Introduction: Football Memory in a European Perspective

The historiography of European integration has traditionally mainly dealt with the forces profondes in politics, economy and the world of ideas that have led to the formation of the European Union (EU) in its present shape (Bitsch and Loth, 2007; Loth, 2008). Historians specialising in political ideas and political philosophy, as well as sociologists from the social constructivist school of thought, have scrutinised the roots and fundaments of the integration process. Therefore, the discursive origins of the European institutional arrangement belong to the favourite issues of researchers who take a close look at the history of contemporary Europe (Risse, 2004; Horber, 2006). With the advent of the European single market and the introduction of a common currency, increased emphasis has been laid on the study of the economic factors of European integration (Thiemeyer, 2010). And since the 1990s, the discipline of European Studies has known a significant ‘Europeanisation turn’, with a strong focus on the analysis of the processes through which European political dynamics are interiorised in policy-making or preference formation at the national level (Ladrech, 1994; Borzel, 1999; Featherstone and Radaelli, 2003; Ladrech, 2010).