Soccer in the Algeria War
Dine, Philip
Soccer in the Algeria War - 2012.
91
This article focuses attention on the historic mobilization of association football (soccer) during the Algerian war (1954-1962), as well as in the period which preceded that conflict. Having been made use of by the French authorities in a vain attempt to reinforce colonial domination and to encourage peaceful relations between the territory’s ethnic communities, football was to become one of the weapons employed in the war of national liberation. The establishment by the FLN of an Algerian national team in exile remains the best-known example of this mobilization. However, football was too important a matter simply to be surrendered to the Algerian nationalists, and France was not slow to launch a colonial sporting counter-offensive, which is far less often discussed by scholars. While this riposte led to significant infrastructural development, it was unable to reverse the prevailing movement on the ground.
Soccer in the Algeria War - 2012.
91
This article focuses attention on the historic mobilization of association football (soccer) during the Algerian war (1954-1962), as well as in the period which preceded that conflict. Having been made use of by the French authorities in a vain attempt to reinforce colonial domination and to encourage peaceful relations between the territory’s ethnic communities, football was to become one of the weapons employed in the war of national liberation. The establishment by the FLN of an Algerian national team in exile remains the best-known example of this mobilization. However, football was too important a matter simply to be surrendered to the Algerian nationalists, and France was not slow to launch a colonial sporting counter-offensive, which is far less often discussed by scholars. While this riposte led to significant infrastructural development, it was unable to reverse the prevailing movement on the ground.
Réseaux sociaux