Minorities and Soccer: Yelling from the Touchline

Abstract

We draw on Group Threat Theory and the Rejection-Identification Model to explore how soccer rivalries can decode the relationship between ethnic minorities and local societies. This study investigates how four distinct ethnic minority groups—Circassians in Jordan, Kurds in Syria, Sahrawis in Morocco, and Amazighs in Algeria—use soccer clubs to express cultural pride and preserve community identity. Based on sixteen semi-structured online interviews with fans across these communities, the findings reveal that soccer clubs serve not only as sporting organizations but also as symbolic spaces for ethnic resilience, communal affiliation, and social visibility. These clubs play crucial roles in navigating exclusion, asserting group identity, and contesting dominant national narratives, particularly in politically sensitive, post-Arab Spring contexts. The findings highlight the role of soccer as a socially sanctioned outlet through which ethnic minority groups assert identity, foster solidarity, and respond to enduring patterns of political, cultural, and institutional marginalization within their respective nation-states.