Die UEFA Champions League als politischer Mythos. Einigung Europas oder Entfremdung der Fans?

The article seeks to describe and discuss the UEFA Champions League as an eventually emerging political myth. This continent-wide competition in top-level European club football has been rendered both an „integration engine“ (contributing to a further amalgamation of societies of supporters and interested Europeans in a lifeworldy sphere) as well a „grave digger“ of football (due, for instance, to its detrimental effects on some national competitions across Europe). Following from that, we distinguish between two countervailing narrative strands, with several motives and sub-narratives in both, that have the potential to either cement or to undermine the mythological nature of the Champions League. Whereas the positive narrative hints at politically relevant forms of societal integration through the presence of a continent-wide, de facto league of top football clubs, the negative counterpart suggests that the Champions League is a driver for (over-)commercialisation and a threat for the integrity of „true“/traditional football. We argue that these two Champions League narratives do not seem to (completely) neutralise each other. While fans may be alienated by the commercialisation triggered through the Champions League, at the same time the Champions League may have a unifying effect by widening perspectives, fostering a common continental communicative space, or constituting an engine of lived integration. In the remainder we seek to outline possible avenues of future research into how football fans - not so much elite commentators such as politicians, club and association officers, scholars and journalists - indeed perceive of the Champions League and hence link up to the two broader narratives identified.