What is modern football, and why do fans hate it?
Prior to the appearance of modern football, the stadiums were considered the places of working-class communion, football being at first a sport of the working class. Starting with the emergence of the financialization of the British economy, wealth started to be concentrated in London, producing various changes in the class structure, leading to a powerful fragmentation in the social strata.
FOOTBALL
Recent years had us witnessing multiple fan protests against modern football. Starting from the early 2000s, fans have started to protest against the new ownership of their favorite football clubs. The Wimbledon fans decided in 2002 to start a new club, after the owners' decision to move the club away from south London.
SO, AFC Wimbledon was founded, as a protest against the owners' decision. A similar story happened in Manchester only 3 years later, when the fans have founded United of Manchester as a protest against the new owners of Manchester United, the Glazer family. You can read more about this two stories here.
From the early 2000s until now, the movement against modern football has evolved and the fans have found diverse ways to protest against the way in which football has transformed.
I'm going to start with this article a short series on the story around this movement. This first “episode” aims to describe the concept of modern football and explain why fans hate modern football.
Prior to the appearance of modern football, the stadiums were considered the places of working-class communion, football being at first a sport of the working class. Starting with the emergence of the financialization of the British economy, wealth started to be concentrated in London, producing various changes in the class structure, leading to a powerful fragmentation in the social strata. The fragmentation in society and the decrease in social spending during Margaret Thatcher’s regime led to extreme acts of violence between hooligan firms, which culminated in the tragedy at Hillsborough.
After the tragedy, the Football Association decided to apply the same market principles in football, arguing that football had to become more commercially and market-oriented. One important condition for this to happen was to attract a new type of fan, to replace the old working-class fan from the terraces. The FA argued that it hat to focus more on the middle and upper-middle class, so that the necessary measures had to be taken as soon as possible. Emphasis was put on marketisation, increased consumption, growth in ticket prices match-day experiences and media coverage. Further, new investors were attracted, such as Roman Abramovich, Michael Glazer and later Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan. As a consequence, a Category A ticket for a Arsenal match was £12 in the 96/97 season, £46 in the 06/07 season and £70 in the 23/24 season, a total increase of 483% in the ticket price in the last 27 years. In comparison, the median annual earning for a full-time employer saw a 51%increase between 1999 and 2023, according to Statista.
Recent years had us witnessing multiple fan protests against modern football. Starting from the early 2000s, fans have started to protest against the new ownership of their favorite football clubs. The Wimbledon fans decided in 2002 to start a new club, after the owners' decision to move the club away from south London.
SO, AFC Wimbledon was founded, as a protest against the owners' decision. A similar story happened in Manchester only 3 years later, when the fans have founded United of Manchester as a protest against the new owners of Manchester United, the Glazer family. You can read more about this two stories here.
From the early 2000s until now, the movement against modern football has evolved and the fans have found diverse ways to protest against the way in which football has transformed.
I'm going to start with this article a short series on the story around this movement. This first “episode” aims to describe the concept of modern football and explain why fans hate modern football.
This trend happened all around Europe. In Germany, for example, football changed in a similar way after the Bundesliga was formed in 1963. Over time, smaller local clubs started to disappear, and bigger teams from large cities took over, breaking the bond between clubs and their local communities. By the 1980s, sponsorship deals became crucial, and players' salaries increased, turning football into more of a business. In the 2000s, the money from sponsorships skyrocketed, pushing the game in Germany further into commercialization.
These changes didn’t come from government force, but rather from gradual market changes. Now, many football clubs are owned by wealthy investors and follow business-focused strategies, making them less connected to the fans who originally supported them. While top clubs earn millions, many smaller teams are facing financial difficulties. Football has become a global industry, and fans are now seen as consumers in a highly commercialized environment. Modern stadiums feel more like shopping malls, filled with stores, restaurants, and other money-making attractions.
Football has become a big part of the global entertainment industry, just like movies, TV, and music. Footballers are now seen as celebrities. The media pays billions of euros to leagues for the rights to show their games, and big companies pay huge amounts to put their logos on players' jerseys. Rich investors are also buying more teams, bringing in more money than ever before. As a result, football clubs have turned into "brands" and continue to make more money every year.
All of this resulted in a clash between the "old school" football culture and the modern version of the game.
I’ll explore how this conflict emerged, and developed, and how the football fan's identity has changed in another part of this series.