"Oh, when the fans go marching in..." Football fan communities, empowerment and citizenship: a comparative case study between Newcastle United and Borussia Mönchengladbach

This study investigates the ways in which football supporters engage in their fan communities. It further establishes the links between these activities, the development of feelings of community and performances of empowerment and citizenship. These links are explored with reference to football fans’ support activities, protest mobilisations and modes of communication. The comparative case study between Newcastle United in England and Borussia Mönchengladbach in Germany gives this research an international perspective. Data were collected in two stages. The first stage used fan-authored online blog posts collected from six blogs. The second stage was conducted via 29 semi-structured interviews with fans of both football clubs. This research found that football fan communities are extremely heterogeneous. This diversity can be challenging as supporters disagree over how to engage in various fan activities. However, these challenges are by no means unique to football fans as they mirror existing issues in society. Furthermore, football fan engagement can indeed be conceptualised as a form of civic participation. Despite their divergent opinions, football fans often engage in meaningful activity with other fans, which can contribute to feelings of community, empowerment and citizenship. With this focus this research develops existing work on football supporters because it looks at patterns of experiences rather than just patterns of consumption among football fans. It further provides an empirical contribution to citizenship research.