Helsingin yliopisto, Valtiotieteellinen tiedekunta, Politiikan ja talouden tutkimuksen laitosUniversity of Helsinki, Faculty of Social Sciences, Department of Political and Economic StudiesHelsingfors universitet, Statsvetenskapliga fakulteten, Institutionen för politik och ekonomiKortzanov, Dinko2012URN:NBN:fi:hulib-201703271941http://hdl.handle.net/10138/34191My aim for this thesis will be to analyze one small portion of the social impact that football has had in the terms of political ideology. The thesis will be about how football was regulated and 'politicized' during the 40 or so years of communism in Bulgaria and more specifically what were the signs that politicized it. A lot of changes happened after the socialist revolution of 1944 that were meant to seem as if they promoted political equality and freedom. The promotion that happened were mainly, based on uniting people’s identity with a communist ideology through BCP (Българска Комунистическа Партия/Bulgarian Communist Party). The 'puzzle' or problem is that even though the changes did have some positive effect on uniting Bulgarians under a certain ideology what also happened was significant protest against the regime. This thesis will go deeper and show how the BCP used the football club of CSKA to uphold the ideology of communism as victorious and glorious between 1944 and 1989. Various political connotations were linked with the image of CSKA. These connotations were linked not only with the socialist ideology and BCP, but also with signifiers that supported the ideology as the most powerful and successful one. I will see what kind of organizational changes happened to Bulgarian football, and how they were set to make CSKA the champion and the people’s favourite, whilst being a constant threats to rivals. With this I will also answer a question that has been on many Bulgarian’s lips, 'Why was CSKA supported by the BCP so fiercely?' By the end of the thesis my aim is to show how the political theories of Ernesto Laclau can be used to analyze what happened in Bulgaria. And as mentioned above my personal, will is to show how sports and football have a place in academic studies regarding politics. I will use the works of Bulgarian authors like Georgi Markov, to show how many of the symbols and signifiers that were associated with the socialist ideology were also present in football on a microcosmic level. Using Lacla’s theories on hegemony and empty signifiers I will try to explain how many of these signifiers were 'emptied' as such to link the football club of CSKA with that of the political party BCP. Also there were many regulations done to insure that CSKA, a signifier for socialist ideology, would be the dominant force in Bulgarian football. I will start out by giving a historical background of Bulgarian socialism, where I present some of the symbols and institutions that made the ideology what it was. Then move on to a history of political theories from selected authors. I will end my essay by showing how CSKA also came to stand for the symbols noted in the beginning, and how using the theories we can analyze why was it so.engpro gradu-avhandlingarPolitical Science, PoliticsYleinen valtio-oppi, politiikan tutkimusAllmän statslära, politologi