Shoot-outs for the nation: football and politics in post-colonial Moroccan-Algerian Relations

In this article, I offer a new macro analytical reading of Algerian-Moroccan relations in the context of football (soccer). Using Durkheim's and Turner's anthropological concepts of social effervescence and religious rituals, I contend that football provided an alternative social space for Hassan II to settle political scores with neighbouring Algeria. In addition, I argue that by involving the military, security agencies and national elite in the management of local football clubs and national teams, Hassan II was able to manufacture docile bodies through ritualized football games between Morocco and Algeria. Finally, I underline the shift in the policies of the Moroccan state toward football during the reign of Mohammed VI as a less controlled civil society began to take shape and private bureaucracy replaced military institutions.