New Zealand Journal of Research on Europe Volume 9, Number 1, 2015 (June) THE ARSENALISATION OF SPACE: THE IMAGINED COMMUNITY OF A FOOTBALL CLUB William Sidnam Auckland, New Zealand Email:
[email protected] New Zealand Journal of Research on Europe Volume 9, Number 1, 2015 (June) Abstract This article examines the relationship between the fan community of Arsenal Football Club and time-space distanciation. Since the end of European imperialism, the English football club has been quietly colonising the minds of spectators everywhere, introducing them to cultural forms that had once been unique to England. Now a global phenomenon, the North London club has an estimated 113 million fans worldwide. Using Benedict Anderson’s concept of “imagined community,” I analyse the conditions that have enabled fans from Lagos to Los Angeles, and from Beijing to Bangalore, to identify with a sporting institution based in a country they may have never visited. To explore the paradoxes of this long- distance relationship, this article analyses information about Arsenal that appeared in newspapers, blogs, and social media websites from 2004 to 2014. The study concludes that, with the advent of digital technologies, Arsenal is simultaneously embedded in English culture and accessible to the millions of fans living in the interminable spaces beyond its country’s borders. In an age marked by constant social and technological change, fans find in the football club a universal community capable of contributing to their sense of ontological security. Keywords: imagined community, identity, football fandom, Arsenal, time-space distanciation, mediated experience, liquid society, globalisation 135 New Zealand Journal of Research on Europe Volume 9, Number 1, 2015 (June) Introduction When Suleiman Omondi came home from the pub on 5th May 2009, he tied a rope around his neck and hanged himself.