Three soccer discourses

In this paper, I examine the dominant discourses surrounding the role of soccer in human societies and the international arena. Following Gearóid Ó Tuathail, I argue that there are three types of geopolitical discourses related to soccer: those diffused by intellectuals, states and popular manifestations of geopolitics in civil society. I highlight three prevalent discourses in relation to soccer propagated by intellectuals, states and within civil society, which I call the Soccer War discourse, the Nobel Prize discourse and the Gramscian discourse. I trace the importance of soccer by highlighting how it triggered a Soccer War between two poor central American nations; how it was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize; and demonstrate how it can both support dictators and the status quo, yet also engender movements for popular social transformation (the Gramscian discourse).