Paper short abstract

This Paper draws on ethnographic fieldwork to look at the politics of contemporary protests among English football fans.

Paper long abstract

This paper draws on 15 months ethnographic fieldwork amongst fans of FC United of Manchester (hereon FC United), a supporter owned football club formed by disaffected Manchester United fans in protest against the leveraged buy-out of Manchester United by the Glazer family in 2005. I suggest that the formation of FC United needs to be understood within a context of rising discontent and politicisation amongst some Manchester United fans over the increased commercialisation and neo-liberalisation of football in general and Manchester United in particular. Within the paper I look at an argument often articulated by prominent figures within FC United, that fans of all clubs need to campaign together and set aside inter-club rivalries in order to bring about political change in the way the sport is governed and supporter ownership at all clubs. I argue that the position advocated here can be understood as a form of 'football consciousness', analogous to class consciousness, where supporters recognise their shared position within an iniquitous structure which harms all fans. I analyse moments where this shared political 'consciousness' can be glimpsed amongst supporters of different clubs but also argue that the uneven outcomes produced by the free-market model of football club ownership militates against broad-based inter-club fan campaigning.