Sports Fans

Consuming Sport offers a detailed consideration of how sport is experienced and engaged with in the everyday lives, social networks and consumer patterns of its followers. It examines the processes of becoming a sport fan, and the social and moral career that supporters follow as their involvement develops over a life-course. The booknbsp;argues that while for many people sport matters, for many more, it does not. Though for some sport is significant in shaping their social and cultural identity, it is often consumed and experienced by others in quite mundane and everyday ways, through the media images that surround us, conversations overheard and in the clothing of people we pass by. As well as developing a new theory of sport fandom the book links this discussion to wider debates on audiences, fan cultures and consumer practices. The text argues that for far too long consideration of sport fans has focused on exceptional forms of support ignoring the myriad of ways in which sport can be experienced and consumed in everyday life.

Contemporary life in the United States would be difficult to understand without examining the pivotal role sports have played in it. Controversies of the Sports World is designed to take readers of all ages into the heart of the tensions and conflicts that arise from the wide-ranging enterprise that now dominates the lives of millions of people. The controversies explored include such issues in sports as recruitment procedures, steroid and other drug use, discrimination against women, discrimination against African Americans, and violence. "References and Resources" sections at the end of each chapter provide readers with annotated cites that will lead them to the sources they need to further explore particular aspects of each topic. The detailed index includes names, places, teams, and concepts which students, teachers, and interested readers can use to explore the controversies that have arisen in this wide-ranging enterprise.

Embracing studies of football fans across Europe, this book tackles questions of power, national and regional identities, and race and racism, highlighting the changing role of fans in the game. Combining new approaches to the study of fan culture with critical assessments of the commercialization of the game, this fascinating book offers a comprehensive and timely examination of the state of European football supporters culture as the game prepares itself for the next millennium.The contributors, all leading figures in sports studies, consider:* whether football remains the peoples game, or if it is now run entirely by and for club owners and directors who have overseen the flotation of clubs on the stock exchange, a new focus on merchandising and the escalation of players salaries* the role of FIFA and UEFA in the struggle for control of world football* manifestations of racism and extreme nationalism in football, from the English medias xenophobic coverage of Euro 96 to the demonisation of Eric Cantona* media representations of national identity in football coverage in Germany, France and Spain * the interplay of national, religious and club identities among fans in England, Scotland, Ireland, Portugal and Scandinavia* the role of the law in regulating football* the future for supporters at a time when watching the match is more likely to mean turning on the television than going to a football ground.