Speakers
Description
The goal of this research is to examine the relationship of “Against Modern Football” (AMF) clubs towards success and progress in lower league football, focusing on two clubs in Germany and Croatia.
Research on HFC Falke is based on 27 months of ethnographic fieldwork using thick participation (123 field diary entries, 10 interviews). Research on NK Varteks is based on 17 months of ethnographic fieldwork (53 field diary entries, 25 interviews). Both clubs were founded upon the basic values of the AMF movement. Meanwhile, victory and success are imperatives in sport (Coakley 2009), which tests the basic values of the AMF movement and the ultras subculture.
Falke implemented and negotiated moral guidelines to resolve this dilemma. They note the ability of all members to participate in this discussion as a crucial difference between them and other professional and amateur teams. While resistance to commercialisation was key in the German context, in Croatia, aside from general opposition to commercialisation, the key factors were resistance to corruption and crime in football; success and promotion, in addition to economic barriers, necessitate forms of cooperation with institutions that are unacceptable to the club’s founders.
At Falke, creating a new emotional home is the primary concern. The moral guidelines are intended to protect this home, but they can be adapted if they match the emotional requirements of the majority. Similarly, but in a different context, Varteks fights to resolve contradictions between the desire to win and the basic values upon which the club was founded.
