Extremism in European Football: Historical and Contemporary Review of Nine Countries

Abstract

Political and public extremism is present in many facets of everyday life. This is no different in professional sport, where fans embolden themselves as a collective unit of a particular commonality: the team, country, or political structures. Fan extremism represents the collectivization of political extremism, where fans use sport to justify public displays of far-right ideologies, racism, and bigotry under the guise of hooliganism. This review explores the early roots of the relationship between 20^th-century fascism, how dictators manipulated football across Europe, the growth of football extremism in counterculture across multiple European countries with or without a direct history of fascist leaders, and its manifestation in 21^st-century society. Research demonstrates that fan extremism is prevalent in both countries that were ruled by fascist dictators and countries ruled by oppressive Communist authoritarians whose people fought against socialism with fascist ideology, thus raising the question for further research: Is past or current authoritarian rule, either fascist or far-left, a required step in the development and proliferation of far-right extremism in sport?