FIFA World Cup and Beyond

Soccer, the most popular mass spectator sport in the world, has long been a site which articulates the complexities and diversities of the everyday life of the nation. The imaging and prioritization of the game as a ‘national’ or an ‘international’ event in public opinion and the media also play a critical role in transforming the soccer culture of a nation. In this context, the FIFA World Cup remains the grand spectacle for asserting the identity of the nation. This book intends to offer eclectic perspectives and discourses on the FIFA World Cup, and to throw light on the changing dimensions of football and sports culture in terms of identity, race, ethnicity, gender, fandom, governance, and so on. On the one hand, it focuses on the significance of FIFA World Cups for nations in terms of hosting, performance, playing style, and identity formation. On the other, it looks beyond the World Cup to highlight the growing importance of a host of perspectives in sport in general and football in particular with reference to art, fandom, gender, media, and governance. The chapters originally published as a special issue of Sport in Society.

Kausik Bandyopadhyay is Professor of History at West Bengal State University, India. He was a former Fellow of the International Olympic Museum, Lausanne, Switzerland. An Editor of Soccer & Society (Routledge), his most recent works include Sport, Culture and Nation: Perspectives from Indian Football and South Asian Cricket (2015) and Bangladesh Playing: Sport, Culture, Nation (2012).

Souvik Naha has a PhD in History from the ETH Zurich. A reviews editor of Soccer & Society (Routledge), he has published his research in journals such as International Journal of the History of Sport, Sport in Society, Soccer & Society, Sport in History, and Economic and Political Weekly, as well as in various edited volumes.

Shakya Mitra is a post graduate in sports management from Stirling University, Scotland. He has worked in the Sports Management Industry as well as in the media in India for close to five years. He has contributed articles to international journals and co-edited a few special issues of Routledge journals on sport.