A war between football fans and the government from the perspective of Herbert Blumer’s collective behaviour theory

Abstract

This study uses Herbert Blumer’s theory of collective behaviour and stages of the collective social definition of the problem to analyse print media discourse concerning domestic politics-related fan activity among Polish football fans prior to the Euro 2012 football championships finals. We describe and explain each stage of the escalating conflict, the wave of football fan protests, political reactions, and the measures undertaken to resolve the problem. A qualitative textual content analysis of media discourse was applied to 68 press articles that were published in the first half of 2011 in Przegląd Sportowy, the oldest sport newspaper in Poland. The results lead to the conclusion that all five stages of the process were clear-cut during the analysed period of political tension between the fans and the government, and that Blumer’s concept proves to be a viable means of analysing social problems related to contemporary sport fandom.