Table Of ContentGLOBAL CULTURE AND
SPORT SERIES
Series Editors: Stephen Wagg
and David Andrews
FORBIDDEN
FOOTBALL IN
CEAUSESCU’S
ROMANIA
László Péter
Global Culture and Sport Series
Series editors
Stephen Wagg
Leeds Beckett University
UK
David Andrews
University of Maryland
USA
Series Editors: Stephen Wagg, Leeds Beckett University, UK, and David
Andrews, University of Maryland, USA.
The Global Culture and Sport series aims to contribute to and advance
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range of exciting, pioneering research being developed in the field of sport
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László Péter
Forbidden Football
in Ceausescu’s Romania
László Péter
Babes-Bolyai University
Cluj-Napoca, Romania
Global Culture and Sport Series
ISBN 978-3-319-70708-2 ISBN 978-3-319-70709-9 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-70709-9
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P
reface
This book discusses the ethnographic description and the sociological
interpretation of the “football gatherings” that evolved in the central part
of Romania. In the eighties, the Romanian public television (TVR), as the
only TV channel in Romania, did not broadcast football mega-events
(European Championships, World Championships, international competi-
tions such as UEFA, or the European Champion Clubs’ Cup, the prede-
cessor of the Champions’ League) for economic and political reasons. The
mass media was appropriated by the Ceaușescu family for propagandistic
purposes. As a consequence, the large public living in the inner regions of
the country (the Szeklerland, Cluj and its vicinity, Southern-Transylvania)
being interested in football matches sought to and, by a collective effort,
succeeded to develop an alternative method to watch the games. They
went out in large numbers to the higher hills and mountains in the vicinity
of their homes, in order to “catch” the broadcast of the TV channels from
the neighbouring countries, with the technical tools at their disposal, or
by domestically fabricated ones, following the games in poor quality, yet
defying the will of the political power.
The research based on interviews focuses on finding answers to three
simple, yet important questions: How was this phenomenon organised and
how did it work? What kind of community role did it fulfil? And what fur-
ther social consequences had the symbolic extensions attached to the phenome-
non by the actors?
According to the central thesis of the book, football gatherings point
beyond the simple practice of media and sports consumption and, mainly
after 1982, deep extensions are attached to it. The phenomenon, by
v
vi PREFACE
reaching mass proportions, grew into a social institution of a penetrating
force: it produced an alternative social space that—even if only for a short
time—succeeded to slide out from the direct control of the authorities. In
other words: the activities and dissident public formed on the occasions of
the common events on the hills and mountains can also be seen as collec-
tive manifestations of silent resistance, exit or escape and protest, besides
their role of strengthening the community, ethnic identity and solidarity,
respectively their alternative role of entertainment. The case studies in the
book flash a light on the weak points of dictatorship, and underline the
role of foreign information against the oppressive power.
Fobidden Football in Ceaușescu’s Romania provides an insight into the
everyday life under the pressure of dictatorship in Romania in the eighties
and, through the special patterns of sports consumption, it tells the social
(his)story of one of the Eastern European countries with the most closed
communist system, alongside “small individual stories” related to football
and subjective experiences/events, and first-hand observations.
Cluj-Napoca, Romania László Péter
a
cknowledgements
Many people deserve credit for this book. In addition to the publisher and
the kind editors, I am exceptionally grateful for Professor Jarmo Valkola in
Tallinn, who came up with the idea at University of Jyväskylä, Finland.
The advice received from Professor Miklós Hadas was extremely useful, as
were the professional observations of my colleagues Zsombor Csata,
István Horváth and Nándor László Magyari.
I owe a debt of gratitude to all the participants of the research: the
subjects, interlocutors, helpers, and to my enthusiastic, ingenious research
assistant Sarolta Veress, as well as to other experts, and friends, with whom
I had the chance to carry out constructive and inspiring conversations and
productive debates. Thanks are due to the inspiring sociologist colleagues
from whom I received important guidance and directives after my presen-
tation at the EASS conference in Copenhagen (2016) and also in the pro-
cess of writing this book.
The support of my friend, Emőd Farkas, was again priceless.
This book could never have been written without the self-denying assis-
tance, constructive criticism, professional support and encouragement of
Gyöngyi Pásztor.
Cluj/Kolozsvár/Klausenburg
August 2017
vii
c
ontents
1 I ntroduction to the Ethnography and Research
of Football Gatherings in Romania 1
2 Ciumani: The Sport Takes the Community
to the Mountains 19
3 Bălan: Angry Men in The Night 47
4 Cluj: Big City Versions of the Football Gatherings 61
5 Southern-Transylvania—Further Faces of the Extended
Phenomenon 85
6 The Social and Political Significance of Football
Gatherings: Escape to Freedom 93
7 Lessons and Conclusions 123
ix
x CONTENTS
“Football Gatherings in Eastern- Transylvania, Romania
during the Eighties.” Photos taken by Árpád Kémenes 131
References 153
Index 159
