Football Comes Home: Symbolic Identities in European Football [Hardcover]

Cultural Studies has long been criticized for neglecting sport. Football Comes Home distinctly addresses this oversight. Based in semiotic analysis it provides an original survey of European football insignia and in so doing offers an insightful symbolic history, giving view to the deep structures of identity that are not revealed by more standard forms of social research. For academics, students and even the general reader interested in the cultural significance of football, this is an essential book.Football Comes Home is an interesting and original attempt to examine the symbolism of football clubs, focusing specifically on the origins and, to a lesser degree, the evolution of club badges. This book uses the club badge or emblem as a way into a much broader analysis of the changing historical and cultural identities of European football. All this adds up to what is, to my knowledge, the most detailed and thorough examination of the symbols associated with football clubs ever conducted.It is rare that a book combines intellectual rigor with popular cultural study to such a degree. There have been lots of good academic books on European football as popular culture over the years - many of which appear in the bibliography to this book. There have also been plenty of publications which explore the vagaries of semiotics and sport and media cultures. To marry the two, as Christos Kassimeris does in this excellent book, is a real achievement. Highly recommended.Football Comes Home unearths the cultural, political, and social properties of European football clubs and associations. Christos Kassimeris examines the background of five hundred football clubs and associations from around Europe, providing all the relevant historical information that concerns their origins and standing in society. This book also analyzes the clubs' and associations' emblems, revealing the symbolic significance and a wealth of historical and cultural information.Football Comes Home unearths thelă5