In several European countries, a new football fan type has emerged in recent years—the post-consumer fan. These fans break with commercialized football by founding their own clubs in order to incorporate their vision of football. This vision is antagonistic to commercialized “modern football”. However, the newly founded clubs compete in the existing commercialized structures and need to generate financial capital. To date, little is known about how clubs deal with these contradictory goals. Based on a 27 month long ethnographic participant observation and ten semi-structured interviews, this article investigates how the members of the German club HFC Falke negotiated sponsoring and players’ wages. It highlights how the clubs implement alternative practices in order to remain close to their values while being competitive. As a result, they emphasize the democratic process, and implement normative guidelines. Some of the strategies are known from previous research on other clubs but during our research we also detected new strategies. The club and its members experiment with new practices, such as transparent payment based on effort and sponsoring used for the fans’ benefit (e.g., subsidies of beer prices on matchdays). Through these normative guidelines and practices, the clubs strive to establish a more sustainable football in commodified structures. The discussions in the club and its practices might also inspire debates on the future of professional football.

During the last decade, football fans in Germany and Ukraine have become increasingly active in the struggle for their interests. This article compares their respective activism based on reasons, tactics and spaces of activism over a span of eight years. The comparison shows that national politics are a dominant motive for Ukrainian fan activism, especially after the so-called Revolution of Dignity (Euromaidan) in 2014, including the Russian invasion. Politics is so important that activism is politically framed in this context even if non-political players like club management or the football association are addressed. In Germany, football’s governance is the major reason for fan activism, as fans strive to preserve or extend their influence on clubs’ and associations’ decisions. This difference emphasises the influence of national settings on fan activism. Concerning space and tactics, the samples show similarities, as in both countries ultras are the dominant type of fan group, an intersection of global ultra culture and activism tactics exists and activism mainly takes place in football stadiums. Therefore, fan activism can be understood as a globally connected movement that is nonetheless highly determined by the respective local context.

Purpose: Fans who invest time, money and passion in their relationship with fan objects are essential for the future of soccer. Despite this significance, there has been an increasing number of recent media reports on declining loyalty, increasing alienation or even the exit of soccer fans. The existing state of research on the subject is incomplete and characterized by contradictions. Against this background, this study examines the relationship between German soccer fans and their favorite clubs, with a particular focus on potential exits. Design/methodology/approach: This study is based on a qualitative-explorative research design. Three focus group discussions were held with five experts each. The results were evaluated using thematic analysis. Findings: Although the experts did not identify any far-reaching exit in fan behavior, there are various signs of increasing emotional estrangement between fans and clubs. This estrangement precedes an exit in a procedural structure and is driven by issues relating to the commercialization, governance and attractiveness of soccer. The dynamics of estrangement are countered by various opportunities for fans’ participation in clubs. In addition, the results emphasize the relevance of personal factors, concerning changes in the private and individual circumstances of individual fans. Originality/value: This is the first article to address potential fan exits in German soccer using focus groups and the involvement of experts.

This is the first book to offer in-depth analysis of the "Against Modern Football" movement through the comparison of two AMF clubs. The movement has emerged in opposition to the rampant commercialisation of football and the lack of supporters’ influence over the governance of the clubs they support. Drawing on long-term ethnographic research, the book examines the foundation, organisation and governance of new clubs set up by supporters as part of the AMF movement. Centred on detailed case studies of two clubs in particular—HFC Falke in Germany, founded in 2014, and Varteks Varaždin in Croatia, founded in 2011—the book explores supporter cultures and identity and considers the social processes at work in the foundation of new football clubs. By examining the unique local and national contexts in which HFC Falke and Varteks Varaždin have emerged, as well the broader international context that encompasses well-known AMF clubs such as FC United of Manchester, the book makes an important contribution to our understanding of supporters, their activism, the significance of football clubs, and social movements more broadly. This book is fascinating reading for anybody with an interest in football, the sociology of sport, sport management, the politics of sport, social movements, subcultures, or ethnography. <!----> <!----> <!----> <!---->

Purpose/rationale: Chinese football governance has dramatically changed during the last decade. Consequently, the organisation of the top-tiered Chinese Super League (CSL) developed from a rigid communist, state-governed model to a commercialised market, though still under governmental influence. Football fans became a key stakeholder group following this organisational change. Therefore, this study examines supporters' attitudes towards the governance of their domestic league. Design/methodology/approach: Active fans of the CSL (N = 453) were surveyed via clustered intercept sampling outside the stadium gates at five matches with ten different teams involved to ensure the reliability, validity and variance of responses. The data were analysed by (ordered) logit regressions with respect to attitudes towards the commercialisation of the CSL with nearly fifty explanatory variables. Findings: A key finding is that supporters tend to appreciate commercialisation as evidence of progress of the Chinese professional football. This attitude can be attributed largely to past governance failures of the CSL and the positive connotation of increased market orientation as a counterbalance to governmental control. Regression analyses, however, reveal the emerging characteristics of the Chinese fan culture and provide evidence of contradictions in the attitude patterns as well as a likely increase in fans' resentment of more commercialisation. Research contribution: The empirical insights into Chinese fan culture extend the understanding of the governance and commercialisation of professional football beyond the more researched European markets.

Summary: The paper assesses the perceived influence of commercialization on the relationship quality with clubs and the consumer behavior of German football fans. For a deep and broad understanding, this paper combines two different methodological approaches: The quantitative approach in study 1 (N = 821) focuses on fans’ views on different aspects of commercialization. When differentiating between fan groups, active fans generally display a very critical attitude, which can also be attributed to their relationship and communication with the clubs. Therefore, the qualitative study 2 (27 interviews with club and association representatives as well as fans) focuses on communication of dynamics related to commercialization between football’s major stakeholders. The findings show that both active fans and casual spectators express an understanding for general commercialization but feel that the limit of commercialization has been reached. The fans neither feel that their opinions are considered, nor do they feel sufficiently involved in communication processes on the issue.