ABSTRACT
Football (often known as ‘soccer’ in countries with a more dominant national variant) is the most popular participation and spectator sport in the world. Football contests have been organised, regulated, participated in, observed and followed in a wide range of contexts, adopting varying degrees of significance for those involved (Goldblatt, 2014). It is not only the performances of teams and players that help explain the global importance of the game therefore, but also the significance of its supporters (Rookwood and Chan, 2011). Football has become a sphere of social action in which fan relations and identities are shaped, expressed, and contested. This occurs partly through the meanings attached to football teams, and the associated attitudes and conduct of football supporters.
