Football Movement: A Triumph of Soft Power

Abstract

The article explores the phenomenon of football (soccer), viewing it in a broader historical perspective as a movement of cultural renewal and marker of progress. Not only is football in the avant-garde of the contemporary sport, but it is also an active agent instrumental in shaping transnational culture. I focus on the evolution of playing behavior, the impact of football on mass consciousness, and the role and significance of ethnicity, multiculturalism, and tolerance in amateur and professional sport. Even though football does not eliminate cultural differences, while club competition and fan movements may not infrequently have adverse consequences, still the game is highly conducive to humanization of social relationships, evokes positive reflections in society among larger and smaller social groups, peoples, and cultures, and helps unite the civilized world within a single movement of the global community.