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This book is the first to explore and compare football governance, fandom culture and supporter engagement in Europe. With a specific focus on supporter activism and campaigning, the collection provides a comparative study of several European countries. The authors argue that supporters, despite being the pillar or the 'lifeblood' of their club, see their role in football governance marginalised. The volume is unique in that it challenges the widely accepted assumption that membership football clubs encourage the democratic participation of supporters.
Covering football fandom in both the traditional 'big five' leagues and non-'big five' countries such as Portugal, Turkey, Croatia, Poland and Czech Republic, the volume will be of interest to students and scholars across a range of disciplines, including sociology, history, sport management, sport governance and political science.
List of contents
Introduction; Borja García and Jinming Zheng.- Part I: Football Governance and Supporter Activism in the 'Big Five' European leagues .- 1. The Great Transformation of the English Game: Karl Polanyi and the Double Movement 'Against Modern Football'.- David M. Webber.- 2. 'I love going to watch Norwich': The Experiences of a Transgender Football Fan; Jayne Caudwell.- 3. The Italian Ultras: From Local Divisions to National Co-Operation; Mark Doidge.- 4. Football Supporters' Trusts in Italy: A Horizontal Survey and the Case of Sambenedettese; Osvaldo Croci.- Well Governed? Fan Representation in German Professional Football Clubs; Daniel Ziesche.- 6. C.A. Osasuna: Identity, Ownership and Governance in Spanish Club Football; Jim O'Brien.- Part II: Football Governance and Supporter Activism outside the 'Big Five' European leagues.- 7. Football Club Ownership Model in the Republic of Croatia - A Possible Model for Supporters' Inclusion in Football Governance in South-East Europe?; Sinisa Petrovic, Marko Ivkosic, Petar Ceronja.- 8. Beyond the Pattern: Corruption, Hooligans, and Football Governance in Croatia; Loïc Tregoures.- 9. Benfica TV: Taking Control of the Communication Process; Fernando Borges.- 10. Between Civic Engagement and Politics: A Case Study of Bohemians Prague 1905 Supporters' Trust; Dino Numerato.- 11. From the Bottom to the Premiership: The Significance of Supporters' Movement in the Governance of Football Clubs in Poland; Radoslaw Kossakowski.- 12. Supporter Ownership in Turkish Football; Emir Güney.- Conclusions: The rising importance of supporter activism in European football; Jinming Zheng and Borja García.
About the author
Borja García is Senior Lecturer in Sport Management and Policy at Loughborough University, UK. He is an internationally renowned expert in the study of the European Union sport policy, the governance of football and the political activism of football supporters. He is one of the founders of the Association for the Study of Sport and the European Union. He was one of the leaders of the ground-breaking FREE Project.
Jinming Zheng is Post-Doctoral Research Fellow at the Centre for Global Sport and Recreation Studies, Department of Physical Education, Hong Kong Baptist University and he has published widely on a variety of topics relating to sport.
Summary
Analyses the convergence and differences between fan culture and representation in a variety of European countries
Considers football supporters as something more and other than hooligans or consumers
Presents the most up-to-date empirical research in the nascent phenomenon of supporters’ activism in Europe
Additional text
“The book is structured simply but clearly. The individual contributions are well-written and up-to-date in terms of literature and material. … It is highly stimulating that the book also provides references to approaches of comparative politics that so far have not (or just to a minor extent) been attributed to sport studies.” (Jürgen Mittag,Moving the Social, Vol. 61, 2019)
Report
"The book is structured simply but clearly. The individual contributions are well-written and up-to-date in terms of literature and material. ... It is highly stimulating that the book also provides references to approaches of comparative politics that so far have not (or just to a minor extent) been attributed to sport studies." (Jürgen Mittag, Moving the Social, Vol. 61, 2019)
