Interpreting and exploring football fan rivalries: an overview

Benkwitz, Adam; Molnár, Gyõzõ

doi:10.1080/14660970.2012.677224

Cited by 52 publications

(20 citation statements)

References 29 publications

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“…Ten reported that they stay away from heated discussions to avoid conflict, either by ignoring them or “blacklisting” a tag. The main reason for intense discussions are ongoing rivalries between clubs, such as between FC Barcelona and Real Madrid, mirroring discussion patterns found offline, which are “part and parcel” (Benkwitz & Molnar, 2012, p. 481) of football. Malisa (18, India) reported that rivalries are indeed a part of her fandom experience but should not be taken personally: “Real Madrid and Barcelona fans especially take everything to be a personal attack and their fights are long angry essays which are just a headache for the rest of the fandom”.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Footy Girls of Tumblr: How Women Found Their Niche in the Online Football Fandom

Kunert¹

2019

Communication & Sport

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This study examines how female football (soccer) fans use the social media platform Tumblr to interact and talk about their fandom, what purposes Tumblr serves for them, and why they prefer it to other social media platforms. As women are often marginalised in offline and online sports discourse, Tumblr’s football fandom was chosen to investigate how women experience their fandom on a platform with a mostly female and young user population. The results of 14 in-depth qualitative interviews with heavily invested female Tumblr users show that the fandom’s communication culture allows fans to interact in a variety of creative ways that involve the use of a specialist vocabulary. This Tumblr fandom is overwhelmingly female, which makes the interviewees feel that they can talk freely about football. Thus, Tumblr has the potential to serve as a safe space for female fans. Yet, its highly opinionated discussions and rivalries mirror those in the traditional football fandom. This study contributes to the literature that explores how women express their sports fandom online and demonstrates how they have found a niche in which to discuss their favourite sport on their own terms.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Footy Girls of Tumblr: How Women Found Their Niche in the Online Football Fandom

Kunert¹

2019

Communication & Sport

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“…Second, club rivalry also played a significant role in the frequency of these chants. Matches involving rival clubs, according to Bentwitz and Molnar (2012: 483), ‘reinforce competition, bias and prejudice […] [and] foster socially divisive attitudes which increase the possibility of social conflict and lead to hostility’. Because ‘local pride’ is at stake in these matches, ‘derby day’ is one of the anticipated matches of the football season (Pearson, 2012).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Because ‘local pride’ is at stake in these matches, ‘derby day’ is one of the anticipated matches of the football season (Pearson, 2012). Bentwitz and Molnar (2012: 483) argue that football fan rivalries have typically been overlooked in academic research, and call for further understanding of how ‘a rivalry is acted-out’. Accordingly, the current research shows that local derby matches facilitate a more toxic environment, culminating in the increased production of homosexually themed chanting.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

‘To Try and Gain an Advantage for My Team’: Homophobic and Homosexually Themed Chanting among English Football Fans

Magrath

2017

Sociology

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Association football (soccer) fans are becoming increasingly liberal in their attitudes towards homosexuality. However, the continued presence of homosexually themed chanting – normally interpreted as evidence of homophobia by footballing authorities – has received little academic attention. Through 30 semi-structured interviews with 30 male football fans of various English football clubs, this article uses McCormack’s model of homosexually themed language to investigate the prevalence, triggers and interpretation of this chanting. It highlights that, despite unanimous acceptance of homosexuality, all but five participants engaged in homosexually themed chanting. This was predominantly facilitated by the nature of sporting competition and matches involving rival clubs. Alongside a variety of perceived weaknesses, fans interpreted these chants as a way of attempting to benefit one’s team. Accordingly, this research highlights a discursive gap between fans’ inclusive attitudes and their practice of chanting homosexually themed language inside football stadia.

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“…This work presents a novel evaluation of the “beautiful game” (Waalkes, 2017) through the lens of community‐owned clubs, the principle, and values of SE and the impact of socialization. The paper identifies several key areas in which the clubs have impacted on children's perceptions, attitudes, and behaviors that help indicates how these clubs have evolved from projects that were established to mitigate for the widespread “recent bourgeoisification of football” (Benkwitz & Molnar, 2012, p. 481) into evolved environments that facilitate change in football ideology. The data indicates the propagation and benefits of new “rules, habits or heuristics and communicating them to other members” (Johnsen, 2017, p. 393), and these new elements are discussed below.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

From social activism to active socialization: The evolution of football ideology in community‐owned football clubs

Thomas

2020

Strategic Change

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Community‐owned clubs are profound socializing agents that offer children a prosocial environment that disarticulates some of football's most pernicious ideologies in favor of an environment that is developmental, empowering, and self‐affirming while facilitating self‐determination. The work highlights the evolution of community‐owned clubs from activist enclaves to virtuous, imperative environments that influence and transfer community‐bound knowledge. Children in the study articulated that the ethos found at these clubs has enhanced their self‐esteem and self‐efficacy and has positively changed their perceptions, behavior, and interactions with the vulnerable individuals within their community. In addition, the data reveals a new idealism in terms of football with self‐restraint and nominal consumption of club apparel preferred to traditional materialism.

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Interpreting and exploring football fan rivalries: an overview

Cited by 52 publications

References 29 publications

The Footy Girls of Tumblr: How Women Found Their Niche in the Online Football Fandom

The Footy Girls of Tumblr: How Women Found Their Niche in the Online Football Fandom

‘To Try and Gain an Advantage for My Team’: Homophobic and Homosexually Themed Chanting among English Football Fans

From social activism to active socialization: The evolution of football ideology in community‐owned football clubs

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