Send message to Author

Paper short abstract

Against Modern Football is a common denominator for various social actors. This paper, on the basis of ethnographic research, analyses the spectrum of actors and discourses through four main notions: subculture, tribe, social movement and affective alliance.

Paper long abstract

Although football became commercialized long before the 1990s, new waves of

commercialization and commodification produced new meanings of “modern football.” For

many, “modern football” has turned supporters into mere consumers, and threatens to move

them away from community, identity, solidarity, and shared governance. Fans have reacted

intensely against the process in which football clubs have become big corporations, and

media capital has created new forms of spectacle. But power is not one-dimensional, and

some struggles have been successful at both micro to macro levels, from self-sustainable

clubs within highly competitive environments to changing legal framework regulating elite

sport. The “Against Modern Football” movement has emerged in opposition to the rampant

commercialization of sport and the lack of fans’ influence over the governance of the clubs

they support.

Based on ethnographic research in Croatia and Germany, and framed by social movement

and youth subculture theories, this paper will analyze the AMF phenomenon through four

sociological notions: subculture, (neo)tribe, social movement, and affective alliance.