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Carl Rommel recently earned an MA in Migration and Diaspora Studies from the Department of Anthropology at SOAS, University of London. His MA dissertation, from which this essay is adapted, was based on fieldwork among Assyrian and Syriac football fans in Södertälje, Sweden.
Assyrians or Syriacs? Middle Eastern Identity Formation through Football in Sweden
It is the last Sunday in May 2009, and people in Södertälje – a small industrial town, half an hour’s drive southwest of the Swedish capital Stockholm – are enjoying the first hot day of the summer. It is also the day of the biggest football match of the year. Later in the afternoon, Södertälje’s two second division rivals, Assyriska FF and Syrianska FC, will clash. In the hours before kick-off, one sees flags and matching shirts everywhere, either in the white and red colors of Assyriska or in the red and yellow representing Syrianska.
