Social inclusion through football fandom: opportunities for learning-disabled people

Abstract

In Britain, within the contemporary drive of using sport to tackle the isolation of socially excluded groups, association football (football) fandom has been implicated in many policy documents as a possible site for learning-disabled people to become more socially included. However, whilst there is some evidence of the benefits of playing football for learning-disabled people, there is little evidence to support these claims. Drawing on empirical data, this paper aims to provide a critical analysis of the opportunities to tackle social exclusion that football fandom provides to learning-disabled people. Evidence suggests that whilst football fandom offers social benefits to learning-disabled people – including a sense of belonging and a shared social identity – that go some way towards tackling their social exclusion, football fandom is unlikely to result in the ‘social inclusion’ characterized by the government.