Radosław Kossakowski

Where are the hooligans? Dimensions of football fandom in Poland

The present paper aims to outline and explain the social world of the most committed football supporters in Poland. The analysis proceeds from the assumption that such a community is based on a particular culture established by its own discourses, constituting the habitus of individuals who generate strong social bonds and a normative structure, and is a source of social capital. Since this sub-culture can be understood as a multidimensional sphere, the article argues that fans can no longer be adequately described in terms of the ‘hooligan’ discourse. Although hooligan behaviour has not vanished entirely, it has been pushed out of the stadiums and increasingly functions in a niche outside the immediate context of football. The present article is intended as a contribution to the discussion on European football hooliganism/fandom and its transformation.

Flaming Flares, Football Fanatics and Political Rebellion: Resistant Youth Cultures in Late Capitalism

The aim of this chapter is to explore the phenomenon of football fanatics in Poland. The analysis is conducted in the light of rapid political, economic and cultural modernisation that Poland has undergone since it joined the European Union (EU). At the heart of our analysis lie football fanatics, young people passionate about football and their clubs — and undoubtedly one of the most interesting yet still largely underexplored aspects of Polish society (Sahaj, 2007). Football fanatics, also known as industrial fans or scarf boys (see Antonowicz, Kossakowski and Szlendak, 2011), are among the most active young people in modern society both on and off the football pitch. In thinking about their role in society it is useful to consider the concept of civil society explored by Alexis de Tocqueville and his seminal book Democracy in America (2000 [1835]), written while he was travelling across America. The French philosopher was positively surprised by the degree of self-organisation and civic activism of local communities. His attention was particularly drawn by a number of voluntary associations, through citizens’ attempts to advocate but also balance various needs and interests in the public realm. These grass-roots activities and civic engagements stood in opposition to what he had experienced in France, in which society relies on the good or bad will of the ruler. If Alexis de Tocqueville was to witness contemporary Poland, he would see a number of fan organisations that attract highly active young people to act in the public realm. Most probably, he would find them to be the beating heart of civil society in Poland.

From the Bottom to the Premiership: The Significance of the Supporters’ Movement in the Governance of Football Clubs in Poland

The chapter offers an analysis of the cases of football clubs in Poland which experienced severe financial and organisational problems and were revived by their fans. Focusing on the examples of Lechia Gdansk, Chrobry Glogow and Hutnik Nowa Huta, the chapter draws attention to different models of relationship between fans and the management of the clubs. Pointing at possible limitations of the development of clubs governed by fans, the author raises the question of when social participation is no longer enough and needs support from the outside (sponsors, local authorities, etc.). Distinctive emotional and cognitive correlates of attitudes toward the club, coupled with interpersonal bonds within the group, are an important predictor of action related to the activity and survival of the club. In the cases under discussion, supporters, often with hooligan background, have swapped their club scarves for ties and become responsible for the management of the club, raising sponsorship and making an impact on the local community.

Polish ultras in the post-socialist transformation

Abstract The world of radical football fans across Europe is dominated by anti-system groups. While their sympathies in the west of the continent are mostly leftist, the ultras in the east tend to display right-wing attitudes. Poland makes a particularly interesting case in point, as the most intensive and emotional ideological criticism of the processes of ‘transformation’ and ‘modernisation’ is to be observed at the stadiums. As a result of historical developments, opposition against the system in the country can only be expressed using Catholic–patriotic symbolism, which in the case of collective actions of radical football supporters has produced sociocultural and aesthetic effects not to be found anywhere else in Europe.

Marginalised, patronised and instrumentalised: Polish female fans in the ultras’ narratives:

Since the 1990s there has been a growing number of female supporters following football clubs and there is little doubt that they have recently become an important part of the audience for both football authorities and clubs. The process of football’s feminisation is neither simple nor is it taking place in a social vacuum, and female fans are encountering well-institutionalised football fandom culture, which is deeply entrenched in stadium rituals. This paper offers an empirical study of roles assigned to women in football fandom culture and the way in which this has been done in order reproduce a “traditional” social order on the Polish football stands. In doing so, it examines the grass-roots ultras’ magazine To My Kibice (We are the fans) that belongs to an increasingly popular type of fan magazine, which was developed from popular homemade football fanzines in the 1980s. The analyses provide evidence that female supporters are either marginalised (not being counted as regular fans), patronised or instrumentalised by their male peers. These strategies are visible both in language and in the social contexts in which women on the stands are described.

Football, Conservative Values, and a Feeling of Oneness with the Group: A Study of Polish Football Fandom:

The main aim of this article is to show some characteristics of the identity of Polish football supporters. The results of a study conducted among 309 fans actively engaged in formal (supporters’ associations) and informal groups (e.g., hooligans or ultras), as well as data from qualitative research, reveal their strong identification with Poland as a country, with their family, club, and group of supporters. At the same time, Polish fans do not identify with “Europe” as a category. The fandom culture in Poland is characterized by such attitudes as honour, steadfastness, the “might is right” principle, and moral and economic conservatism. Supporters tend to sympathize with political parties embracing right-wing values. The article points out important elements of Polish history that could have affected the ideological construction of the supporters’ vision. In the absence of historical civic and left-wing tradition, Polish supporters emerged during the period of the country’s struggle for freedom as a community structured by militant, conservative, punitive, and masculine frames of reference. Since the values of a particular group cannot be analysed without an assessment of its broader cultural and social context, the article also presents the different dimensions of Polish history and society in order to provide a contextual background influencing fandom.