Football in Post-War Bosnia-Herzegovina: Symbolic Exhibition and Identity Exaltation

Abstract

Since the end of the 1990’s war, the football teams in Bosnia-Herzegovina have represented the three constituent ethnonational communities of the country – Bosniac, Croatian and Serbian. In Mostar, where the ethnic division that occurred during the conflict has had repercussions at every level of the city’s organization, there are two football clubs: the Bosniac one that aspires to represent an urban identity and shows its attachment to the former communist regime, and the Croatian one that, to the contrary, defends a national identity and expresses revenge of sorts on communism. Within a broadly-based ethnographic investigation in Mostar at the turn to the 21st century, the derbies between the two clubs provided an opportunity for supporters to glorify ethnonational identities through the production of symbols, and, for the anthropologist to understand the mechanism of identity redefinitions, and the interests and representations of the groups represented on the field. Practices linked with this sport show the symbolic and political dimension of football, whereas the stadium appears as a microcosm of the divisions between the communities.

Keywords

• Bosnia-Herzegovina
• football
• nationalism
• identity
• symbolism
• war