#walkouton77: football fan activism in Premier League

Activity: Talk or presentation typesLecture and oral contribution

Description

This paper provides an analysis and a discussion of a protest over ticket prices among fans of the English football club, Liverpool FC. The protest was organized with the hashtag #walkouton77 and combined social media activity with a massive supporter walkout during a globally televised football match. I explore the #walkouton77 protest from two perspectives: Firstly, how fan-activity transformed a franchised TV football match into a transmedia event. Secondly, how fan activism combines cultural and political dimensions as well as offline and online dimensions. It is suggested that football fan activism holds distinguished fan activism potentials demonstrated by the #walkouton77 movement influencing the LFC owners’ club-as-commodity discourses by promoting a club-as-culture discourse. And it is concluded that football fans – despite existing within a fundamentally commercialized and mediatized sport environment – are able to exert influence as collective cultural critics thereby obtaining a position as co-authors of the club as a cultural institution. The important role of fans as collective critics, mainly based on forms of experience-based expertise, reflects a complex global-local dynamic within modern football.
Period29 Nov 2019
Event titleThe Football Collective Annual Conference
Event typeConference
LocationSheffield, United Kingdom
Degree of RecognitionInternational