Identifying Civic Opportunity Structures Within Professional Football Fan Clubs

Abstract

The current study focuses on identifying civic opportunities embedded in associational involvement in football fan clubs. The context of this research was confined to fan clubs affiliated with two German football teams (i.e. Hamburger SV and FC St. Pauli) located in close proximity yet revealing contrasting cultural traits. The methodology used followed the stages of critical ethnography to explore the dimensions of active engagement in football fan clubs. The results of the study indicate a within-group variation in the civic opportunity structure between the football fan clubs examined. Specifically, the degree to which each member develops social ties and acquires hard skills varies significantly. Such variation is facilitated by two conditions that underpin associational engagement within the fan clubs and identified by this study on a reactive/proactive and simple/complex value structure schema. The findings regarding the within-group variation and the conditions that facilitate such a variation provide an effective platform to assess civic opportunity structures of voluntary associations in sport fandom. While this study presents additional support to regard the within-group variation when assessing civic potential of voluntary associations, practitioners are encouraged to develop promotion and communication strategies to better target core fans that reflect level of engagement and value structure.