Football fans and social action.

It’s a pleasure to see the proliferation of Wal Goch style events and cultural happenings taking place this summer. Any celebration of football’s power for positive social change and fan engagement is exciting to see. It got us interested in the relationship between football fans and positive social change. Bear in mind there’s also an entire narrative about football being used to project power and exclude entire communities (Argentina 1978 anyone???). But let’s focus on and celebrate the positive! Football fans have been using the game to promote positive social change since football first embedded itself in the mass consciousness at the dawn of time or at least since the codification of the game in the 19th century.

To name two examples. Clubs like Celtic, for instance, founded in 1887 by Irish immigrants in Glasgow, began as a way to feed poor children. Football was the tool; community aid was the goal. Barça became a vehicle first for maintaining and promoting a distinct Catalan identity during the dictatorship and then as a tool of integration for the waves of migrants who came to the city and affiliated their support to the club. In that sense it really is més que un club.

In the UK in the seventies, when the National Front started recruiting on the terraces, a counter movement started and anti-fascist and anti-racist supporters groups started to proliferate like Kick It Out. They emerged from 1980s grassroots anti-racism movements in response to racist abuse of Black players like Cyrille Regis, Laurie Cunningham, and John Barnes.

Kult Clubs across Europe are defining themselves by their radical/progressive positions on important social issues; St Pauli supporters bringing anti-fascist slogans, and LGBTQ+ symbols to their games and organising at street level against racism.

Football fans ARE the community and they are often on the frontline of social change. Foodbanks, poverty, race, identity and gender are all issues we’ve tackled through the Wal Goch Festival and seen how football communities are at the forefront of social change. British clubs’ supporters groups are at the vanguard of organising against poverty and food deprivation in their communities.

Fans can sometimes get a bad press but in the week of the tragedy in Liverpool, it’s worth remembering about how much football can bring people together and about fans contribution to positive social change.