Abstract

Utilizing statistics from the 2022 to 2023 soccer season, “Kick It Out” (English soccer’s most influential diversity, equality, and inclusion organization) reported a reduction of 30% in the reporting of homophobic incidents in English soccer stadia. This put an end to a decade of growth in this field and occurred despite a milieu in which reporting “offensive language” is encouraged and enabled through the omnipresence of digital applications. Meanwhile, notwithstanding a 22.6% drop in homophobic mass-chanting), the English Premier League (EPL) and Football Association (FA) have developed a growing alacrity for contesting homophobic language as part of a broader, social cascade of progressive, de rigueur issues. It is a laudable endeavor; however, it has drawn the soccer industry into the “hate crime” domain, with multifarious socio-political issues that are increasingly difficult to navigate. In unison with the English soccer governing bodies, the legal authorities within the United Kingdom (UK) are also robustly pursuing the diffusion of a zero-tolerance, subjective policy that identifies and punishes homophobic behavior in soccer stadia as a “hate crime” (even though the “perceived intent” of this language remains highly contested and ill-defined). This article builds on my existing research and compares 1,825 attitudinal responses from self-identified working-class and middle-class soccer supporters of professional clubs from across England and Wales. It finds that there is a significant, class-based difference of opinion over both what constitutes “banter,” and what should be done about offenses under the hate crime legal framework, indicating a potential social cleavage.