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Transglobal Scandinavian? Globalization and the contestation of identities in football

This essay delves into the complex intertwining of globalization and identity by analysing how the increasingly transnational nature of club football changes people’s passions. A key finding from research among Norwegian supporters challenges the notion that passionate identities and loyalties are predominantly structured around the national imperative ‘for club and country’. The English Premier League has in recent years colonized the ‘footballing’ media world. Yet in Scandinavia there is a century‐long history of both mediated and physical explorations of the English football universe. In this respect the contestation of identities in football is seen as an ongoing process in which the significance of genetic, physical or national connections to club communities decreases. It is argued that identity agents in football, or sports in general, can from this perspective neither be seen in terms of ‘heroic’ local repudiations of the global (Rowe) nor simply as the ‘victims’ of neo‐liberal sports capitalism (Andrews). Identities in football currently evolve in a complex transnational landscape, which seems to strengthen various notions of the local and challenge the emotional significance of nationhood.