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The World Cup's Double-Headed Eagle: Gestures and Scenarios in the Football Arena

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 February 2020

JARED STRANGE
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Abstract

During the 2018 World Cup in Russia, two Kosovo-born Swiss players stirred controversy when they flashed a double-headed eagle gesture during a contentious win over Serbia. The gesture was an assertion of ethnic Albanian pre-eminence in Kosovo and a rhetorical strike against the Serbians, who still claim ownership over Kosovo even ten years after its declaration of independence. The gesture sparked worldwide media coverage and prompted punishments by FIFA (the World Cup's governing body), which legislates against overt political expression during matches. In this article, I will examine the double-headed eagle gesture as an example of the body's unique capacity to perform multiple political interventions at once. Not only did it transmit a contentious history, it also undermined the anti-political boundaries erected around the scenarios of transnational combat engendered by FIFA, highlighted anti-immigrant sentiments still festering across Europe, and illustrated the communicative powers that elite players can access through their goal celebrations. Considering these valences supports my reading of this case as symbolic of the sort of ruptures produced by competing impulses operating in Europe today, one working for the affirmation of the union, the other for its dissolution.

Type
Articles
Information
Theatre Research International , Volume 45 , Issue 1 , March 2020 , pp. 55 - 71
Copyright
Copyright © International Federation for Theatre Research 2020

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Footnotes

I would like to thank Dr James Harding, who provided me with invaluable support and guidance as I developed this piece from a seminar paper into a fully fledged article.

References

Notes

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3 Susan Sontag, Regarding the Pain of Others (New York: Picador, 2003), p. 49.

4 FIFA Disciplinary Committee, FIFA Disciplinary Code (2017 edition), 9 May 2017, p. 30, at https://resources.fifa.com/image/upload/fifa-disciplinary-code-500276.pdf?cloudid=koyeb3cvhxnwy9yz4aa6, accessed 14 September 2018.

5 ‘The World Cup's Mysterious Path to Russia’, The Daily from the New York Times, 22 June 2018, at www.nytimes.com/2018/06/22/podcasts/the-daily/russia-world-cup-fifa-corruption.html, accessed 17 October 2018. Nick Ames, ‘World Cup 100 Days Out: Fan Safety, Price-Gouging, Racism among Concerns Facing Russia’, ESPN, 6 March 2018, at www.espn.com/soccer/world-cup-soccer/4/blog/post/3408421/world-cup-100-days-out-russia-face-challenges-like-racism-fan-safety-and-price-gouging, accessed 6 March 2018.

6 Diana Taylor, Performance (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2016), p. 128.

7 Ibid., p. 129.

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11 Richard Cooke, ‘Xherdan Shaqiri Not Worried by Hostile Belgrade Reception’, Sky Sports, 25 October 2018, at www.skysports.com/football/news/11669/11535480/xherdan-shaqiri-not-worried-by-hostile-belgrade-reception, accessed 2 December 2018.

12 ‘Xherdan Shaqiri: Liverpool Midfielder to Miss Red Star Belgrade Game in Serbia’, BBC Sport, 5 November 2018, at www.bbc.com/sport/football/46094407, accessed 16 November 2018.

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15 Ibid., p. 27.

16 Mehmeti, Leandrit I. and Radeljic, Branislav, ‘Introduction’, in Mehmeti and Radeljic, eds., Kosovo and Serbia: Contested Options and Shared Consequences (Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburg Press, 2016), pp. 3–13Google Scholar, here p. 3.

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18 Mehmeti and Radeljic, ‘Introduction’, pp. 3–4.

19 Mills, Richard, The Politics of Football in Yugoslavia: Sport, Nationalism, and the State (London: I.B. Tauris, 2018), p. 3CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

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21 Mills, The Politics of Football in Yugoslavia, p. 286.

22 Ibid., p. 290.

23 Ani Kokobobo, ‘For Albanians, It's Not Just an Eagle: Here's the Deeper Story on Those World Cup Fines’, Washington Post, 2 July 2018, at www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2018/07/02/for-albanians-its-not-just-an-eagle-heres-the-deeper-story-those-world-cup-fines/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.6f6f662466fe, accessed 12 October 2018.

24 Quoted in Aleks Eror, ‘For Serbs, Switzerland Isn't Neutral’, Foreign Policy, 24 June 2018, at https://foreignpolicy.com/2018/06/24/for-serbs-switzerland-isnt-neutral, accessed 12 October 2018.

25 Ibid.

26 Ibid.

27 Ibid.

28 Kokobobo, ‘For Albanians, It's Not Just an Eagle’.

29 ‘World Cup: Why Kosovo will be cheering on Switzerland against Serbia’, The Local, 20 June 2018, at www.thelocal.ch/20180620/world-cup-why-kosovo-will-be-cheering-on-switzerland-against-serbia, accessed 16 November 2018.

30 Romaine Farquet, ‘Demonstrating for a Kosovo Republic in Switzerland: Emotions, National Identity and Performance’, Nations and Nationalism, 20, 2 (2014), pp. 277–96, here p. 287.

31 Brian Homewood, ‘Swiss Applaud Win over Serbia but Criticize Celebrations’, Reuters, 23 June 2018, at www.reut.rs/2twEbNv, accessed 16 November 2018.

32 Shaqiri, ‘Now I Got My Own Army Guy?’.

33 Nick Ames, ‘Shadow of Kosovo Hangs over Switzerland's Crunch Tie with Serbia’, The Guardian, 21 June 2018, at www.theguardian.com/football/2018/jun/21/switzerland-serbia-kosovo-xherdan-shaqiri-world-cup, accessed 16 November 2018. David Hytner, ‘Xherdan Shaqiri Drops a Bombshell as Swiss Prepare for Romania’, The Guardian, 14 June 2016, at www.theguardian.com/football/2016/jun/14/euro-2016-xherdan-shaqiri-switzerland-romania, accessed 16 November 2018.

34 Ames, ‘Shadow of Kosovo’.

35 Shaqiri, ‘Now I Got My Own Army Guy?’.

36 Burstyn, The Rites of Men, p. 4.

37 Noland, Carrie, Agency and Embodiment: Performing Gestures/Producing Culture (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2009), p. 206CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

38 Simon Bradley, ‘Eagle Gesture Puts Spotlight on Swiss Kosovar Community’, SwissInfo, 25 June 2018, at www.swissinfo.ch/eng/culture/explainer_eagle-gesture-puts-spotlight-on-switzerland-s-kosovar-community-/44215142, accessed 16 November 2018.

39 Schneider, Rebecca, ‘That the Past May Yet Have Another Future: Gesture in the Times of Hands Up’, Theatre Journal, 70, 3 (2018), pp. 285–306CrossRefGoogle Scholar, here p. 286.

40 Samuel Lovett, ‘Shkodran Mustafi Avoids FA Punishment over Controversial Goal Celebration’, The Independent, 3 September 2018, at www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/premier-league/shkodran-mustafi-goal-celebration-avoids-fa-punishment-a8521326,html, accessed 18 November 2018.

41 ‘Albanian and Kosovo PMs, Government Officials, Gesture Double-Headed Eagle Symbol’, Top Channel, 26 November 2018, at http://top-channel.tv/english/albanian-and-kosovo-pms-government-officials-gesture-double-headed-eagle-symbol/#g, accessed 30 August 2019.

42 Schneider, ‘That the Past May Yet Have Another Future’, p. 297.

43 Alvarez, Natalie, ‘Foul Play: Football's “Infamous Thespians” and the Cultural Politics of Diving’, TDR: The Drama Review, 60, 1 (2016), pp. 10–24CrossRefGoogle Scholar, here p. 21.

44 Noland, Agency and Embodiment, p. 212.

45 Ibid., p. 6.

46 Taylor, Performance, p. 134.

47 Ibid., p. 139.

48 Maguire, Joseph and Burrows, Michael, ‘“Not the Germans Again”: Soccer, Identity Politics and the Media’, in Maguire, Joseph, ed., Power and Global Sport: Zones of Prestige, Emulation and Resistance (London: Routledge, 2005), pp. 130–42Google Scholar, here p. 132.

49 Taylor, Performance, p. 140.

50 FIFA Disciplinary Committee, FIFA Disciplinary Code, p. 30.

51 International Football Association Board, Laws of the Game, at www.img.fifa.com/image/upload/datdz0pms85gbnqy4j3k.pdf, accessed 14 September 2018, p. 24.

52 FIFA Disciplinary Committee, FIFA Disciplinary Code, p. 37.

53 Cleland, Jamie, A Sociology of Football in a Global Context (London: Routledge, 2015), p. 24CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

54 Ibid., p. 25.

55 Ibid., pp. 37–8.

56 Ibid., p. 57.

57 Mark Turner, ‘From “Pats on the Back” to “Dummy Sucking”: A Critique of the Changing Social, Cultural and Political Significance of Football Goal Celebrations’, Football & Society, 13, 1 (2012), pp. 1–18.

58 Judah, Kosovo, p. xiii.

59 Ibid., p. 131.

60 Bairner, Alan, Sport, Nationalism, and Globalization: European and North American Perspectives (Albany: State University of New York Press, 2001), p. 6Google Scholar.

61 Burstyn, The Rites of Men, p. 32.