SHOULD FOOTBALL BE ABOLISHED? SPORT AND CONTEMPORARY NEW LEFT PHILOSOPHY
SHOULD FOOTBALL BE ABOLISHED? SPORT AND CONTEMPORARY NEW LEFT PHILOSOPHY

Summary/Abstract: This paper analyses the role of football in the theories of contemporary leftist philosophers andcultural critics Chantal Mouffe and Terry Eagleton. Mouffe (2005) takes an affirmative view of sport andfootball-fans culture, albeit as a metaphor to her demand for a passionate politics. Namely, she opposescurrent post-political belief in democratic consensus and advocates ‘agonistic’ political sphere whereparticipants express their political beliefs with energy, collective spirit and loyalty similar to the footballfans. In contrast, Terry Eagleton (2010) recently proclaimed football to be the friend of capitalism, and evendemanded the game to be abolished altogether, as it cements the existing political order and prevents anysocial change. It is argued that the aforementioned approaches announce the re-entrance of football and sportin general in the mainstream philosophical debates but, even more so, testify to the diversity and, to someextent, the confusion of the New Left nowadays.

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