports officials are coming to see reform of Serbian football as a key element of the establishment of the rule of law.

Keywords

Serbiatransitionsportsfootball
Type
Articles
Information
Nationalities Papers , Volume 38 , Issue 1 , January 2010 , pp. 87 - 103
Copyright
Copyright © 2010 Association for the Study of Nationalities 

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