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Football fandom: a bounded identification

Amir Ben Porata
a
The Department of Behavioral Sciences, Academic Studies, College of Management, Rishon Le-Zion,
Israel

Online publication date: 06 April 2010

To cite this Article Porat, Amir Ben(2010) 'Football fandom: a bounded identification', Soccer & Society, 11: 3, 277 290
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 Soccer & Society
Vol. 11, No. 3, May 2010, 277290

Football fandom: a bounded identification

Amir Ben Porat*

The Department of Behavioral Sciences, Academic Studies, College of Management, Rishon

Le-Zion, Israel
Soccer
10.1080/14660971003619594
FSAS_A_462468.sgm
1466-0970
Original
Taylor
302010
11
Amir
[email protected]
00000May
BenPorat
and
& Article
Francis
(print)/1743-9590
Francis
Society
2010 (online)

Identity as a concept and as a practice differs from what it was assumed in the past.
The literature pertaining to this concept and its practices is very sceptical: identity
is unstable and undergoing a continuous process of construction and
reconstruction, and the modern-postmodern individual must realize and accept this
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volatile situation. This essay deals with a relatively safer basis for identity: football
fandom. Studies on global football fan behaviour conclude that supporting a
football club is a life-long project that begins at an early age and ends with the life
of the fan. Such studies unequivocally indicate that football fandom is a way of
life. The fans daily and weekly agenda is determined by his relationship with the
football club. Most importantly, football fandom is a significant component of
identity: it is stable and effective. Using the results of a study of Israeli football
fans, this essay suggests that fandom is indeed a critical component in the fans
identity profile. Hence, fans are at least partially safe in a volatile world of
unstable identities.

Introduction: the question of identity

Since the second half of the twentieth century the academic position on identity has
been quite volatile. Scholars from various disciplines have interrogated the concept of
identity, particularly the empirical equivalent of this concept. It is argued that the
socioeconomic and cultural contexts of identity are dissolving and that globalization
uproots capital, people and symbols and transgresses national boundaries, thereby
dissolving the stability of the major bases of collective modern solidarity. Further-
more, this process of dissolution trickles down and inflicts the individual subject who
can no longer rely on a stable anchor of identity for the remainder of his life. It is
argued that the postmodern subject is compelled to repeatedly reconstruct his identity
almost until his last breath.
In his Introduction: Who Needs Identity, Hall, reminiscent of Derrida,
comments: [identity] is such a concept operating under erasure in the interval
between reversal and emergence; an idea which cannot be thought in the old way, but
without which certain key questions cannot be thought at all.1 The quasi-pessimistic
approach that Hall adopts in his essay treats identity as an endless project, one that is
constantly under construction. This concept does not (as in the past) specify a stable
core of the self that is developing to completion, and which endures social and
historical changes. Modern times, laments Hall, brought about a fragmentation of
identity, and at times a split identity, which is embodied in various, even contrasting
practices:

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2010 Taylor & Francis
DOI: 10.1080/14660971003619594
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 278 A. Ben Porat

in some recent work on this topic I use identity to refer to the meeting point, the
point of suture, between the discourser and practices that attempt to interpellate, speak to
us or hail us into place as the social subject of particular discourses on the one hand, and
on the other hand, the process that produces subjectivity, which constructs us as subjects
that can be spoken to. Identities are points of temporary attachment to the subject posi-
tion, which discursive practices construct for us.2

The current cultural identity, elaborates Hall, is formulated by two simultaneous

vectors: one is the vector of the shared, the similar, the stable, unchanging and
continuous frames of reference and meaning.3 The second treats the discontinuity,
the difference, there are also critical points of deep and significant differences that
constitute what we really are We cannot speak about one experience one
identity, without acknowledging its other side the ruptures and discontinuities.4
It appears that the second vector is at present victorious. It also appears that identity
is indeed a fluid, open process that is never completed. In practice, it is in crisis.5
Class, nation and gender do not and could not offer a solid base. In Bourdieus
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phrasing, the subjects habitus are no longer solid and ensured, but fragmentary and
unpredictable.6 Following the debate on identity, it appears that, like the (false)
dictum about the end of ideology, we should consider a future of fragmented,
liquid identity.
Whether this identity crisis is real or just an alleged academic one, and regardless
of ascribed reasons for this crisis, a subject and society could not exist without
identity, regardless of its current theoretical definition, because identity is a practice
a mechanism that relates the subject to its whole self, and simultaneously relates that
same subject to the relevant social and cultural environment, which is primarily
responsible for the formation of the subject as a social entity. The roots of identity are
in the culture, more precisely in the realm of historical opportunities that provides
the options for identity construction. The latter offers certain degrees of freedom that
enable people to choose certain elements as their profile of (social) identity. It is
argued here that football fandom is such an option for many people worldwide.
Moreover, because of its unique characteristics, football fandom offers a stable and
continual element of identity, challenging the end of identity thesis.

Identity subject/society
Any discourse on identity or identification7 touches an age-old, never-ending question
of subject relationships with and/or even versus society; whether identity roots and
development are a psychological or social phenomenon. Apparently, in theory as also
in practice, the threshold between identity as an individual issue and as a social-
cultural issue is predicatively equivocal.8 As Rutherford argues, The rent on our
relation with the exterior world is matched by a disruption in our relation with
ourselves. Our struggle for identity and sense of personal coherence and intelligibility
are centered on the threshold between interior and exterior, between self and others.9
Craibe suggests that experience is the decisive factor that should be considered when
dealing with identity.10 Experience is a key concept regarding the link between iden-
tity as an individual issue and identity as a social-cultural issue. It is experience that
binds them together. Experience often considered most subjective is embedded in
the individual. It refers to the individuals critical and less critical accumulated
encounters, his selected memory stores and thus the modes by which he conceives and
reacts to the social world.11 Experience is in fact what makes him a social entity:
 Soccer & Society 279

experience is derived from, and projected on, the socio-cultural surroundings. Prima-
rily, it is the social that forms the individual and not vice versa.
This essays point of departure is that the emergence of identity, its formation and
transformation involves the social-cultural and the subject, in that order. The social
and the cultural, in fact the multi facets of both, are most effective and critical in the
formation of the individual subjects identity. To borrow Thompsons conception of
class formation, class experience is determined by relations of production within
which the individual is born or socialized; class consciousness is the manner by which
this experience is treated in cultural terms.12 Experience, as already indicated, is a
key concept in constructing the concept of identity and, most critically, its practice.
Therefore, identity is usually a mundane experience with certain social categories
such as ethnic group, class, nation, gender, or allegedly also a more marginal category
such as a football club. This complexity is reflected in Baumans dilemma regarding
his national anthem.13 It is the social-cultural scene that compels the subject (and
Bauman) to place himself on a particular emotional, cognitive and symbolic identity.
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In essence, identity is a multi-faceted practice of selecting options out of available

experiences.
It is conservatively presumed here that neither the subject nor the collective could
exist without identity. Since we are dealing with the normal and not the pathological,
identity is a functional need. Identity maintains the coherence of the subject and the
collective. This motivates both to be proactive. Nevertheless, there is no absolute
conclusion regarding the specific content and components of identity. However, the
following sub-assumptions that portray a frame of reference are worth noting: 1.
Regarding the individual subject, identity is a syndrome, or a profile of his various
accumulated and selected social-cultural experiences; 2. The components of this
syndrome are granted by the external surroundings; 3. A particular component of
identity is generally dominant at a certain time or situation; 4. The composition of
identity and the temporal domination of the particular component are determined by
the realm of opportunities external to the subject. In Webers phrasing it is possible to
suggest that the most seductive component at a certain (historical) period decides the
domination in the identity syndrome as aforementioned; 5. An identity crisis, hence a
subjects inability to manage his identity, reflects a problematic situation, for example
a situation of political ineffectuality.14
In every realm of historical opportunities certain instances or categories contest
and determine a subjects identity profile: politics, ethnicity, class, gender, etc. The
category that is most influential in shaping identity is not always assured a priori.
Certain combinations are possible (e.g. class/ethnicity). Individuals do not choose
their identity out of an endless stock: they choose their present and future identity out
of given options. More often, identity is given and practically imposed upon them by
means of ideological articulation.15 Following Marxs dictum, it is possible to argue
that individuals choose their identity but they do it under the social-historical
conditions that are available to them. Again, the key word is experience.
Through experience, the individual organizes, that is communicates, selects,
absorbs and conserves his relationships or encounters with the world. Experience is
the sum of three different levels that relate the subject to the social-cultural surround-
ings: an emotional level, a cognitive level and a symbolic level. Thus a subjects
identity reflects his feelings, his perception regarding certain components of his
surroundings, and his evaluation of the meaning of identity. In other words, the partic-
ular subject activates these levels: he feels, perceives and interprets, all within the
 280 A. Ben Porat

limits of his social-cultural situation. The above three provide the conceptual frame-
work for the narration of football fandom-identification and its research.

Football fan identity

The relevant literature describes a football fan as one whose devotion to a particular
club dominates his entire way of life.16 Football fandom, meaning a strong affiliation
to a football club, is a permanent component in the fans identity profile. This compo-
nent successfully competes with other components in this profile, and it generally
dominates. This domination is often manifested and challenged: Catalonian fans in
Barcelona, Catholic fans of Glasgow Celtic, Palestinian fans of Bnei Sachnin in Israel.
For certain obvious reasons, football is associated with gender and class. Although
more and more women are playing the game and joining the ranks of fans in the
stadiums, football is still dominated by men. After the First World War, football was
the game of the (male) working classes worldwide, mainly the game of the proletariat.
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Recently, more middle-class people have joined the ranks of the fans (in the stadiums
or as television spectators) but the game remains one of class and gender. Masculinity
and the working class are still prominent components in the fans demographic profile
in the twentieth century.17 Nevertheless, as Giulianotti states, the football fan category
at the turn of the century is diversified.18 The inflow of middle-class fans and the
commercialization of the game have rearranged the mode and intensity of fandom,
from the least committed type the flaneurs and thus the less identified fan, to the
most committed type the involved fan for whom fandom is a total experience.
The traditional most committed fan the subject of this essay behaves as if he
possesses the club and the game, and behaves accordingly: he attends each of his
clubs games and his daily and weekly agenda revolves around the football club. This
includes his relationships with all of his significant reference others: family, friends
and employment. Football is his central life interest,19 and therefore his peripheral
relationships are also influenced by football. He watches sports on TV and the
Internet, and he reads the sports section of the newspaper. The key words of his parole
are borrowed from football jargon. The traditional fan is deeply involved in football.
In other words, fandom of a football club is equated with identification that dominates
the fans identity profile. The traditional fan frequently defines his deep affiliation
(even voluntary enslavement) as an integral element of his personality. When inter-
viewed, he frequently employed the first person plural we; Through the use of a
categorical we, fans articulate their image of themselves, in other words their
projection of the self.20 Utilizing a veteran sociological concept, it could be
suggested that the football club is the fans primary reference other: a critical
element in his identity profile.
Predominantly, it is football fandom that produces identity. This identity is one in
which the subject fan is highly conscious of his tailored position: football fandom is
thus based on the duality of identity and identification/self-reflecting.21 For the
traditional fan, football is a way of life, a habitus in Bourdieus conception.22 But
unlike Bourdieu, the fan is fully aware of the beliefs and attitudes that are born and
bred in the fandom habitus. He is aware of the various levels of fandom (see below).
He is aware of the potential strain inherent in this particular habitus: a potential
conflict between loyalty to the football club and loyalty to certain significant others
such as his family. He is aware that this habitus articulates the personal and the collec-
tive, the we (or the new-tribe) to which he has voluntarily submitted a dominant
 Soccer & Society 281

component of his identity. Football fandom provides a fair example that the personal
is cultural23 or according to the premise of this essay, that culture produces the
personal in a form f identity in terms of three levels: emotional, cognitive and
symbolic.

Fandom as identity: a frame of reference

It is argued here that football fandom produces a fans identity, and that this specific
component of identity tends to dominate the fans identity profile. Borrowing the
concept of experience from other domains,24 it is also argued here that the subjects
identity profile, including the various weights of its components, is produced by the
cumulative experiences that he undergoes in the particular cultural encounters. Based
on the relevant literature that deals with identity, social presentations and fan behav-
iour,25 this essay suggests that fandom as identity is formed by means of three
domains of experience: emotional-affective, cognitive and symbolic. All are articu-
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lated through the fans experience of the game of football as well as relationships/
encounters with non-football experiences.

The emotional-affective experience

For certain conspicuous reasons, the emotional experience of football fandom
seems most critical. A priori fandom of the game of football is an ongoing experi-
ence related to the emotional gains and losses of fandom.26 It is constantly argued
that the emotional-affective experience touches the football fans personality
because it is endowed with therapeutic and cathartic potential.27 However, the
study of fan behaviour convincingly indicates that this emotional experience is not
confined to personality; because football fandom is ascribed with certain emotional
gains such as self and collective image28 and with the (emotional) motivation of
being with similar others people who identify with the particular club,29 the
emotional experience in football works as a mechanism that solidifies the individ-
ual fans into a collective. This level of experience plays an important role in any
kind of collective formation and it plays a critical role in football fandom. Football
fandom is the most effective answer to the constant quest for excitement of indi-
viduals,30 in a collective (that is, social) formation.

The cognitive experience

This domain refers to the fans cognitive map regarding the central/peripheral position
of fandom versus significant others. In practice, the fan evaluates and rates his rela-
tionship with his football club. While the emotional experience is mostly spontaneous
and appears to be out of the fans control, the cognitive experience treats the gains and
losses in terms of costs and benefits. This domain of experience divides the mass of
fans into passive and involved: the former gain the benefits with minimal costs (i.e.,
watching games on television). The latter tend to score the balance. In practice, the
cognitive domain refers to the fans conception of his position in a map that includes
significant and non-significant others. This map is allegedly very simple, having only
two coloured areas: we and they.31 Although they apparently share the same
colour, they are differentiated by their potential impact on the fans practice. In fact,
they are sub-categorized by their effect on his identity as fan.32 In effect, the cognitive
 282 A. Ben Porat

map distinguishes them into different significant others regarding the fans central
interest, which is his football club. Most importantly, the cognitive experience refers
to the strain inherent in fandom: the potential conflict with significant others and its
gains or losses.

The symbolic experience

Directly or by means of an agency, football fandom is related to the symbolic-cultural
context: the particular football club might symbolize ethnicity or nationality and so
forth. That is, football fandom embodies an articulation with symbolic aspect(s) of
social categories or relations.33 For example, fandom of Celtic FA in Glasgow embod-
ies Catholicism. Fandom of Barca FA in Barcelona embodies Catalanism. A Fan of
Bnei Sachnin (an Arab Club) in Israel embodies ethnicity/nationalism. As with the
former two domains, the intensity of the symbolic experience is determined by the
broader context: the prominent social-cultural rift in the context imposed on football
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club fandom.34 The symbolic experience offers the fan an opportunity to evaluate the
meaning of his identity with the football club in comparative and contextual terms. It
assists him in answering the question Who am I?, that is, to substantiate his entire
identity profile.
Relevant studies frequently tend to emphasize the dominance of the emotional-
affective experience in fandom35 and therefore, in identity construction and mainte-
nance. This is due to an apparently very obvious reason: the behaviour of the fan
(more often the traditional fan) is observed, occasionally a priori, as emotional: his
language during the game in and outside the stadium is emotional. His body language
the way he uses his hands, the way he communicates in the stadium projects strong
emotion. The outsider layperson tends to see the fan as if manipulated by his own
emotions. Yet although emotions are most visible, the cognitive and symbolic experi-
ences are also effective and on certain occasions, join the emotional domain or even
overcome this domain. For example, Barcas fans behave emotionally because of the
powerful association between the club and Catalan identity. Or, some fans of a certain
club behave emotionally because of the cognitive and symbolic gains they derive from
that particular club.
Thus fandom as identity of a particular football club is a tripartite conception and
practice. At present we cannot lean on an empirical study in order to deductively
suggest any order of influence or weighting of the above three levels of experiences
regarding the fans identification with the football club. Thus, although it is assumed
that in certain situations one of the above three concepts dominates, they are
henceforth treated as equals. They are used in the following as leading concepts in
comprehending a fans identity with his football club. The combination (but not yet
the integration) of the emotional, cognitive and the symbolic experiences of fandom
offers more insights into fandom as a component of identity and the meaning (or
weight) of the latter in the fans identity profile.
As noted above, the ongoing debate on identity revolves around two questions
concerning formation and stability: does identity form into a stable core with only
peripheral changes, or are both core and peripheral bound to change over time? The
present study deals with a specific component of identity, that of football fandom.
Based on most recent research,36 it is argued here that football fandom is indestructi-
ble: it virtually begins in the cradle and ends in the grave. In other words, it is
permanent; it is bounded.
 Soccer & Society 283

The remainder of this essay treats fandom as identity by referring to traditional

Israeli fans. The following study leans on the implications of experience in practice as
emotional, cognitive and symbolic elements, and argues that the specific combination
of these elements produces fandom as identity: a dominant element in the identity
profile.

The study
One hundred and forty three Israeli football fans were interviewed. They were fans of
five clubs from the Primer League in Israel, which included 12 clubs at the time of the
study: Hapoel Tel Aviv, Maccabi Haifa, Maccabi Netanya, Beitar Jerusalem and Bnei
Sachnin (an Arab Club). A survey of football fans in Israel preceded the selection of
these clubs. The Primer League club fans constitute the major proportion of football
fans in Israel. The five selected clubs represent the diversity of the football clubs in
Israel by political affiliation, ethnicity/nationality, regions, and a few other macro
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characteristics. However, the interviewees do not reflect the diversity of the fans,
because of this studys prominent orientation toward the category of traditional fans,
as narrated by Giulianotti,37 and because the study was interested in interviewing
fans with a history of fandom; young fans under 21 years of age were not included in
the research. In practice, this is a study of the profile and mode of conduct of the
traditional Israeli fan in 2004.
Using a list of club fans, which was provided to the researcher by the clubs fan
associations and then using a snowball technique, 30 fans of each of the above
clubs were interviewed, except for Maccabi Netanya, where only 23 fans were
interviewed. As noted above, the 143 interviewees do not reflect the entire football
fan crowd in the stadiums. It was decided to interview five women of each club,
assuming that women constitute approximately 15% of the fans in the stadiums.
12% of the interviewees were women while approximately 20% of the interviewees
are Arabs. Their representation in this study is overestimated compared to their true
representation in the entire Israeli Primer League fan base. But the major reason
that this study does not reflect the entire fan base in Israel is invested in the
conception and planning of the present study: as noted above, it was decided to
interview only fans over 21 years of age who have been fans of their particular club
for at least five years, and who regularly visit their clubs home games. In effect,
this study deals with adult experienced fans.
The above fans were interviewed at home by means of a questionnaire, which
included questions about visiting the club games, behaviour in the stadium, consum-
ing football in the media, relationships with fans and others, aggression, racism,
emotional aspects, cognitive aspects, symbolic aspects, and so on. The majority of the
questionnaire comprised open questions: the interviewees were asked to answer the
questions in their own words. This method of research is related to a qualitative
approach in the social sciences, and thus prescribes the mode of analysing the raw
material: the written responses of the 143 interviewees.
This essay deals only with specific parts of the above research: fandom as identity.
The interviewed fans defined their identification with their club as very strong. Three
clusters of questions that were marked during the composition of the questionnaire as
referring to three levels of experiencing fandom as identity: emotional, cognitive,
symbolic, were decoded by underlying the repeated-domination (key) issues in each
cluster, and then interpreted as closely as possible to their conceptual assignment above.
 284 A. Ben Porat

The results are then presented by specifying key words and the general tendency that
dominates the cluster of responses. A qualitative method, such as the one used here,
is very close to symptomatic reading: it forces the researcher to read between the lines.

The profile of the fan

The profile of the fan in this study is as follows: male (78%), 30 years of age, possesses
a secondary/post-secondary education, hired employee with an average gross income
of approximately 9,000 shekels per month (approx. $2,000 at the time of interviewing)
above the average Israeli employee income at the time of the study. Politically, the
fan leans either to the left or to the right but does not adopt an extremely radical view,
aside from a minority. He became affiliated with his club approximately at the age of
10 and has been a fan ever since. He consumes a large amount of football. He attends
almost every alternate Saturday game at the home stadium. He occasionally travels to
attend his clubs away games. He watches other Primer League and National League
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(the second division) club games on television. He follows the Champions League
games on television. He reads the sports section in the daily newspaper. He uses the
Internet to stay up-to-date about his club and other football events. In essence, he is a
traditional fan per se: football fandom is his way of life. Literally, football is his life.

I feel, I know, I signify

Fans monologues are offered on emotional-affective, cognitive and symbolic
domains. The fans responses allow certain but quite effective insights regarding
the weight of the club in the fans entire identity. The leading concepts of this essay
are translated into three fan practices: he feels (emotional), he knows (cognitive), he
signifies (symbolic). These were phrased in the form of certain questions that were
posed to the interviewees.

The emotional-affective domain

This domain is examined by means of a few open-ended questions concerning the fans
emotional experience. What are your feelings when your team wins the game?
Happiness and joy are the frequent key words in the fans responses to this question.
A third word is often pride. In one word (I feel) happiness. Great joy. Pride. I feel
that they [the team] fulfilled my wish. I am very happy. Proud, an urge to get up
in the morning. Elation, a lot of joy. I feel pride, joy and excitement. The inter-
viewees add that after a victory they are more willing to meet other people, have a
good time, feel that they belong to something, be optimistic, the victory made my
entire week.
And the opposite: what are your feelings when your team loses? The key word
is lousy. Another key word is failure. Also used but less frequently than the above
are depression and disappointment. I feel lousy going to work and seeing people.
I feel sad. I could be depressed for the whole month. Lousiness. Its very difficult
to describe. The failure ruins my week. I feel depressed all evening long. I dont
read the daily paper the next morning. When they lose, I take it personally. Big
disappointment. Im troubled by the tension after the loss. I live with it but its very
hard. Im frustrated all week long. However, a few express different feelings. A fan
is judged by failures: I feel more identified when the team loses. When the team loses
I feel a greater sense of belonging. Emotion is a double-edged football experience,
 Soccer & Society 285

endured through victories and losses. As anticipated, both situations are strongly tied
to the fans identification with the club. In fact, the opposite is also correct; by defini-
tion traditional fans are defined as such because their identification with the club is
independent of the clubs immediate achievements.
Nevertheless, the fan needs reinforcements. It is not just the game of football that
maintains his long-standing (emotional) identification with the particular club. What
do you gain from your club? The relevant studies refer to the fan-club relationships
as topophila affection toward a particular social place.38 This place, embodied in
the clubs stadium, is in effect a home. The unification of home and football
produces more than pure joy.
One cluster of key words is most conspicuous: pride, happiness, love, all
seem to share a common denominator: excitement. It is anticipated that the tradi-
tional fan refers to his club (or team) in emotional terms. The level of emotion, as
previously noted, is probably the major factor that underlies fan-club relationships. As
noted above, this level carries more gains than just joy of the game itself. Additional
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gains revolve around identification: feelings of identification; a shared feeling of

common victory and failure, and A feeling of identification with something, a
feeling of belonging to an agenda above and beyond football, and an object of
identification an important motive for everything.
An additional question that focuses on the game: What did you gain from that
(football) game? Although the separation between football as a game and football as
a club is academic, it seems that the interviewees are aware of the co-existence of
two entities. The cluster of responses to the possible gains from the game per se is
indicated by certain key words: belonging, outlet and identity, and motivates the
reader to conclude that the game of football is more than just a mere game, that
football is an emotional community concrete and/or virtual. The dominant response
to the above question affirmed the above, albeit temporary, conclusions: the feeling
of a collective, of identification with a common goal, a feeling of identification with
the team and the supporters, a feeling of being part of the collective, I like this
tribalism, participation in a collective experience, a feeling of being in something
that creates participation, a big family.
The emotional domain, as anticipated, has a very strong grip on the football fans
identification with his club. Only a few other similar affiliations to cultural events,
such as pop music, entail so many deep emotions. Most importantly, the fan is aware
of the connection between emotion and identity with the club.

The cognitive domain

The cognitive domain refers to the location of the club in the fans cognitive (real or
imagined) map. Based on information derived from the current study of fans behav-
iour, it is possible to suggest that because the affiliation with the club is a central life
interest, its position on the map affects other relationships. Particularly, almost any of
the fans relations with significant others are influenced (more often, determined) by
his fandom/identification with his club. Most of the time the fans relationships with
significant others are based on a division of labour between the fan and others, such
as family and close friends, backed by the latters de facto recognition of his football
craze. But this may put strain on these relationships, such as a conflict of loyalties to
club versus family or friends. Cognitive as experience means that the strain is engraved
in the fans cognitive map.
 286 A. Ben Porat

This section of the study begins with a narration of the fans map when football is
ultimate. What else is important to you besides football? The first interviewee speaks
more or less for the others; his cognitive map includes family, friends, politics, music
and work. Considering the cluster of responses proffered by the interviewed fans it is
possible to replace music with other cultural events or hobbies (theatre, travelling,
photography, etc.). Family, friends and work in that order, are most important to the
fan, aside from football. This entails a great deal of potential tension. The family, the
most intimate primary group, constitutes a constant threat to the fans identification
with his club: Suppose that you are invited to a family event that coincides with one
of your teams games, what do you do? Every fan is aware of the potential conflict
between primary loyalties, but this conflict is theoretically quite rare. The seasons
games schedule is available to the fans beforehand so unexpected family events
(weddings, Bar or Bat Mitzvahs, birthdays, etc.) are few.39 However, the fan anticipates
a possible conflict of loyalties and he is strategically prepared for the following encoun-
ter: the stage is already set family and friends are aware of his priorities, that he spends
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the seasons weekends at the stadium. Moreover, family, friends and the rest of his
significant others are instructed that football underlies his daily routine. However,
during certain occasions he encounters a conflict of loyalties. Explicitly, this appears
as a conflict over his attention and social commitments. Implicitly, this is primarily a
contest between components of identity for domination over his identity profile.
A conflict situation in which the fan is required to fulfil a family obligation on
account of his club obligations offers three options or operative tactics: one to stick
to the game, two to surrender to the family, three to engineer a pragmatic solution,
essentially a compromise. It is assumed that the selection of an option is dependent on
the importance of the event; in other words its weight and significance for the fan and
his family. Almost all the interviewees have experienced a situation in which family
events clashed with a club game. Approximately half (70) chose the game: This just
happened to me last week. if Im invited Im not going. This happened to me
before. I went to the game. Ill go to the game. This happened to me 20 times before.
Im considered an outcast [by the family]. While reading the fans responses to this
question it was obvious to the reader that they are in an onerous situation: they weigh
the gains and losses of their choice of options. But many of the traditional fans are
ready to pay the price of their decision. The reward is worthy.
A quarter of the interviewees chose the family event. The family event wins. You
cant do anything [refuse]. The fans that chose this option expressed their ambiva-
lence and powerlessness. They feel that they must apologize for their betrayal or at
least, desertion. The remaining fans handled the situation by opting for a pragmatic
solution. It appears that this group of fans chose a tactic that prevented a potential
conflict from escalating, Ill go to the family event but Ill watch the game on televi-
sion in the back room. Or Ill pop into the family event, and then Ill go to the game.
The cognitive dissonance does not evaporate, but it is blunted. The fan feels that while
he has fulfilled his family obligation, his loyalty to the club is not impaired.

The symbolic domain

The football club is a symbol by which the fan signifies and identifies himself to vari-
ous close or distant collectives such as ethnic or class categories. It is worth noting
that in Israel most of the clubs carry their historical name. The state-wide political
sport federations Hapoel (Labour), Maccabi (bourgeoisie) and Beitar (right-wing),
 Soccer & Society 287

were and still are (but with far less effect than before) political symbols.40 At the
beginning of the 1990s most of the clubs in the first division league (later the Primer
League) became privatized: the clubs turned into a kind of business corporation.
Players changed clubs when their contracts expired and a better one was offered.
Management changed its face: new, business-oriented directors replaced the old guard
of public (political) directors. Eventually, like in Europe,41 the club became the focus
of reference. Indeed, when the Israeli fans in this study were asked to decide which of
the following was most important: players, management, coaches and the club itself,
75% chose the club. This result was not surprising; the ongoing transformation of
football in Israel from a game to a commodity turned the club into a central symbol
of identity. A fan could constantly evaluate his status, his position in close and distant
relationship circles and his identity profile by means of the symbolic experience of his
club. The interviewees of this study are doing just this.
If indeed the club is a focal point of symbolic identity, it is reasonable to suggest
that the fans self-image is derived (at least in substantial part) from the football club,
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How do you feel when others identify you as a fan of the club? The key word
repeated by almost all the interviewees is proud. Reading the cluster of responses to
this question enables the reader to conclude that a fans self-image leans on his partic-
ular football club. Im proud of belonging [to the club], Im proud of being identi-
fied as part of something [the club], Im proud of this. Everybody at work knows
that I am a fan of , my car is covered with stickers [of the club], Im proud that
others know that I belong to this club. The symbolic level of the football club seems
most effective in the fans identity profile.
The symbolic experience of identity with the football club is highly instrumental:
it indicates sameness and otherness; it scores and weighs the affiliation with the club
v other football and non-football experiences. In order to estimate the relative
symbolic weight of the particular club, the club was confronted with the Israeli
National Side, which is charged with national symbolism. When the interviewees
were asked to decide, What is more important to you, the Israeli National Side or
your club?, 75% picked the latter. The symbolic experience makes it possible for the
traditional fan to differentiate, to compare himself with others, to be unique, to indi-
cate that football fandom is a critical component of his identity.

Conclusion
Thus, as the above discussion evidently suggests, football fandom is a marker of
identity in practice. The present study refers to the relationships between fans and
their club, and highlights the practice of identity: the fan considers the club his alter
ego. He is constantly engaged in bounding his relations with the club. Relationships
with the club are registered on three domains of experience: the emotional-affective,
the cognitive and the symbolic. The practice of identity is embodied in the fans life
thereby making fandom a way of life and dictating the fans relationships with signif-
icant others. The Israeli fans interviewed in this study encounter a continuous strain.
This strain has two facets: one regarding the relationship with the football club, a
tension inherent in the game contest of football, wins or losses, joy or depression.
Two, his relationships with significant others, which are symptoms of the inner
contest between components of identity. This tension is inherent to his personality as
culture: he is a family member, an employee, a friend, etc. He ascribes a higher, more
critical importance to his football club and to being a fan than to his other social roles.
 288 A. Ben Porat

In fact, this tension reflects the potential internal discord between the components of
his identity. The tension is often an ordeal: his concrete loyalty to the club is tested
and measured. His identity is questioned.
Football fandom, therefore, is indeed a practice of identity. This essay does not
deal with the possibility that football fandom gives vent to other components of
identity such as ethnicity or nationality. The Arab interviewees and also certain
Jewish interviewees in this study clearly describe the bounded correlation between
their club and their ethnic-nationality ascription: a combination that turns certain
football games in Israel into harsh verbal and physical encounters between foot-
balling affiliation and nationality. However, as already suggested, football fandom
is a trio of experiences: emotional-affective, cognitive and symbolic. Accumulated
experience is a series of encounters responsible for ones solidification of identity
profile. Football fandom experiences are transformed into a dominant component of
the traditional fans profile. The fan is aware of the critical position of his identifi-
cation with the club regarding his life. It was self constructed. In an historical
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realm of opportunity where national boundaries are assaulted by globalization, class

boundaries are brutally erased, gender hegemony is challenged, ethnicity is divided
into various selves, and so forth, identity, precisely the maintenance of it, is
becoming problematic. Football is still a solid basis of identity. The football club is
a deep water port; it offers the traditional fan anchorage in the past, present and
anticipated future.

Notes
1. Hall, Introduction, 2.
2. Ibid., 56.
3. Hall, Old and New Identities, 225.
4. Ibid.
5. Bauman, The Individualized Society; Lyotard, The Postmodern Condition.
6. Bourdieu, The Logic of Practice.
7. Brubaker and Cooper, Beyond Identity.
8. Bosma et al., Identity and Development; Vogler, Social Identity.
9. Rutherford, Identity, Community, 24.
10. Craibe, Experiencing Identity.
11. Brewer, Social Identities; Moscovici, Social Influence.
12. Thompson, Making of the English Working Class, 910.
13. Bauman, Identity.
14. Allahar, The Politics.
15. Althusser, Lenin and Philosophy.
16. Ben Porat, Oh, What a Delightful War.
17. Giulianotti, Football; Archetti, Masculinity and Football; Dunning et al., Fighting Fans;
Ben Porat, From a Game to Commodity.
18. Giulianotti, Supporters, Followers.
19. Ben Porat, Oh, What a Delightful War.
20. Sandvoss, A Game of Two Halves, 37.
21. Ibid., 31.
22. Bourdieu, The Logic of Practice.
23. Hills, Fan Culture, 72.
24. Thompson, Making of the English Working Class.
25. Tajfel, Human Groups; Turner et al., Rediscovering the Social Groups; Brewer, The
Social Self; Hills, Fan Culture; Wann et al., Sport Fans.
26. Hills, Fan Culture.
27. Lopes, All Together.
28. Wann et al., Sport Fans; Tajfel, Human Groups.
29. Foldesi, Social and Demographic Characteristics.
 Soccer & Society 289

30. Elias and Dunning, Quest for Excitement.

31. Tajfel, Human Groups; Sandvoss, A Game of Two Halves.
32. Stryker and Serpe, Identity Salience.
33. Brukbaker and Cooper, Beyond Identity.
34. Gruneau, Class, Sport; Finn, Racism, Religion; Archetti, Masculinity and Football.
35. Grossberg, Identity and Cultural Studies; Hills, Fan Culture.
36. Giulianotti, Football; Dunning et al., Fighting Fans; Sandvoss, A Game of Two Halves;
Ben Porat, Oh, What a Delightful War.
37. Giulianotti, Supporters, Followers.
38. Giulianotti, Football, 69.
39. The football league in Israel is conducted on Sabbath (Saturday). Family events such as
weddings are organized for during the week not on the Sabbath. The Moslems Holy Day
is Friday. Hence probability of a conflict of loyalties is indeed very low, but it is a part of
the fans concrete experience.
40. Ben Porat, From a Game to Commodity.
41. King, The European Ritual.
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