Abstract
ABSTRACT As one of the main stakeholders, active football fans have a strong impact on clubs. The aim of this paper is to show how this impact creates conflicts with other stakeholders and affects club policy. In order to do so, stakeholder theory is used and 27 expert interviews with German representatives of all important stakeholders were conducted. The main fields of conflict identified were: (1) the handling and punishment of pyrotechnics; (2) the possibility of allowing active fans to influence elections; and (3) the overall commercialization. However, some of the conflicts are strongly interlinked and should not be considered separately. As tensions often arise because of conflicts of interest and a lack of dialogue between different stakeholders, it seems important for clubs to act as a mediator and to encourage these stakeholders to engage in dialogue. The joint dialogue should also develop joint long-term solutions for recurring conflict topics.
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