Fan responses to ownership change in the English Premier League: Motivated ignorance, social creativity and social competition at Newcastle United F.C.

Abstract

Over recent years there has been a significant increase in foreign ownership within the English Premier League, with ‘sportswashing’ being identified as a key motive for some new club owners. Whilst the effects of changes of ownership have received considerable focus, especially in terms of their impacts upon the club, less attention has been paid to the status of the owners themselves, how any perceived sportswashing strategy impacts upon fans, and how that impact is managed, especially in terms of the strategies that are used by fans to maintain a sense of identification. This paper focuses on the takeover of one Premier League football club, Newcastle United, and explores fan responses to its high-profile and controversial takeover by the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund (PIF). The paper explores the identity-maintenance strategies used by fans to maintain a positive association with the club using existing frameworks related to social creativity and social competition, as well as through the application of a novel strategy that has yet to be explored within the sport fan literature, that of motivated ignorance. The results demonstrate that whilst social creativity and social competition strategies are evident, motivated ignorance also provides an additional mechanism through which social identities may be protected from identity threat.