Abstract

The “traditions” interconnected with football clubs’ “histories” are important for the construction of the identities of the supporters/fans. These “traditions” incorporate official data concerning results of athletic performances, but also fragments of “narrations” and “myths” dispersed among fans as parts of certain “oral histories,” complementary to the official data. Fans draw from these “traditions” in their attempt to construct their identities. Therefore, it is fruitful to investigate the formation (and the constant reformation) of these “traditions,” by the use of a certain case study: the construction of the rivalry between the supporters/fans of the most famous athletic teams in Greece, Olympiakos of Piraeus and Panathinaikos of Athens. The relevant analysis will focus on public expressions and performances of this rivalry, and thus on communicative aspects of everyday practices of fans. To do this we focus on communicative models, interconnected with broader communicative systems, which cut across practices defining Greek public ethics and tendencies towards “Europeanization” of fans’ attitudes.