Advocacy and football fandom: Stadium choreographies as public displays of solidarity with Palestine

Football/soccer stadia across the globe represent a public space in which political pronouncements and aspirations can be voiced. The most fervent football supporters (i.e., ultras) routinely animate stadia with elaborate choreographies, which can be deployed to endorse particular affinities. This work provides an accounting of stadium choreographies produced by football ultras and supporters groups that displayed support for Palestinians. A framing analysis revealed four identifiable sensegiving premises that football ultras and supporters advanced: allyship, fortitude, resistance, and victimhood. This work extends examinations of social protest by indicating how in-situ stadium choreographies incorporate artistic and carnivalesque features alongside digital activism.