About the event
Morocco’s unprecedented success in the FIFA World Cup 2022 in Qatar was a watershed moment, not only for Moroccan football, but for the wider society as well. It produced a powerful boost to public morale.
The victories unleashed energetic expressions of pride in being Moroccan. Across social media and social life in general there was a near unanimous chorus of praise for the national players and their coach – from Islamists to secular leftists, and from the working class quarters of Casablanca to the royal castle in Rabat.
Yet the current football enthusiasm plays itself out in a society filled with sharp tensions. In the CIMS talk I will try to shed light on the interplay between three strong forces who all care deeply about football, and who all have an agenda for Moroccan society – the fanatical football supporters known as ultras, the Islamist movements, and the makhzen - the central power circles around the royal court.
The growth of a combative and flamboyant supporter culture associated with the ultras phenomenon challenges the norms of modesty and self-restraint always preached by Islamists.
The makhzen seeks to use football success as a diversion from burning social and political problems that generate opposition, while zealously keeping both ultras and Islamists in check.
How do the respective values and interests of these actors interact and shape the field of football’s interaction with society?
About the lecturer
Bjørn Olav Utvik is Professor of Middle East Studies at the University of Oslo, where he teaches courses on the modern history of the Middle East and on political Islam.
He is the author of The Pious Road to Development: Islamist Economics in Egypt (2011) and (co-ed. with Kjetil Selvik) Oil States in the New Middle East: Uprisings and Stability (2016), in addition to Islamismen (in Norwegian, 3 ed. 2020), a history and analysis of Islamism in the Middle East and North Africa, as well as numerous articles, book chapters and reports dealing with issues from the contemporary political history of the region.