engleski

Covid-19 and the mobilization of soccer fans: From hooligans to community heroes and back?

This paper is part of broader research on the mobilization of soccer fans during the Covid-19 outbreak in Croatia. The first case of coronavirus infection was noted in Croatia, whose national team placed second in the 2018 FIFA world cup, on 25 February 2020. At the outset, while many of their peers did not take the situation or the precautionary measures seriously, soccer fans mobilized forces and made themselves available to the crisis management offices that had been founded in all parts of Croatia. In the city of Split, Torcida (Hajduk fans, the oldest ultras group in Europe, founded in 1950) brought its members together to become a key factor in moving an entire hospital to a new location. In addition to specific help with the move, fan groups also flew banners with messages of support for medical staff, and surgical masks became a part of the iconography of banners alongside fan group symbols. In Zagreb, the Bad Blue Boys (FC Dinamo fans) also mobilized their members and made them available to the crisis management office. When a 5.5 earthquake struck Zagreb in the early morning of March 22nd, BBB managed to reach a damaged hospital even before the fire department to help patients who had left the building. When the government announced a general quarantine, fans organized by neighborhood into a network of volunteers to deliver food and medication to people in isolation. The media, which until recently had participated in labeling and stigmatizing fan groups, has now been forced (albeit with reserve) to portray them in a different light. In addition to descriptions of media discourse, this research also explains the actions of fan groups on the basis of broader research on the ultras subculture, including additional data collection during the pandemic.

coronavirus ; football fans ; ultras subculture ; activism ; media

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