Content area
Full Text
Introduction
Professional football (soccer) is commonly thought of as a kind of religion because of the quasi-mystical infatuation of its most faithful supporters for their favourite team. Some fans even ask for their ashes to be scattered over the field after their death, while others are buried wearing their team's jersey. While it is frequently said that football as industry is acquiring a "religious" dimension, comments usually go no further. By analysing the examples of several European clubs and applying to them a reading grid on the fundamentals of religious belief, we wish to show that professional football is accompanied by mystical devotion close to religious practice. The idea is to suggest that while religions essentially rely on notions of belonging, connection or relation, from the Latin root obligare (Morfaux and Lefranc, 2005), the same basis seems to bind the most fervent supporters. The strong relationship maintained with their favourite team leads them to build a shared cultural identity with its own rules and values. In other words, this paper comprises a discursive analysis of the relationship between professional football and religion, and we attempt to put forward a case for the particularities of elite-level football as a sacred experience.
Can a football stadium be compared to a temple? Such a view is not new, and the reference to the Gods or Idols of sport could testify to its permanence over time (Villemus, 2006). As Weir (2013) underlines, top players like Lionel Messi or Franck Ribéry occupy a singular place in the larger societal rewards system. Beyond the popular image, we should try to understand how professional football has acquired a strong religious dimension. There now exists quite a large body of academic writing around religion and sport, a significant amount of which has emerged over the past decade from the work of a small number of specialist authors (Parry et al. , 2007, 2011; Watson and Parker, 2012, 2014). In this perspective, the purpose of this paper is to offer an original interpretation of an entertainment industry receiving high media coverage. We make reference to works conducted by sports management experts and rely on findings drawn from an analysis of the professional press dedicated to professional football. On a managerial level, we wish...