Televised Football Commentaries: Descriptions, narrations and representations of a non-victory : The European Club Championship Final 1976 (Bayern Munich vs AS Saint-Étienne)

International audienceMay, 12th, 1976, in Glasgow, nearly thirty years after the end of the Second World War, two of the most renowned soccer team from France and Germany faced each other in the final of the European clubs championship. International sports events provide great evidence of the way national cultures frame their view of other nationalities. I will seek through various examples to point out links between the operation of media sports discourse and the possible interests of countries as they occur in practice. This is examined through qualitative discourse examples from the transcription of the French television broadcast. Past and present issues of identity politics between France and Germany can be illuminated through this analysis. Attention is paid to whether national stereotyping, I/we images, established/outsider identities/relations were evident in the direct broadcast of this soccer game. I will examine how television has transformed sport as a form of popular culture, focusing on sport as a form of political ritual and sport as an arena in which representations of nation and nationhood are continually being worked through