Paper short abstract:

In this presentation I want to discuss the phenomenon of the 'away section', a home away from home which allows visiting teams to create their own symbolic space.

Paper long abstract:

In this presentation I want to discuss the phenomenon of the 'away section', which is a selected and marked area at a stadium. It hosts guest supporters during matches. The chosen ethnographic examples come from my current PhD project about producing and performing history in four Swedish football clubs.

Sport stadia are very specific, heterotopic environments, with particular rules attached to them. Further, home arenas have special meaning in a community, carrying the notion of local pride, with memories and local sport heroes attached.

The visiting fans come with different paraphernalia like flags, banners, scarves and also flares and smoke bombs, in other words materiality that allows them to create a symbolic home, a section devoted to them and their team. At the same time, this takes place on the home ground of the opponent team. The visiting supporters claim the right of that place for brief two hours of a match, being both controlled and protected, yet with rights to express themselves and their emotions.

Using the concepts of space, construction of emotions and performativity, I analyse how supporters can create a symbolic section of the home arena on the opponent's home ground.