ABSTRACT
This chapter presents the main principles of a Marxist political economy of capitalist industry is outlined in order to set up a comparison with the football industry. The nature of football clubs as quasi-capitalist becomes even more readily understandable when we consider fan power and how this aligns with an enduring moral economy that offers system forms of resistance to any moves to secure the commodity form of the football industry. The unstable commodity structure of the football industry blurs the boundaries between ownership and control, as well as the aims and objectives of the industry, exposing the internal relations of economy and culture that provide fertile ground for the politicisation of football supporters. The aim of this chapter has been to offer a Marxist political economy of the football industry that rejects the view that working-class involvement in the game can be understood and reckoned on within the universal imperatives and requirements of the capitalist economy of football.
