Been There, Done That, Bought the T-Shirt: Beşiktaş Fans and the Commodification of Football in Turkey

Abstract

In this article, I explore how the rapid commercialism and commodification of Turkish premier league football has affected the activities of a particular fan group, Çarşı, for the club Beşiktaş, one of Turkey's oldest teams. I look at how elements of the commodification of football have been harnessed and mediated by Çarşı to make ethical and political statements and convey an anarcho-socialist message. These processes, I argue, are driven by the possibilities opened up by rapid social and technological development. The shift to searching for identity among the forums and video websites of the internet, rather than on the terraces of Beşiktaş, is profoundly altering how fans construct their allegiance to the fan group and the club. This process, it will be shown, is not so much liberating supporters from the requirements of fandom as it is generating new conventions and processes to which Çarşı members must adhere.

Türk Spor Kulüpleri̇ni̇n Rekabet Avantajini Etki̇leyen Unsurlar

“…For example, Beşiktaş Spor Club's strategy for increasing its supporter's loyalty and creating a social and cultural cohesion is including game day rituals, branding the formation "Çarşı" primarily as a civil society etc. (McManus, 2013).…”

The left and the rest? Fan cosmologies and relationships between Celtic’s Green Brigade and Dinamo Zagreb’s Bad Blue Boys

“…Whilst I would not regard following online practices as 'ethnography' as there is no full bodily immersion in a set of practices, the real time focus of forums resonates with the central concerns of ethnography. 4 This article also concerns the relationship between the political left and right wing orientations amongst fan groups, linking to a nascent literature on left wing ultras groups in Europe (Doidge 2013;Totten 2015;Totten 2014;Daniel and Kassimeris 2013;McManus 2013;McDougall 2013). My experiences in Zagreb suggest that left-wing ultras groups such as WAZ often focus on football as a vehicle for political activism, given the sport's widespread popularity, historical affinity with working class traditions (see Kennedy 2013a; 2013b), ability to mobilise large numbers of people and its concrete nature (as opposed to abstract political discussions and a close connection with 'the academy', which describe the worst stereotypes of certain Marxist traditions -Graeber 2004).…”

Football fans and contentious politics: The role of Çarşı in the Gezi Park protests

“…Kozanoğlu (1990) notes that in the 1970s Beşiktaş fans were the only left-leaning fan club among the big three football teams in İstanbul. Beşiktaş fans adapted popular left-wing songs and the “iconography and ideologies of the leftist cause” (McManus, 2013: 7) at this time. This left-wing orientation fitted well with the club’s financial woes and limited athletic achievements.…”