Globalizing "El Tri": Mexican fans in the U.S.A.

alegi

Our inaugural meeting of 2012-13 was an exciting affair. It revolved around Javier Pescador’s new work on Mexican fans of “El Tri” in the United States. The uses of wrestling masks, Aztec symbols, churros and other markers of Mexican-ness demonstrate some of the ways in which fans are helping to transform the Mexican national team into a global brand.

The discussion covered many important topics and themes, including youth soccer, commercial and media imperatives, differences between Mexico-based and U.S.-based fan experiences, club vs. national team tensions (in MLS, for example), and the sources and methodology informing this research. Pescador’s Flickr photostream here is worth checking out.

Participants: Alejandro Gonzales, Hikabwa Chipande, Ben Smith, Ed Murphy, and Peter Alegi (all with the author in East Lansing); David Keyes, Corry Cropper, Melissa Forbis, Ana Paula Martinez, Andrew Guest, Sean Jacobs, Chris Bolsmann, and David Kilpatrick (via Skype).

Listen to the audio recording here. (For educational/personal use only.)

2012-13 Season Gets Underway: Mexican Fans in the U.S. & the "El Tricolor" Brand

alegi 1 Comment

On Wednesday, September 26, at 1pm EDT, historian Juan Javier Pescador (Michigan State University) will participate in a discussion of his paper entitled “Global Fútbol, the Masked Fan and Flat Screen Arenas: Mexican Soccer Communities in the United States and the Genesis of the Tricolor Brand in Global Landscapes, 1970-2012.”

This paper analyzes the profile, evolution and transformation of Mexican soccer communities in the United States in the context of current globalization processes that are redefining national identities, recreational activities, ideals of youth and manhood, and consumer practices among people of Mexican origin or descent in the United States. Focusing on the interactions and connections U.S. Mexican soccer communities have developed with the Mexican national team and with the increasingly dominant Big Time sports global media, this study discusses new ways of producing and framing Mexican nationalist symbols in global arenas with significant and unexpected consequences.

The session, as is our custom, will be physically held in East Lansing, Michigan, and live online via Skype. For a copy of the paper and to participate online please contact Peter Alegi at alegi [at] msu [dot] edu and provide your Skype name.

Football Scholars Miscellany: A First XI Summer Edition

Andrew Guest

Photo from Creative Commons on Flickr by Sister72

With all the buzz around the upcoming European Championships and the Olympics,  I thought it would be a good time for another installment of Football Scholars Miscellany— a ‘First XI’ of miscellaneous themes and links as food for FSF thought from recent months.  As always, the intention is not to try to cover everything nor to focus on the specifically scholarly. Instead, the intention is to draw from a mix of the scholarly and the broader football world for thoughtful and thought-provoking perspectives. And please let me know what I’ve missed through comments or email—the First XI is never necessarily the best eleven; it’s just what’s available on the day…

Read More

David Goldblatt: The Ball is Round (Part 2) and Beyond

galarza1

Author, scholar, and journalist David Goldblatt became the second FSF author to visit Michigan State University in person (March 15-16). We had a lively discussion on the second half of his sacred text of football history: The Ball is Round. and learned more about David’s new project on the cultural politics of football in Britain since 1989.

Participants included: Alejandro Gonzales, Hikabwa Chipande, Andrew Guest, Ben Dettmar, Aaron Passman, Alex Galarza and Peter Alegi (all with the author in East Lansing), and David Kilpatrick, Ben Healy, Brenda Elsey, Corry Cropper, and Alon Raab via Skype.

Listen to the audio recording here (for educational/personal use only).

[Goldblatt’s talk on March 15, 2012, in the MSU Department of History on football, Britishness, and Englishness is available here.]

FSF March – David Goldblatt's The Ball is Round (Part 2)

galarza1

A reminder that our next session will take place on March 16, 2pm EST. David Goldblatt will join us in East Lansing to discuss the second half of his book, The Ball is Round. Our first session left off at page 479, so anything after that is fair game. A recording of our last discussion centered on the first half of the book can be found here. As always, please RSVP by sending me an email (galarza1 [AT] msu. [DOT] edu) with your Skype name so that I can include you on the call.

For the curious, David also has a fantastic BBC Audio doc series “The Power and the Passion” and LSE Talk “This Sporting Planet: Global Sport and Global Capitalism”

One Giant Leap Day for US Soccer

alegi 1 Comment



By David Kilpatrick, DKilpatrick [AT] mercy [DOT] edu

“There are no friendlies in football” is a well-worn cliché of the game, one that supporters of the sport in the United States are resorting to in defense of their enthusiasm for the men’s national team’s 0-1 victory over Italy in Genoa this week.  As any Yank who has ever played overseas knows well, each match – whether pickup or pro – is a battle for respectability.

To be sure, there have been more shocking and significant results in the history of American soccer, from the win over England by the same scoreline in Belo Horizonte at the 1950 World Cup, to the 2-0 win over the defending European and eventual World Champion Spanish side in the semifinal of the 2009 Confederations Cup in Johannesburg.  But this was the first time in eleven efforts that the Americans were able to defeat the Azzurri.  The 1-1 draw between the sides in the group stages of the 2006 World Cup Finals, the US playing much of the match with ten men, may well have been a greater accomplishment, as they were the only side to play but not lose to the eventual champions of that tournament.   While no title was at stake this week, the result would be less impressive if earned on neutral soil; one cannot overstate the significance of Italy suffering their first defeat in Genoa since 1924.
Read More

“We Had it All” — Ray Hudson and "Once in a Lifetime"

galarza1

once-in-a-lifetimeProfessional soccer in the U.S.A. took center stage at FSF on February 24. Ray Hudson dubbed us the “football think-tank” and answered questions in the inimitable style he brings to broadcasting a Clásico on GolTV. Using the documentary film Once in a Lifetime: The Extraordinary Story of the New York Cosmos, FSF discussed Cosmos and the NASL, as well as the representation and construction of history on film. “We had it all, man!” said Hudson looking back fondly to his playing days with the Ft. Lauderdale Strikers.

Steven Apostolov, David Kilpatrick, Ben Healy, Melissa Forbis, Corry Cropper, Peter Alegi, Ben Dettmar, Hikabwa Chipande, and Alex Galarza participated in the session.

The audio recording of the conversation is here. (For educational/personal use only.)

One more thing: our next online session is on March 16, 2pm EST. Author David Goldblatt will be at Michigan State University in East Lansing to discuss the second half of his book, The Ball is Round. FSF’s discussion of the first installment is here.

FSF February 24 2pm – Once in a Lifetime

galarza1 1 Comment
Our next session is less than a month away. Ray Hudson will be joining us to discuss the film Once in a Lifetime: The Extraordinary Story of the New York Cosmos. The session will be held on Friday, February 24, at 2pm Eastern Time. The film will be an excellent launching point to discuss not just the Cosmos and NASL, but also the representation and construction of sport history on film.
 
Clive Toye’s book, A Kick in the Grass, also discusses the history of the NASL and would be worth perusing before the session. I would also remind everyone that we are building a film repository. This project can be a great success with the group’s contributions in the form of annotations and adding titles. As always, please RSVP asap to be included in the Skype conversation.

A Fall First XI: Football Scholars Miscellany

Andrew Guest 1 Comment

It’s been another few months of abundance for those of us interested in thinking about ways the scholarly might engage with the sporty, so I thought I’d have another go at a ‘First XI’ of miscellaneous themes and links as food for FSF thought.  As always, the intention is not to try to cover everything (I’m particularly sorry that I haven’t yet been able to find much on the upcoming African Cup of Nations; the hosts Equatorial Guinea and Gabon should offer lots of talking points)—nor to focus on the specifically scholarly. Instead, the hope is to draw from a mix of the scholarly and the broader football world to offer perspectives that might be of interest to those thinking about such intersections. And please let me know what I’ve missed through comments or email—the First XI is never necessarily the best eleven; it’s just what’s available on the day…

1) Conferences; there’s been a bunch. Probably the largest in-person aggregation of FSF members came in the DC area at George Mason’s ‘Sport in the Global South’ conference (abstracts available at the linked page—though not all football specific), graciously hosted by John Nauright and the Academy of International Sport. Read More

FSF Nov. 9: "Soccer in the Classroom" Draws Record Crowd

alegi

“Football/Fútbol/Soccer in the Classroom” drew 17 people, a new record for FSF! It was an extremely productive and fulfilling session.  Peter Alegi, Tom McCabe, Steven Apostolov, Sean Jacobs, Alon Raab, and David Kilpatrick kicked off with brief comments on each of their soccer courses. A vigorous and wide ranging discussion ensued.

Among the many questions and issues tackled by the collective, were the following: how can we integrate technical and tactical aspects of the game into broader intellectual analysis? Given the huge canvas of “global soccer,” how have instructors dealt with thematic, geographic, and chronological coverage? Which films and popular literary works have worked well and why? What is the state of “football archives”?

Several individuals spoke of the importance of knowing your audiences and valuing diversity.  Other participants commented on the challenges and rewards of being the first to teach sport-focused courses in their departments and institutions.  After nearly two hours, the session ended with Alon reminding us of what Swami Yogananda once said: “You will be closer to Heaven through football than by the Gita.”

Audio of the session is available here. (For educational/personal use only.)

Participants (in random order):

Graham Stinnett
Alejandro Gonzalez