Through a variety of international and interdisciplinary perspectives, this book provides a contemporary examination of football's social and cultural status as a modern and global game, for its national and club sides, its spectators and players.

Contents: Introduction: Stillborn in the USA?. Tradition and Modernity in European Football: Exporting football: notes on the development of Football in Europe; Austrification as modernisation: changes in Viennese football culture; We are Celtic supporters...?: questions of football and identity in modern Scotland; From Saint-Etienne To Marseilles: tradition and modernity in French soccer and society; The drive to modernization and the supermarket imperative: who needs a new football stadium? Identities: Local, Ethnic, National: Rangers is a black club?: race?, identity and local football in England; Football and identity in the Ruhr: the case of Schalke 04; Wogball?: ethnicity and violence in Australian soccer; Masculinity and football: the formation of national identity in Argentina; The stars and the flags: individuality, collective identities and the national dimension in Italia '90 and Wimbledon '91 and '92. Subcultures of opposition: New supporter cultures and identity in France: the case of Paris Saint-Germain; False Leeds: the construction of hooligan confrontations; Keep it in the Family?: an outline of Hibs' football hooligans social ontology; The birth of the ultras?: the rise of football hooliganism in Italy.