Soccer, the Saarland, and Statehood: Win, Loss, and Cultural Reunification in Post-War Europe
Sport in Society Cultures, Commerce, Media, Politics ISSN: (Print) (Online) Journal homepage: https://www.tandfonline.com/loi/fcss20 Soccer, the Saarland, and statehood: win, loss, and cultural reunification in post-war Europe Alec S. Hurley To cite this article: Alec S. Hurley (2021): Soccer, the Saarland, and statehood: win, loss, and cultural reunification in post-war Europe, Sport in Society, DOI: 10.1080/17430437.2021.1902992 To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/17430437.2021.1902992 Published online: 05 Apr 2021. Submit your article to this journal View related articles View Crossmark data Full Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at https://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?journalCode=fcss20 SPORT IN SOCIETY https://doi.org/10.1080/17430437.2021.1902992 Soccer, the Saarland, and statehood: win, loss, and cultural reunification in post-war Europe Alec S. Hurley Kinesiology - Physical Culture and Sport Studies, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, USA ABSTRACT KEYWORDS Football proved to be one of the few areas that fueled West Germany’s Nationalism; Germany; ambition to reintegrate Saarland into the fractured post-war republic. soccer; post-war; Saarland Denied participation with the German football federation in the wake of the Second World War, yet unwilling to don French colors, Saarland’s national football team (Saarländische Fußballnationalmannschaft) epit- omised the uneasy space embodied by its citizens. Unable to compete in the 1950 World Cup – despite FIFA recognition – Saarland focused instead on dominating the lower French leagues and creating their own tournament. Despite two losses to eventual champions West Germany in the qualifying round of the 1954 World Cup, Saarland’s footballers and their supporters left no doubt as to their cultural and political desire to reunite with the nation that had been denied to them.
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