Abstract
Below the professional sphere in England lies a ‘non-League’ football scene. Here fandom transcends contemporary conceptions of a football fan and forms a key aspect of individuals regular routines through traditional practices and volunteer activities. This paper explores these routines of non-League football fans, that regularly involve a form of volunteering, and the resulting potential to form a sense of ontological security and self-identity. As elite football continues to experience increased globalisation, placelessness and an influx of neo-liberal developments, non-League football is frequently seen as a site of ‘traditional’ football spectatorship and friction with neoliberal flows, with increased democratic fan engagement, less commerciality and greater spectator freedom. I argue that this suggests a broader conceptualisation of English football fandom is required to wholly account for those that turn from the professional game. Evidently there remains a longing amongst some football supporters to maintain ‘forgotten’ aspects of football fandom with the potential for this to increase sentiments of authenticity and traditionality that is linked to the development of self-identity and ontological security. Inspired by an ongoing doctoral thesis, this paper draws upon qualitative data derived from 19 semi-structured interviews with non-League football supporters and a collection of autoethnographic vignettes of non-League matchdays to explore this. Analysis suggests that fans commonly act to safeguard and reinforce much of these traditional elements through habitually developed routines and volunteer activities. This is driven by a desire for an increased individual ontological security that is indelibly linked to an appeal to traditionality, sociality and familiarity.
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
Sporting Cultures and Identities
KEYWORDS
ROUTINE, VOLUNTEERING, ONTOLOGICAL SECURITY, TRADITIONALITY, NON-LEAGUE FOOTBALL
