According to the author, nationalism can gather support from a broad range of groups in society, because it attracts very different groups on very different grounds and ways: for instance it provides political capital to the elite or gives the hope of integration to the middle and working classes – as answers to exclusions featuring the neoliberal social change. This argument goes beyond the superficial statement that Serbs had been polarised between two strong identities: the EU friendly democratic and the closed cycles of a radical national one.

It was the great surprise of the 2007/2008 football season that CFR – a not well known and relatively unsuccessful team before – won the Romanian National Championship and the Romanian Cup beating the 'traditional' and most prestigious team of the same city. The author gives an account on the history and present of both clubs and – in the era of new capitalism – presents the reconfiguration of the ethnical and class splits traditionally dividing the population of the city putting the Romanian/Hungarian-majority/minority divisions in social context.

The edited version of the discussion held at the Friends of Eszmelet Society traces the reasons and features of the transformation of contemporary football focusing on developments in the UK, US and East Europe.