Soccer Politics / The Politics of Football

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About: marcwfletcher

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Full Name: Marc Fletcher
Website: http://www.cas.ed.ac.uk/research_student_profiles/fletcher_marc
Details: I am a third year PhD student at the Centre of African Studies, University of Edinburgh, UK. My current research is on race, national identity and football fandom in Johannesburg, South Africa but my interest in sport is not just academic. I am an ardent supporter of Tiverton Town FC (a small, semi-professional soccer club languishing in the depths of the English non-league system) and am hoping beyond hope that England might just get past the quarter finals of next year's World Cup in South Africa. I severely doubt it though...

Posts by marcwfletcher:

17 Nov 2009 South Africa’s Brazilian love affair
24 Oct 2009 Can a United Kingdom team truly represent the United Kingdom?
07 Oct 2009 Standing alone on the terraces: The decline of the local game

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A Football Report
From a Left Wing
- The Runner's Runner May 9, 2013
  I've long wanted to write about Justina Cassavell. My sister has been the cross-country coach at Voorhees High School in New Jersey since the mid 1990s. She is also the head track coach (boys and girls). She announced her resignation yesterday - within minutes it seemed, the story was posted on NJ.com.Under her leadership, the girls cross-country team h […]
  Jennifer Doyle
- Brittney Griner, Jason Collins and the Sex of a Story May 1, 2013
  The (not-homophobic side of the) sports world has invested a lot of magic in the currently-professional-and-playing-out-gay-male-athlete. It's no wonder, given how elusive that athlete has been.Jason Collins comes out decades after Stonewall, he comes out long after Ellen DeGeneres came out while professionally-active-and-on-television and then recovere […]
  Jennifer Doyle
- Jason Collins Comes Out (and Leans In) April 29, 2013
  NBA center Jason Collins came out in this week's issue of Sports Illustrated. People are celebrating him as the first man in a "major sport" to come out as gay. That is true only if we limit our examples to the US.Justin Fashanu was the first athlete to come out as gay while still playing as a pro. The first black footballer to earn a million- […]
  Jennifer Doyle
Football is Coming Home
- Online Fútbol University May 13, 2013
  My online course “Culture of Soccer” launched today at Michigan State University. With 120 students enrolled, it recognizes and nurtures younger Americans’ growing appetite for fútbol. It may even be read as a “‘rejection’ of U.S. isolationist/exceptionalist attitudes,” as @OhioGooner put it to me on Twitter. But it’s also important to note that the course [ […]
  Peter Alegi
- Research Forum on South African Football: Mapping the Field May 3, 2013
  Guest Post by *Marc Fletcher Gloomy skies and wet weather greeted the Research Forum on South African Football held at the University of Johannesburg (UJ) last month. The bleak conditions made for an intimate crowd, but the academics, journalists and sports practitioners in attendance were rewarded with three strikingly different presentations on varying asp […]
  Peter Alegi
- Playing the Game: World Cup and Olympic Development in Rio April 29, 2013
  Police in riot gear battle protestors in the streets of Rio de Janeiro. Aggressive slum clearance threatens favelas. Gentrification at Maracanã Stadium. FIFA exclusion zones around World Cup venues. Sound familiar? As readers of this blog know, South Africa staged a successful World Cup in 2010, marketing the country globally to tourists and foreign investor […]
  Peter Alegi
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