Israeli Football

<p><em>Israeli Football: Culture Politics and Identity</em> focuses on the diverse aspects of the evolution of Israeli football and the social effects of these on-going processes.</p><p>In the span of nine decades Israeli football has become a faithful representation of society and its key developments. The organizational structure of the teams and their ethnic composition fans’ chants and behaviors in the stands gender-related issues media involvement and other issues have reflected important societal trends and transformations. Examples of such trends include a shift from political to private ownership of football teams a shift from Ashkenazi to Sephardi dominance increasing diversification of the national team — from exclusive Jewish presence to a significant presence of Arab players including a non-Jewish captain of the national team a shift from local-based to global-based fandom. These changes reflecting major milestones in the evolution of Israeli football did not occur in a vacuum but rather were integrally related to broader local and global trends. These effects may even have had a reciprocal nature where developments in the sport sphere also affected the public sphere and prepared the ground for social change.</p><p>The chapters in this book were first published as a special issue of the journal <i>Israel Affairs.</i></p>