Getting Into Europe: Identification, Prejudice and Politics in English Football Culture
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View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by Leeds Beckett Repository GETTING INTO EUROPE: IDENTIFICATION, PREJUDICE AND POLITICS IN ENGLISH FOOTBALL CULTURE PETER MILLWARD CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS viii INTRODUCTION: GETTING INTO EUROPE 1 PART I CHAPTER ONE: EUROPE, EUROPEAN IDENTIFICATIONS AND FOOTBALL 13 INTRODUCTION 13 WHAT IS EUROPE? 14 UNPACKING „IDENTITY‟ 24 SPORT AND EUROPEAN IDENTIFICATION/IDENTIFICATIONS 42 CONCLUSION 57 CHAPTER TWO: METHODOLOGY 59 INTRODUCTION 59 METHODOLOGICAL CHOICES AND RESEARCH DESIGN 59 DATA COLLECTION 76 DATA ANALYSIS 90 CONCLUSION 105 PART II CHAPTER THREE: FOOTBALL AND EUROPEAN IDENTIFICATIONS 106 INTRODUCTION 106 GETTING „INTO‟ EUROPE: DEFINING FOOTBALL‟S EUROPE 107 AFFIRMATIVE PRO-EUROPEAN CLUB COMPETITION FRAME 112 AFFIRMATIVE ANTI-EUROPEAN CLUB COMPETITION FRAME 121 REMEDIAL ANTI-EUROPEAN CLUB COMPETITION FRAME 123 ii EXPERIENCING EUROPE: NARRATIVE AND SILENCE 128 THE DIMENSIONS/FRAME OF NATIONAL IDENTITY 131 AFFIRMATIVE PRO-NATIONAL IDENTITY FRAME 132 AFFIRMATIVE ANTI-NATIONAL IDENTITY FRAME 139 REMEDIAL PRO-NATIONAL IDENTITY FRAME 141 REMEDIAL ANTI-NATIONAL IDENTITY FRAME 143 NATIONAL IDENTIFICATION: OF „US‟ AND „THEM‟ 156 CONCLUSION: WHOSE EUROPE? WHOSE ENGLAND? 166 CHAPTER FOUR: ‘BLOODY FOREIGNERS!’ 172 INTRODUCTION 172 FRAMING XENOPHOBIA 174 „ILLEGITIMATE ETHNO-DIFFERENCE‟ FRAME 179 „ETHNO-PLURALIST‟ FRAME 182 „CONFLICT‟ FRAME 184 „WELFARE CHAUVINIST‟ FRAME 186 „ILLEGITIMATE COMPETITORS‟ FRAME 189 „ECONOMIC DRAIN‟ FRAME 196 LIBERAL FRAME 198 RANKING FRAMES 198 CONVENIENT COSMOPOLITANISM? 202 CONCLUSION: A PREJUDICED NORMALITY? 211 CHAPTER FIVE: EUROPEAN POLITICAL CONSCIOUSNESS 217 INTRODUCTION 217 A POLITICAL CONSCIOUSNESS? 228 AFFIRMATIVE PRO-EUROPEAN INTEGRATION FRAME 230 AFFIRMATIVE ANTI-EUROPEAN INTEGRATION FRAME 238 REMEDIAL PRO-EUROPEAN INTEGRATION FRAME 246 KNOWING THE RULES OF THE EUROPEAN POLITICAL GAME 249 LOCAL DEBATE AND THE BNP 250 iii AFFIRMATIVE PRO-BNP FRAME 252 AFFIRMATIVE ANTI-BNP FRAME 254 REMEDIAL PRO-BNP FRAME 259 VIEWING „EUROPE‟ THROUGH THE LOCAL LENS 263 CONCLUSION 265 PART III CHAPTER SIX: THE SUPER CLUB NETWORK 268 INTRODUCTION 268 THE SUPER CLUB NETWORK 270 THE SUPER CLUB NETWORK-GENERATED IDENTITY 290 TWO DISCOURSES OF EUROPE 298 CONCLUSION 300 CONCLUSION: GETTING INTO EUROPE 303 ORIGINAL CONTRIBUTION OF THE BOOK 310 LIMITATIONS AND FUTURE RESEARCH 311 CONCLUDING REMARKS 315 APPENDICES CHAPTER TWO APPENDIX 317 CHAPTER THREE APPENDIX 320 CHAPTER FOUR APPENDIX 329 CHAPTER FIVE APPENDIX 352 BIBLIOGRAPHY 358 iv LIST OF FIGURES Number Page Figure 2. 01 Dimensions of Identity 317 Table 2. 02 E-zine Random Sample Days 318 Table 2. 03 Total Number of messageboard sample comments, by month 319 Table 2. 04 Mean number of messageboard sample comments per day, by month 319 Table 3. 01 Final league position aims 320 Table 3. 02 Coding of European Club Competitions 320 Table 3. 03 Master 'European club competition' frames 321 Table 3. 04 How European Club Competition is framed 323 Table 3. 05 Codes of National Identity 323 Table 3. 06 Master national identification frames 324 Table 3. 07 How national identification is framed 326 Table 3. 08 Coding of Club versus County disputes 327 Table 3. 09 Coding: do clubs represent their country in European club competition 328 Table 4. 01 Liverpool and Oldham Athletic supporters attitudes toward Ron Atkinson's remark about Marcel Desailly 329 Comment 1: Illustrative comments of racism frames (Table 4.01) 330 Chart 4.01 Temporal distributions of Liverpool supporter player criticisms. 331 Chart 4.02 Temporal distributions of Oldham Athletic supporter player criticisms. 332 Table 4. 02 How Liverpool and Oldham Athletic fans adversarial frame football players: Illegitimate Ethno-Difference 334 Table 4. 03 How Liverpool and Oldham Athletic fans remedially frame football players: Illegitimate Ethno-Difference 335 Table 4. 04 How Liverpool and Oldham Athletic fans adversarial frame football players: Ethno- Pluralism 336 v Table 4. 05 How Liverpool and Oldham Athletic fans remedially frame football players: Ethno Pluralism 337 Table 4. 06 How Liverpool and Oldham Athletic fans adversarial frame football players: Conflict 338 Table 4. 07 How Liverpool and Oldham Athletic fans remedially frame football players: Conflict 339 Table 4. 08 How Liverpool and Oldham Athletic fans adversarial frame football players: Welfare Chauvinism 340 Table 4. 09 How Liverpool and Oldham Athletic fans remedially frame football players: Welfare- Chauvinism 341 Table 4. 10 How Liverpool and Oldham Athletic fans adversarial frame football players: Illegitimate competitors 342 Table 4. 11 How Liverpool and Oldham Athletic fans remedially frame football players: Illegitimate Competitors 343 Table 4. 12: How Liverpool and Oldham Athletic fans adversarial frame football players: Economic drain 344 Table 4. 13 How Liverpool and Oldham Athletic fans remedially frame football players: Economic Drain 345 Table 4. 14 How Liverpool and Oldham Athletic fans adversarial frame football players: Liberal 346 Table 4. 15 How Liverpool and Oldham Athletic fans remedially frame football players: Liberal 347 Table 4. 16 Oldham Athletic fans framing of 'us' (y), by ‘the number of counter criticisms each player group received, as a percentage of all counter criticisms’ rank 348 Table 4. 17 Liverpool fans framing of 'us' (y), by ‘the number of counter criticisms each player group received, as a percentage of all counter criticisms’ rank 348 Table 4. 18 Oldham Athletic fans framing of 'them' (x), by ‘the number of criticisms each player group received, as a percentage of all criticisms’ rank 349 Table 4. 19 Liverpool fans framing of 'them' (x), by ‘the number of criticisms each player group received, as a percentage of all criticisms’ rank 349 vi Table 4. 20 Oldham Athletic fans framing of 'us' (y), by ‘the number of counter criticisms players in each group were likely to receive over the sample period’ rank 350 Table 4. 21 Liverpool fans framing of 'us' (y), by ‘the number of counter criticisms players in each group were likely to receive over the sample period’ rank 350 Table 4. 22 Oldham Athletic fans framing of 'them' (x), by ‘the number of criticisms players in each group were likely to receive over the sample period’ rank 351 Table 4. 23 Liverpool fans framing of 'them' (x), by ‘the number of criticisms players in each group were likely to receive over the sample period’ rank 351 Table 5. 01 Supporters Coded Attitudes Toward European Integration and war on Iraq 352 Table 5. 02 How Supporters Frame European Integration 352 Table 5. 03 Supporter 'Pro European' Affirmative Frames 353 Table 5. 04 Supporters 'Anti-European' Affirmative Frames 353 Table 5. 05 Supporters ‘Pro-European’ Remedial Frames 354 Table 5. 06 Supporters Coded Views on UK Political Parties 355 Table 5. 07 How Supporters Frame The British National Party 356 Table 5. 08 Supporter 'Pro BNP' Affirmative Frames 356 Table 5. 09 Supporters 'Anti-BNP' Affirmative Frames 356 Table 5. 10 Supporters ‘Pro-BNP’ Remedial Frames 357 vii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I hate acknowledgements. Not because I‟m an ungrateful so-and-so who doesn‟t like to say „thanks‟ (well, maybe I am) but because I don‟t know how to say it and I‟m fearful of leaving someone really important out. So I‟ll be entirely upfront and say that if anyone thinks that I owe them a debt of gratitude (and there are many), I‟d like to say „thanks‟ at this point. Now that I‟ve had my grumble, I will move on to thanking individuals. First, I would very much like to thank all of my colleagues in the School of Sociology and Social Policy at Liverpool University (past and present). Of these, I would like to make a special note of appreciation to: Matthew David, Lynn Hancock, Clare Horton, Paul Jones, Palash Kamruzzaman, Sonia McEwan, Steve Miles, James Milton, Tim Owen, Jason Powell, David Pritchard and Ken Roberts for both their advice and continued friendship. I would also like to express gratitude to staff in the Department of Sociological Studies at Sheffield University for teaching me a different approach to sociology during my time there as an MA student. From this group, I would like to especially thank Maurice Roche, who encouraged me to believe that understanding Europeanisation from a sporting perspective was a legitimate form of knowledge. However, I would like to pay the greatest debt of academic recognition to my former PhD supervisors, Gerard Delanty and Roger Levermore, who have been fantastically engaging and supportive. Gerard has been a true source of inspiration in the field of academia and has constantly pushed me to my intellectual limits while Roger has been continually insightful in his supervision and is unbelievably encouraging. I really couldn‟t have written this book without either supervisor. Away from work, I would very much like to express gratitude my family and close friends (they know who they are). However, my biggest „thank you‟ goes to three people, Mum, Dad and my girlfriend Anna. All three have been absolutely exceptional – true towers of strength – and I dedicate this book to them. viii ABBREVIATIONS BNP. British National Party EC. European Community ECSC. European Coal and Steel Community EEC. European Economic Community EEIG. European Economic Interest Group EP. European Parliament EU. European Union FA. (National) Football Association FIFA. Fédération Internationale de Football Association IMO. „In my opinion‟ (popular e-zine shorthand discourse). NF. National Front UEFA. Union of European Football Associations UKIP. United Kingdom Independence Party ix Introduction : Getting into Europe This book is an investigation into the identifications and stories told by football supporters about some ill-defined entity called „Europe‟. The title is inspired by the often heard phrase that successful English football teams are aiming to „get into Europe‟, when they are actually seeking qualification to UEFA club competition. The core interest is therefore to consider whether the experiences of football fandom (and the ways in which these are recounted) may be developing identifications with Europe and whether this may legitimate the EU or assist in reducing intra-European xenophobia.