‘Left wing’ supporter movements and the political economy of football

Abstract

The diversity of left wing sentiments among supporter groups raises the issue of whether it is sensible to unify groups under the banner of ‘left wing’. Does unity amount to little more than an elective affinity between supporter groups campaigning against commerce, fascism, sectarianism and consumerism? This study argues that there is a more substantive unity between supporters who might see themselves as ‘left wing’. It is argued that their political aspirations stem from the specificities of the modern football industry. In pursuing this argument, the study challenges Marxist orthodoxy applied to the football industry, which determines that the capitalist relations of production of football subsume the logical of football as practiced by club and fans. The aim here is to show that the commodity structure of the football industry is highly unstable, permeated by cultural practices that are the foundations of spaces of resistance and contestation through which fans exert their presence, their rituals and anti-establishment sentiments on match day. The study then offers some examples of how this revised Marxist political economy of football can offer another context for understanding the contradictory politics of football fan movements, which has been the central topic of this special issue.