‘Our club, our rules’: fan communities at FC United of Manchester

Brown, Adam

doi:10.1080/14660970802008967

Cited by 79 publications

(44 citation statements)

References 6 publications

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“…Similarly, Manchester United supporter groups protested vehemently against the takeover (and compulsory purchase of supporter shares) of their club by the American Glazer. When this failed, a section of supporters formed their own community club, FC United of Manchester (Brown, 2007(Brown, , 2008. The outcome of this story has already been explained in this article.…”

Section: What Counts As Successful Supporter Action?mentioning

confidence: 83%

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Supporters and football governance, from customers to stakeholders: A literature review and agenda for research

García

Welford

2015

Sport Management Review

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Citation: GARCIA, B. and WELFORD, J., 2015. Supporters and football governance, from customers to stakeholders: a literature review and agenda for research. Sport Management Review, 18(4), pp.517-528.Additional Information:• This paper was accepted for publication in the journal Sport Man- AbstractThe commercial and political development of association football (soccer) in Europe has transformed the relationship between the sport and its fans. A growing political discourse has argued that football has lost the connection with its (core and traditional) supporters; a connection that should be regained by allowing them a greater say in the governance of the game as legitimate stakeholders. This article reviews the emerging academic literature on the role of supporters. It suggests that the evidence to support a case in favour of increased supporter involvement in football governance is limited. This group of literature is theoretically and conceptually incongruent and fraught with contradictions. Academic attention thus far is broadly divided into two areas with little overlap between the two: analysis of supporter engagement at the macro (government/policy) level with a top-down focus, and sociological 'bottom-up' case studies of supporter engagement and activism at the micro level (individual clubs/supporter groups). The study of supporters has predominantly focused on them as customers/fans and it needs to articulate a new narrative around this 'governance turn' to consider supporters as stakeholders, hence responding to on going policy developments. By doing so, it will be possible to reconcile the existing disparate bodies of work to gain a greater understanding of the new demands from the supporters and, moreover, the literature will be better placed to have an impact and to contribute to better informed policy-making if public authorities decide to continue their existing political agenda in favour of greater supporter involvement in football governance.

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Section: What Counts As Successful Supporter Action?mentioning

confidence: 83%

“…There have emerged some strong claims of successful supporter action/influence/interaction at the club level (Brown, 2008;Drury, 2006, Lomax, 2000Millward, 2012;Nash, 2000;Watkins, 2000).…”

Section: What Counts As Successful Supporter Action?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Supporters and football governance, from customers to stakeholders: A literature review and agenda for research

García

Welford

2015

Sport Management Review

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“…'the club's management does not depend on us, in the sense that it is in the hands of the shareholders, and it is something we can't control; so, even if the managers are very bad, in the end you realize that for those topics they do not count on us, and, therefore, we can't do anything '. This distancing or lack of interest in the management and governance of the clubs contrasts, however, with British fans' demands for greater influence and internal democracy in their clubs (Brown, 2008;Millward, 2012;Nash, 2000;Watkins, 2000). This difference may be due to the fact that in the United Kingdom the football clubs never granted the fans any status other than that of mere fans, even when they asked them for donations to guarantee their survival (Cleland, 2010).…”

Section: The Clubs' Management and Governancementioning

confidence: 69%

“…Some studies published in recent years have analysed the fans' relationship with the clubs and the degree of participation in their management structures (Hamil, Michie, Oughton & Warby, 2000;Lomax, 2000;Nash, 2000;Watkins, 2000). In the past decade, this line of research has focused more on the difficulties fans have faced in their attempt to influence the club owners' decisions (Brown, 2008;Cleland, 2010), or on the instability of their commitments and actions supporting the clubs (Kennedy & Kennedy, 2010;Millward, 2012). The majority of these studies are case studies about one club, such as Manchester United (Brown & Walsh, 1999;Brown, 2007;Cleland, 2010;Duke, 2002), Liverpool (Millward, 2012), Aston Vila (Coombs & Orborne, 2012), Everton FC (Kennedy & Kennedy, 2010;Kennedy, 2012), Northampton Town (Lomax, 2000) or AFC Bournemouth (Watkins, 2000).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Football clubs ownership and management. The fans perspective. [Propiedad y gestión de los clubes de fútbol. La perspectiva de los aficionados].

Goig

2014

Rev. int. cienc. deporte

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“…This solidarity is created through three main ways: first, through the identification of an outgroup -usually those individuals or the institutions that the movement forms against (Blumer 1951: 206); second, through informal fellowships between members of the movement, facilitated by group 'singing, dancing, picnics, joking, having fun, and informal conversation' (Blumer 1951: 207) and third, ceremonial behavior -particularly large assemblages -in the form of 'mass meetings, rallies, parades, huge demonstrations and commemorative ceremonies' (Blumer 1951: 207). Brown (2008) has focussed upon the meaning of 'community' at F.C. United, which he loosely understands to be the formation of a strong collective supporter identity.…”

Section: Agitationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Football Fandom, Mobilization and Herbert Blumer: A Social Movement Analysis of F.C. United of Manchester

Millward

Poulton

2014

Sociology of Sport Journal

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This article explores the establishment and development of fan-owned association football club, F.C. United of Manchester. It does this by drawing upon extensive ethnographic fieldwork, including interviews, observations and an analysis of multiple texts, such as fanzines, web-based and media reports materials and discusses this using Herbert Blumer's theory of collective behavior. As such, the article addresses two research questions: first, what the empirical case example of F.C. United of Manchester offers to the critical understanding of Blumer's theory and second, what the theory can give to the understanding of twenty-first century protests in popular culture. Therefore this article contributes to contemporary debates on association football fandom, social movements and the theories of Herbert Blumer.

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‘Our club, our rules’: fan communities at FC United of Manchester

Cited by 79 publications

References 6 publications

Supporters and football governance, from customers to stakeholders: A literature review and agenda for research

Supporters and football governance, from customers to stakeholders: A literature review and agenda for research

Football clubs ownership and management. The fans perspective. [Propiedad y gestión de los clubes de fútbol. La perspectiva de los aficionados].

Football Fandom, Mobilization and Herbert Blumer: A Social Movement Analysis of F.C. United of Manchester

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