Paper short abstract:

This paper examines how globalization effects football (soccer) and to what extent the forging of identities in football can be seen as local responses to globalization.

Paper long abstract:

This paper discusses how transnational connections in football challenges more homogenouse notions of local and national identity. This issue is highlighted through authorized calls for protection of "our" talents and restrictions for the possibility of "foreign" footballers. This is particularly evident in debates which seeks to promote the interests of national team football in times when international club football, with players competing in a global labour market, in many respects holds a more important position as a generator of identities for the supporters. Drawing from empirical research in Northern Europe, this paper seeks to analyse the ways in which football supporters apply notions of 'who we are' and 'who we are not' within a complex, globalized semiotic system. The paper also seeks to delve into the issue of how these orientations can be linked to more general social, racial and cultural issues.