Critical Explorations
The History of Women's American Football in Spain
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Russ Crawford
Women began playing football in Spain prior to the formation of a league for them. According to a 2012 report from the Spanish Consejo Superior de Deportes (CSD), the first teams there formed in Catalonia, following the example of the Barcelona Dragons of NFL Europe. The CSD did not specify a year, but it seemed to have been around 1995, since the report asserts that in 2010, fifteen years after those first teams began play, the Federación Española de Fútbol Americano (FEFA) organized a league for women. As of the 2012 CSD report, there were twelve teams playing that year. With the start of the Liga Nacional Football Americano – Femenina (LNFAF), the women also contended for a championship. The Barberà Rookies were the first champion, and dominated the LNFAF for much of its history. The Rookies have only lost two of the first nine championships, losing most recently in the 2019 Woman Spanish Bowl 12-6 to the Valencia Firebats.During the first six seasons, the LNFAF teams played 7-on-7, but transitioned to 9-on-9 in 2016. As with other international federations, the Spaniard’s goal was to eventually grow the sport to the traditional 11-on-11 format. In 2019, the LNFA Feminina consisted of ten teams divided into two divisions. There were five teams playing 9-on-9, which included the Rookies and Firebats. Four more teams played 7-on-7. According to the FEFA site, the Spaniards also welcomed international players and had several from Brazil, and at least one from Bolivia.
“Do They Really Let Girls into the Stadium?”: The Development of Women’s Football Fan Identities in Iran
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Catherine Phipps
In this paper, the development of Iranian women’s football fan identities is explored, drawing on interview data with ten women who attended Azadi Stadium in Tehran, Iran. Utilising a combination of identity theory and the feminization of sports fandom thesis, findings suggest interviewees have highly salient football fan identities, with men’s football consumption a central part of many of their lives. While primary socialisation positively influenced this for some women, there were also examples of gender-based constraints, leading to perceptions around inauthenticity in women’s fandom. Due to restricted entry into stadiums until recently, women often found alternate ways to exercise their fandom, including through online spaces and attendance at football players’ training grounds. Finally, regarding stadium attendance, there were some examples of positive experiences and inclusive fan communities. However, attendance sometimes led to backlash and surprise, demonstrating cultural and societal resistance. Ultimately, women often had to navigate sexist assumptions and attitudes about their football fandom.
The Boateng Brothers and the Contested Nature of Germanness: Soccer and German Discourses on Race, Class, and National Identity
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Matthias Kaelberer
This paper analyzes German socio-political discourses on race, class, and national identity by studying the public perceptions of the two Afro-German soccer players Jérôme and Kevin-Prince Boateng. Jérôme and Kevin-Prince Boateng are half-brothers born to a Ghanaian father and two different German mothers. Both Boatengs are German citizens, and both played for German junior national teams – from U17 to U21. Jérôme Boateng ultimately ended up as a star player on the German senior national team, with the 2014 World Cup victory as a major career highlight. Kevin-Prince Boateng, on the other hand, was dismissed from the German U21 national team in 2009 and subsequently chose to play for Ghana’s senior national team. Analyzing the public discourses on these two players nicely illustrates the intersections of race, class, and national identity in German society. The media frequently represented the two brothers as personal opposites. Kevin-Prince Boateng grew up in a poor, working-class district of Berlin, while Jérôme Boateng spent his youth in a middle-class neighborhood of the same city. Until late into his career at Bayern Munich, public discourses constructed Jérôme Boateng as the cool and disciplined guy, the stereotypical “good” German, while Kevin-Prince Boateng was “othered” and presented as the undisciplined ghetto-kid. And while both half-brothers have the same skin color, Jérôme Boateng often performed Whiteness, while Kevin-Prince Boateng was associated with Blackness.
