Football, Fandom and Consumption Modern football is an industry and capitalism is its engine. However, this book argues for a more nuanced understanding of contemporary football culture and the (self-)identity of football fans. Drawing on original ethnographic research conducted with fans at all levels, from international to lower league, the book explores the tensions between fans as consumers and ‘traditional’ football cultures, arguing that modern football fans are able to negotiate the discourses of capitalism and tradition operating upon them to enact their own power and identity within football culture. Featuring case studies of Norwich City, MK Dons and Chelsea fans, this is fascinating reading for anybody with an interest in sport and society or cultural studies. Oliver Brooks is Tutor in the School of Politics, Philosophy, Language and Communication Studies at the University of East Anglia, UK. Critical Research in Football Series Editors: Pete Millward, Liverpool John Moores University, UK Jamie Cleland, University of Southern Australia Dan Parnell, Manchester Metropolitan University, UK Stacey Pope, Durham University, UK Paul Widdop, Leeds Beckett University, UK The Critical Research in Football book series was launched in 2017 to showcase the inter- and multi-disciplinary breadth of debate relating to ‘football.’ The series defines ‘football’ as broader than association football, with research on rugby, Gaelic and gridiron codes also featured. Including monographs, edited collec- tions, short books and textbooks, books in the series are written and/or edited by leading experts in the field, whilst consciously also affording space to emerging voices in the area, and are designed to appeal to students, postgraduate stu- dents and scholars who are interested in the range of disciplines in which critical research in football connects. The series is published in association with the Football Collective, www.footballcollective.org.uk. Available in this series: Fan Activism, Protest and Politics Ultras in Post-Socialist Croatia Andrew Hodges Football, Fandom and Consumption Oliver Brooks Football, Fandom and Consumption Oliver Brooks First published 2019 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN and by Routledge 52 Vanderbilt Avenue, New York, NY 10017 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 2019 Oliver Brooks The right of Oliver Brooks to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. Library of Congress Cataloguing-in-Publication Data Names: Brooks, Oliver (Lecturer) author. Title: Football, fandom and consumption / Oliver Brooks. Description: Abingdon, Oxon, New York NY : Routledge, [2019] | Series: Critical research in football | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: LCCN 2018046359 | ISBN 9780367142650 (hardback) | ISBN 9780429030987 (master ebook) Subjects: LCSH: Soccer–Social aspects–England. | Soccer–Economic aspects–England. | Soccer fans–Psychology–England. | Consumption (Economics)–Social aspects–England. | Capitalism–Social aspects–England. Classification: LCC GV943.9.S64 .B77 2019 | DDC 796.334041–dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018046359 ISBN: 978-0-367-14265-0 (hbk) ISBN: 978-0-429-03098-7 (ebk) Typeset in Goudy by Deanta Global Publishing Services, Chennai, India Mute, Baz and Roo—Thank you for the support. Contents Preface viii 1 Introduction: #YouAreFootball 1 2 The people’s game? 10 3 Changing formation 35 4 Norwich City: ‘The best pies in the league’ 46 5 MK Dons: Fear and loathing in Milton Keynes 71 6 Chelsea: ‘Champions of Europe’ 96 7 ‘IN-GER-LAND’: Ethnography in the pub 122 8 Conclusion: They think it’s all over 149 Appendix A 157 Index 158 Preface This book endeavours to develop a more nuanced understanding of contempo- rary football culture. As such, the research adopts a consumer-oriented cultural studies approach to analyse the ways in which modern ‘consumer’ fans negotiate their position within football culture and the power operating upon them as they do so. Drawing on data from ethnographic research I argue that modern fans engage in processes of complex discursive negotiation, constructing their identi- ties at the juncture of the hegemonic discourses that surround football culture: capitalism and tradition, but also their individual understanding of how they are expected to enact fandom. I argue that modern fans are able to negotiate the discourses of capitalism and tradition operating upon them to enact their own power and identity within foot- ball culture. As such, this book seeks to advance debates about collective identity formation and the scope of representation within contemporary football culture. In doing so, this research contributes to football scholarship’s long tradition of making perceptive social commentaries, drawing on football culture to contrib- ute to wider debates concerning capitalism and collective identity formation. Introduction Introduction Chapter 1 Introduction #YouAreFootball As I exited the tube at Fulham Broadway to conduct my pilot study with Chelsea fans (27 September 2011), employees of Barclays Bank approached me. As the official sponsor of the Premier League, Barclays had just started its ‘#YouAreFootball campaign,’ an initiative started by the bank to ‘thank real football fans’ (Barclays 2011) by giving them the opportunity to win match day tickets and recoup travel expenses. To be in with a chance of winning tickets, I was asked to tell Barclays what football meant to me to ‘help them celebrate the passion of real fans’ (Barclays 2011). Barclays (2011) emphasise the centrality of the fan to football culture as suggested by the branding of their campaign ‘#YouAreFootball,’ a slogan that along with their rationale of engaging with the individual passions of fans, posi- tions fans as active agents within football culture. Taking the Barclays campaign into account, this idea of an active, participatory fandom seems constitutive of Barclays’ (2011) conception of a ‘real football fan,’ yet there is a slight caveat to this. To identify as a ‘real fan,’ and to take part in the competition, participants had to be in possession of a match day ticket. While the campaign would seem to acknowledge the constitutive role of the fan within football culture, it is required that the fan is active in consumption, ‘buying into’ football’s culture of capitalism and supporting its affiliated industries. The bank’s definition of the ‘real football fan’ works with the assumption that fans accept contemporary football’s culture of capitalism, ‘real’ fans acknowledg- ing their position as consumers within the culture. Barclays’ (2011) conception of the ‘real football fan’ looks to naturalise the game’s1 modern capitalism and the relationship of producer and consumer between fan and football club, how- ever the concept of the ‘real football fan’ is shrouded in conflicting discourse within football culture. Indeed, while Barclays (2011) clearly recognise modern football as a developed capitalist industry, there is significant opposition to the game’s modern capitalism and the subsequent consumer fan identities that have developed as a result of this process.