FC TECTONICS: Football’s Strategic Play in the Territorialisation of Nation-State Sovereignty

‘FC Tectonics’ is a research-driven two-channel video installation that investigates the relevance and political nature of football as a geopolitical force. Developed through a critical spatial practice, the project views football not merely as a sport but as a technology that produces and regulates nation-state legitimacy on a global scale. With 211 member associations — more than the United Nations — FIFA operates as a powerful non-state actor, selectively recognising or excluding entities through its legal frameworks.

Drawing on legal documents, satellite imagery, spatial analysis and open-source investigative tools, the work exposes how football approaches sovereignty through the performance of participation, refusal and exclusion. By subverting familiar football infrastructures, such as pitch line-marking machines, the project reveals their latent political functions. ‘FC Tectonics’ frames football as a field of power where national legitimacy is contested, redrawn and negotiated.