European Football and Collective Memory

Is it possible for football matches or players to help forge a collective European identity? Pyta and Havemann seek to answer this question through a detailed analysis of how football games and stars are remembered across the continent. In this context, a range of important events and renowned players are discussed, from the Heysel disaster to George Best, and the Real Madrid of Alfredo Di Sťfano and Ferenc Pusk̀s to the famous Wembley goal in the 1966 World Cup final. The book also examines the history of UEFA as an institution and producer of pan-European competitions across the Iron Curtain, with a unique emphasis on what kind of memory remains from the transnational encounters between East and West. European Football and Collective Memory is the first book to examine the collective memory of football on a continental scale, providing a rich cultural-historical exploration of the memorial and sepulchral culture which forms an integral part of football.