Ask a British football fan what they know about Turkish football, and they are unlikely to describe scenes of camaraderie, hospitality and humour. They are more likely to mention banners proclaiming 'Welcome to hell'. Or Leeds United supporters stabbed to death on an Istanbul street.
Frustrated by the game's distorted image back home, John McManus set out to show the Turkish football that he knew - the rich, funny, obsessive, fan culture that he had encountered on the terraces. But he hadn't accounted for the politics. His voyage began at the start of one of the darkest periods in Turkey's modern history, marred by bombings, armed conflict and an attempted coup d'etat. Football, he would soon discover, could not help but get dragged in.
John McManus is an anthropologist based at the British Institute at Ankara, where he researches sport and migration in Turkey and the Turkish diaspora. He supports Besiktas and Leicester City. Welcome to Hell? is his first book.
www.johnmcmanus.co.uk
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