The political significance of fan-ownership in tackling working class alienation

In this guest article, Sam Hill, a PhD student at Bristol University, explores working class identity and alienation within British football. He looks at the movement for fan-owned clubs and the opportunities for those clubs to reconnect with their communities. Examples from Germany show how it can be done.

Since the 2016 EU referendum in the UK, there has been an increased awareness of what can be termed working class alienation – the sense that they are left behind, powerless in contemporary society. This article seeks to explore the ways in which football can have a political significance, primarily as a means to ameliorate such alienation.

Working class struggles

The post-Thatcher era has arguably been one of significant trauma for the working class in Britain, which has suffered demographic decline alongside a decline in those old ties, to workplace and, perhaps, to union or party which had once been a focal point for community, a source of pride, especially for those involved in the work of mining, shipbuilding, and manufacturing (Bloodworth, 2018).

This decline has been more than just about losing jobs too. Indeed, one can highlight a particular kind of alienation born out of the decline of worker agency, primarily as a result of the emasculation of the unions, the undermining of community through the diminishing of the working class position as community services close and people drift from one-another, and the degradation of dignity both in that working people are not encouraged to see their lives as valuable vis-à-vis other groups within society, nor are their working conditions often sufficient to live a good life (Sandel, 2020; Cruddas, 2020). With this diagnosis in mind, one therefore moves to discuss one of the potential means by which at least some of these traumas can be addressed: football. 

Why football?

This might seem a curious suggestion, but it is worth considering the shear resonance of football with working-class people. Indeed, for many people, it is more than just a sport.  Whatever is going on in one’s life, football provides an escape – something that they can look forward to, invest their emotions in, and feel part of. One can wear their team’s colours with pride, cheer them on in the terraces, in the pub, or at home alongside friends and family. This can all, at times, appear quite irrational and as a love for something either abstract, ‘the club’, or distant, like the players themselves, but this would be to disregard the wider context. Namely, the relationships and bonds which one forms with others, the warmth of community, and the power that one can derive from committing themselves to something which is, in fact, somewhat abstract.

In this context, the club, but the same might be said for those who adore their nation. Indeed, loyalty, for many football fans, is a sign of strength, and a test of character in sticking by one’s team even when results are not going their way. It brings meaning and structure to one’s life (Jones, 2019).

A door to participation

Despite the corrosive presence of neoliberal capitalism in the game, which has led to significant increases in the price of tickets within the English game, and especially at the Premier League level, fans continue to support their clubs, just as their parents and grandparents had done before them, often keeping alive a sense of familial continuity and a way to connect to one’s heritage (Hess, 2020). 

They might not be able to afford to go and see their club every week, but fans will often do whatever they can to follow and support their team – and are willing to clash with their owners when they take actions which sully its traditions or diminish the club in any way. Such is the motivation that is born from the love of one’s club that we have seen fan’s resurrect clubs, like AFC Wimbledon, as well as lobby against the inclusion of their teams in the European Super League, which forced all the six Premier League teams involved to back out after a severe fan backlash – and looks to have galvanised serious support for reforms to club ownership rules (AFC Wimbledon Foundation; Elliot, 2021). People thus relate to, and care about, their clubs in ways that they might not to anything else. 

This is why one sees the football club as a key association from which community can be re-built, because it encourages participation from the working class, or at least a section of it, that we are unlikely to see in any other context. It resonates with them and is an association that many put a significant amount of faith into – and many care deeply about it. For many, it is so much more than a game. It is the last vestige of a long-gone community, something that demands solidarity, and which inspires a kind of action which it takes to restore a sense of commonality between us. If we can harness the power of football, and its ability to inspire, then we are much more likely to be able to change our society, and to rally working people behind something that they genuinely care about. 

As football is so popular, and so emotive, for many working people, it stands to reason that the democratisation and inclusion of these working people in the running of their clubs would be taken up with significant vigour, likely in ways that other participatory associations would not. Indeed, one need only look to Germany to see how majority ownership by fans, for fans, through supporters’ groups has transformed their game, keeping ticket prices low, limiting the number of executive boxes to make room for ordinary people who want to see their team, maintaining financial liquidity, and a sense of community which is second to none. 

In fact, such is the strength of community in these associations that it has compelled Union Berlin fans to literally re-build their clubs, and their stadiums, brick by brick (BBC, 2019). Fan ownership is then not just effective, but it is also a labour of love, something significant that gives people purpose, belonging, and evokes pride. They have agency in form of a vote, they have the dignity that belonging brings, and they have the community of fans, and the club, that they belong to (Porter, 2019). 

Political activism and community improvement

A sense of ownership in a football club can also empower and invoke further action throughout society. For instance, these clubs often give their fans a voice in politics and a stake in the future of their locality. They do this because football clubs are anchor institutions, meaning that they are tied to a particular place and have, often historically rooted, significance there. By being a member of a club, one therefore becomes part of something significant in their community, with the clout to influence the way that it develops.

Often, clubs provide significant boosts to this community through their work locally, including charity donations, youth programmes, and other phenomena which actively seeks to create a bond between people, club, and area. In Germany, Union Berlin has built accommodation for refugees and campaigned actively for their integration, has provided decent employment to their staff, and has campaigned for local businesses to adopt fair wage practices (Union Berlin, 2021). 

Similarly, FC United of Manchester is rooted in the local community, is democratic in its membership structure, and seeks to help people get work through partnerships with ‘Yes Manchester’, a charity that provides skills-training, counselling, and other work-based services to the unemployed and under-employed (FCUM, 2021).

This is not to mention that some clubs, like FC St Pauli in Germany and Velez Mostar in Bosnia-Herzegovina, also maintain distinct, deliberate, political positions which have been born out of their fan’s histories, struggles, and culture. The football club can, therefore, become a vehicle for communal betterment, as well as a key anchor of identity. This is a view that is echoed by Parnell and Richardson (2017), who suggests that, for many working-class people in-particular, the football club has potential as a key motivator of participation in the local community. 

Conclusion

To this end, one sees football club fan ownership and/or fan-majority voting rights as an appropriate medium through which to challenge alienation, especially when implemented within some of the ‘bigger’ clubs, namely those which have sufficient prestige to be considered as ‘anchors’ of their local areas. These include clubs from the Premier League and Football League, as well as non-league clubs with a historical pedigree/popularity. One sees in fan ownership a way to involve fans in something which is important to them by giving them a share of the power to decide the future of their club, as well as serving as a unifying symbol for community, a motivator and facilitator of action, and through this the necessary impetus to transform their circumstances. 

Of course, one recognises that many of their problems are unlikely to be solved primarily through fan-ownership, and much work must undoubtedly be done through traditional electoral and Parliamentary means, but this article serves to emphasise its political significance and its value in bringing a greater degree of agency, dignity, and a sense of community into the lives of working people.

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