Intergroup Contact, Islam and the 2022 FIFA World Cup

This is the first book to critically examine England football fans’ attitudes towards Muslims and Islam through the lens of a sports mega-event, drawing on fan experiences at the 2022 FIFA Men’s World Cup, the first staged in an Islamic society.

Drawing on pre-event interviews, audio-visual diaries, field observations, and post-event reflections with England fans, the book examines whether short-term sporting events can produce transformational shifts in fans’ attitudes towards Muslims and Islam, or whether they reinforce existing prejudices despite unprecedented opportunities for intergroup contact. To do so, it develops a novel theoretical framework by integrating Gordon Allport’s contact theory with Edward Said’s Orientalism, offering a unique lens for understanding intergroup encounters in a sporting context. Arriving at a critical juncture between the 2022 World Cup in Qatar and the 2034 World Cup in Saudi Arabia, as Arabian Peninsula states are likely to assume a greater role in global sport, the book makes an important and timely contribution to our understanding of football fandom, anti-Muslim prejudice, and the potential for sport to address wider social and cultural issues.

This book is fascinating reading for researchers and postgraduate students in the sociology of sport, social psychology, postcolonial studies, and tourism and events, and will appeal to anybody with a broader interest in football fandom, intergroup relations, Orientalism, or the cultural politics of sports mega-events.