ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the significance of English football fandom. It focuses on definitional efforts – and challenges – of the concept of ‘fandom’ before considering important debates about ‘authenticity’ and ‘loyalty’. This chapter also focuses on the nature of fandom during English football’s ‘lowest age’ and how the game was impacted by a range of anti-social behaviours, particularly fan violence and racism – before exploring the ‘reinvention’ of the game and how this impacted fandom. Finally, this chapter focuses on attempts to conceptualise football fandom, particularly Giulianotti’s (2002) taxonomy of spectator identities in football that incorporates ‘supporters’, ‘followers’, ‘fans’ and ‘flâneurs’.
