ABSTRACT

As I exited the tube at Fulham Broadway to conduct my pilot study with Chelsea fans (27 September 2011), employees of Barclays Bank approached me. As the official sponsor of the Premier League, Barclays had just started its ‘#YouAreFootball campaign,’ an initiative started by the bank to ‘thank real football fans’ (Barclays 2011) by giving them the opportunity to win match day tickets and recoup travel expenses. To be in with a chance of winning tickets, I was asked to tell Barclays what football meant to me to ‘help them celebrate the passion of real fans’ (Barclays 2011).