Three-sided football is a variation of football (soccer) with three teams instead of the usual two. It was devised by the Danish Situationist Asger Jorn to explain his notion of triolectics, his refinement on the Marxian concept of dialectics, as well as to disrupt one's everyday idea of football. Played on a hexagonal pitch [1], the game can be adapted for similarity to soccer as well as other versions of football.
Unlike in conventional football, where the winner is determined by the highest scoring of the two teams, no score is kept of the goals which a team scores, but conversely a count is taken of the number of goals conceded and the winning team is that which concedes the least number of goals. The game purports to deconstruct the confrontational and bi-polar nature of conventional football as an analogy of class struggle in which the referee stands as a signifier of the state and media apparatus, posturing as a neutral arbitrator in the political process of ongoing class struggle.
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It has been promoted in England, Scotland, Italy, Serbia, Poland and Austria by the Luther Blissett Three-sided Football League. The first known game played was organized by the London Psychogeographical Association at the Glasgow Anarchist Summer School in 1993. Participants included Richard Essex, Stewart Home and the members of The Workshop for Non-Linear Architecture.
In August 2009 a Three sided football game was played in Alytaus as part of the Art Strike events there. Stewart Home acted as referee.[1]
On 31 October 2009, a three sided football competition was organised in Lyon during the Biennale d'art contemporain de Lyon. The subversive event was a confrontation of the non spectacular sense of the original game with the main title of the Biennale, Le Spectacle du Quoditidien. The manifestation took place in Stade Laurent Gérin, Vénissieux and was organised by Pied La Biche association.[2]
A three sided football game, with each team representing one of the main political parties, was played on 2 May 2010 in Haggerston Park, London in the run-up to the UK General Election. This match was organised by Whitechapel Gallery in conjunction with Philosophy Football FC. The match was won by Philosophy Football FC, representing Labour, who conceded no goals to the Conservatives' 2 and Lib Dems' 3.[3] The team also organised and competed in the first ever three-sided football match to be played in Spain, on 7 May 2011, and discussed by journalist Sid Lowe in the Guardian's football podcast. Lowe's team won 3-5-5.[4][5]
In an event called "Thinking Football", aiming to reflect on the role of football in modern society, the Athletic de Bilbao Foundation organised among other things a three sided football championship taking place from October 2011 to April 2012 with 37 participant teams.[6]
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