Abstract
Reviewed by: Neven Andjelic, Regent’s University London, UK
Following the Swiss victory over Serbia at the World Cup in 2018, the football governing body FIFA has initiated disciplinary proceedings against two Swiss players of Albanian descent and the Serbian coach, born in Bosnia. The players wildly celebrated goals scored, gesturing Albanian nationalist symbols, while the coach made political statements following the game and referenced the International Criminal Tribunal for Former Yugoslavia. Global media including the Guardian saw the incidents as ‘bring[ing] Balkan politics to [the] World Cup’.
Richard Mills’ book therefore comes with perfect timing, but the need for such a volume has been felt in academia for some time. While there have been numerous journalistic articles on connections between politics, football and nationalism in the former Yugoslavia, there have only been occasional research papers, book chapters and articles published in academic journals on this topic. At last, there is an all-encompassing book that might attract attention even outside the academic world.
The author offers a history of the country through a series of stories about football developments. Yugoslavia was created by unifying regions at different stages of economic, social and political development, thereby bringing together different legal traditions: sharia law from former Ottoman provinces, the legal systems of the young kingdoms of Serbia and Montenegro, law inherited from former Austria-Hungary and some aspects of Italian law in coastal cities. Mills’ study of football provides plenty of material proving the point of diversity and inequality. The north-western provinces were significantly more developed, and their football teams, especially in Croatia, thrived in their matches against Serbian clubs. Economic and ethnic interests led to opposing political demands in the new state of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. Serbian clubs, supported by the rising bourgeois class in the larger centres were quickly catching up with Croatian rivals. ‘The game became a battleground’, says Mills, ‘in the contested process of state building at the same time’ (10).
The history of the first Yugoslavia offers plenty of episodes in the varying attempts to solve the ethnic question in the country, particularly the relationship between Serbs and Croats. Parliamentary monarchy did not work, nor did royal dictatorship and the imposition of Yugoslavism. Like the country itself, ‘beset by scandals, intrigues and power grabs throughout the interwar years, Yugoslav football teetered on the brink of extinction’ (22).
The proscription of the Communist Party ironically prepared it well for illegal activity and resistance during the Second World War. Mills offers the story of Hajduk, the team from Split that became an official club of the new communist-led Yugoslavia, and rightly recognizes the ultimate irony. Instead of the Split workers’ club during the interwar years, whose players made the ultimate sacrifice when most of them were executed by occupying forces, it was Hajduk, ‘a bastion of the “bourgeois game” [who] came to represent the revolutionary partisan movement’ (53).
The new state produced new elites, but old rivalries, albeit often hidden in political forums, would resurface on occasions at football grounds. Therefore, the party paid great attention to showcasing its purity and unity. ‘Throughout the 1970s, football was intimately entwined with political commemorations, socialist innovations and celebrations of the multi-ethnic state’ (165).
The part of the book that is likely to be most cited covers the period after Tito up to the end of Yugoslavia. Mills somewhat dismisses euphoric explanations of nationalism and the role of football hooligans in spreading it, in particular the myth of the 1990 game between Dinamo and Red Star in Zagreb that for some represented the beginning of the war. However, ‘this telescoping of events contributes to an attractive legend’ (221), but this book is not offering any revisionist views of Yugoslav catastrophe.
Yet, it is somewhat regrettable that the author did not use his prolonged spells in the post-Yugoslav countries to conduct more research interviews with former hooligans. Instead he relies heavily on reports and secondary historical sources. It is a pity that a researcher with his knowledge and involvement in the subject has allowed others to offer and interpret some of the insights. One could also question the space given to certain episodes, for example Zrenjanin, given its relative insignificance in both political and football terms.
The book explains political developments through the lens of football, often giving the reader the feeling that it was written by a close observer with great insight. There is, however, an occasion where the author provides a curious interpretation of the national team that he calls ‘reprezentacija’. This is a term used by Slavs and the reader is left wondering about its significance – the possible ridiculousness of the term might even be understood as an example of the orientalism that some authors engage in when writing on the Balkans. Mills, however, has not fallen into this trap, although he owes us an explanation for his use of ‘reprezentacija’. Overall, however, he has provided a well-researched and well-written book on the country, its history, politics, nationalism and, ultimately, on football.