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A nation's politics and socio-cultural identity can sometimes be best considered through the lens of Association Football (soccer). Examining football in the Mediterranean island of Malta in the inter-war years of 1920-1940 this paper focuses its analysis on the phenomenon that is the game of football and the epi-phenomena it provokes and sustains. In the tiny archipelago that constitutes the Maltese islands, the game as it was played and administered in this era had implications for the British colonialists, the refugees that fled Central Europe for Maltese shores and the indigenous Maltese peoples. In these years the game was played out amidst, variously, the island's unique party politics, intra-district rivalries, and historical considerations of reputation and social class. It was also to become integral to the contestations around anti-colonial sentiment and the debates over national identity. The game in Malta was thus a facilitator of both local and global processes and played an understated role in the pursuit of independence. This examination of the specific Maltese context may well shed light upon broader processes within the international game which lies at the intersection of the global and the local. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the elaborate celebrations organized by the fans of Valletta City football (soccer) club, Malta, when they win the Maltese football league. It argues that these celebrations constitute a continuation of the carnivalesque. Valletta fans have a reputation for their fanatical support, and are renowned as tough-guys. Their celebrations are moments of drunken excess, which celebrate this 'diamond-in-the-rough' authenticity, and satirize their opponents, which they see as inauthentic 'pretenders.' The celebrations use symbolism drawn from an earlier carnival tradition-particularly the symbolism of death, and the re-enactment of funereal performance. The paper therefore argues that contemporary football celebration has replaced the carnival as a cultural form through which social antagonisms-of locality and social class-are manifest. The paper also examines the relationship between these spontaneous celebrations, and state-sponsored pageants-including the modern carnival-which are primarily aimed at tourists. [Football Celebration, Valletta, Carnival, Nostalgia, Class]. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]