Introduction: Football as a Symbolic Space of Possibility

The introductory chapter discusses why football in Europe is of such great fascination. It advocates the thesis that football serves the function of reconciling opposing social forms of life and positions. These consist of ways of life that individuals or subjects have developed in response to the demands of late modernity. Industrialization, urbanization, scientification, and other forms of rationalization challenge both individuals and communities. Practices in the field of football help to cushion these challenges by offering a stage on which conflicting impulses can be processed.