Institut für Anglistik, Amerikanistik und Keltologie der Universität Bonn Reading the Game Anglo-American Perspectives on Football Fandom in the Age of Premier League Football INAUGURAL -DISSERTATION ZUR ERLANGUNG DER DOKTORWÜRDE DER PHILOSOPHISCHEN FAKULTÄT DER RHEINISCHEN FRIEDRICH -WILHELMS -UNIVERSITÄT ZU BONN VORGELEGT VON DOMINIK WOLF AUS BONN Bonn 2014 Gedruckt mit Genehmigung der Philosophischen Fakultät der Rheinischen Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn Zusammensetzung der Prüfungskommission: Prof. Dr. Dittmar Dahlmann (Vorsitzender) Prof. Dr. Uwe Baumann (Betreuer und Gutachter) Prof. Dr. Marion Gymnich (Gutachterin) Prof. Dr. Claudia Wich-Reif (weiteres prüfungsberechtigtes Mitglied) Tag der mündlichen Prüfung: 3. Juli 2014 III Acknowledgements I would like to thank my supervisor Professor Uwe Baumann not only for his support, but also for providing the opportunity to write about a topic I am genuinely interested in. It was the interest in the topic as well as his encouragement that kept me going when job commitments made it difficult to work on this PhD project. I am equally grateful to Dr Jean Williams from De Montfort University Leicester for enabling me to come to the International Centre for Sports History and Culture (ICSHC). This thesis has benefitted from her critical feedback. Discussions with her as well as other members of the ICSHC, in particular Dr Neil Carter, Professor Jeffrey Hill and Professor Matthew Taylor, have helped to shape the focus of the present study. In this regard I would like to express my gratitude to the DAAD (The German Academic Exchange Service) for providing the financial support to conduct research at ICSHC. I am also indebted to several of my colleagues for commenting on the drafts of this dissertation. In particular I would like to thank Dr Marion Cypionka, PD Dr Michael Fröhlich, Professor Norbert Gabriel, Gerd Glas, Holger Lüpke, Veronica Price, Christian Pruns, Bernd Schürmann and Andreas Steilemann. I would also like to acknowledge my gratitude to my interview partners, namely Charlie Connelly, Joe McGinniss, Lars Leese, Martin Sonneborn and Patrick Wasserziehr for generously donating their time and expertise. In addition, I would like to thank David Wolf and Maria Meinert for their technical support as well as Mary and Mick McNabola for their hospitality over the years. I would not have been able to write this thesis without the support of my wife Lena, whose understanding and patience have been superb over the years. This dissertation is dedicated to my mother Eva Wolf and my godmother Maria Schlagböhmer. IV Contents Part A Conceptual frame 1. Introduction 1 2. Methodological Approach 2 2.1 The aims of the present study against the background of previous research 2 2.2 Preliminary notes on autobiographical writing and its truth claims 9 2.3 Fan writings as travelogues 14 3. Locating research into fan narratives in the wider field of academic studies on football fandom 16 3.1 British football culture, its transformation through the inception of the FA Premier League and the impact on football fans 17 3.2 On the applicability of spectator models and taxonomies for the present study 29 3.3 Presentation of football fandom authenticity scale 34 4. Mapping the Literary Representation of Football in English Literature 39 4.1 Literary representation from the Middle Ages to 1863 39 4.2 Literary representation from 1863 to 1992 47 4.3 Literary representation from 1992 to the present : Hornby and the popular myth of the ‘bourgeoisification‘ of football writing 52 V Part B Literary Analysis 5. Fan biographies 63 5.1 Nick Hornby Fever Pitch 63 5.1.1 Content 63 5.1.2 Narrative Style 63 5.2 Colin Shindler Manchester United Ruined My Life 66 5.2.1 Content 66 5.2.2 Narrative Style 66 5.3 Alan Edge Faith of Our Fathers – Football as a Religion 69 5.3.1 Content 69 5.3.2 Narrative Style 69 5.4 Constructions of football fandom in fan biography 73 5.4.1 Hornby’s generic features of fandom 73 5.4.1.1 The dark side of fandom: From passion to obsession 76 5.4.1.2 The bright side of fandom: Football as therapy 81 5.4.2 Colin Shindler as fan: commonalities and divergences to Hornby 84 5.4.2.1 Commonalities 84 5.4.2.2 Divergences 86 5.4.3 Alan Edge as fan: commonalities and divergences to Hornby 88 5.4.3.1 Commonalities 88 5.4.3.2 Divergences 91 5.5 Fan biographies as mirrors of change in British football culture 93 5.6 Conclusion 98 6. Season Travelogues 101 6.1 Tim Parks A Season with Verona 101 6.1.1 Content 101 6.1.2 Narrative Style 101 6.2 Joe McGinniss The Miracle of Castel di Sangro 104 6.2.1 Content 104 6.2.2 Narrative Style 105 6.3 Chuck Culpepper Bloody Confused! A Clueless American Sportswriter seeks Solace in English Soccer 109 6.3.1 Content 109 6.3.2 Narrative Style 110 VI 6.4 From page to stage: writers as fan celebrities 113 6.5 The outsider perspective: Tracing foreign football cultures 120 6.6 The rocky road to fandom: an alternative type of tourism? 126 6.7 Conclusion 129 7. World Cup Travelogues 132 7.1 Colin Ward Well Frogged Out 132 7.1.1 Content 132 7.1.2 Narrative Style 133 7.2 Simon Moran We are Nippon 136 7.2.1 Content 136 7.2.2 Narrative Style 136 7.3 Jamie Trecker Love & Blood 140 7.3.1 Content 140 7.3.2 Narrative Style 140 7.4 Between bridge-building and proxy war: The World Cup and its impact on national identity 143 7.5 The plight of England: The English at the World Cup 148 7.6 The cup of plenty: FIFA’s stewarding of the World Cup 161 7.7 Conclusion 166 8. Footupias 169 8.1 Charlie Connelly Stamping Grounds 169 8.1.1 Content 169 8.1.2 Narrative Style 170 8.2 Pete Davies I Lost My Heart To The Belles 173 8.2.1 Content 173 8.2.2 Narrative Style 174 8.3 Paul Watson Up Pohnpei 178 8.3.1 Content 178 8.3.2 Narrative Style 180 8.4 Playing against the odds 185 8.5 Finding football’s lost soul 192 8.6 Conclusion 194 VII 9. Outlook: British fan culture at the crossroads 196 10. Bibliography 200 10.1 Primary Works 200 10.2 Secondary Sources 201 11. Appendices 219 11.1 Email interview with Charlie Connelly 219 11.2 Email interview with Joe McGinniss 222 11.3 Interview with Patrick Wasserziehr – Sky Sports commentator 224 11.4 Interview with Lars Leese – Former goalkeeper of Barnsley FC 234 11.5 Interview with Martin Sonneborn – Originator of German World Cup hoax 244 11.6 Authorised facsimile of bribery fax 248 11.7 European ticket price comparison 249 1 1. Introduction This study is rooted in straightforward fascination by someone who started playing football in his youth and still keeps trying today. Given the personal attachment to the subject, this study is primarily a work of curiosity. Most of us have played numerous games and sports when we were young, but whilst the fascination for most games subsides when we grow older our often childlike passion for football remains. But why? Is it the game’s simplicity? What is it that mesmerizes millions of players and fans around the globe? And does a pastime merit such levels of academic attention? Apparently, it does as Arthur Hopcraft is quick to point out football’s cultural centrality in Britain: The point about football in Britain is that it is not just a sport people take to, like cricket or tennis or running long distances. It is inherent in the people. It is built into the urban psyche, as much common experience to our children as are uncles and school. It is not a phenomenon; it is an everyday matter. There is more eccentricity in deliberately disregarding it than in devoting a life to it. It has more significance in the national character than theatre has. Its sudden withdrawal from the people would bring deeper disconsolation than to deprive them of television. The way we play the game, organize it and reward it reflects the kind of community we are. 1 Assuming that football’s fascination exceeds the essence of the sporting moment, the present paper seeks to trace the game’s cultural impact on individuals and societies. It is concerned with the ceremonial dimension of the game, the meanings people attach to the game‘s periphery – be it the shared communal experience or the sounds and sights of the public spectacle. While the present study seeks to place football’s social importance into a wider global perspective, major attention is given to the country that gave football to the world. 150 years after a small group of Oxbridge graduates codified its rules, thereby enabling the game’s meteoric rise around the world, football is alive and kicking in its homeland. However, many fans argue that the people’s game, at least at the elite end, has changed beyond recognition sparked by the inception of the Premier League and the advent of pay TV. The present paper focuses on this era of structural transformation by exploring the fans‘ literary reactions to a period of radical commercialization examining the effects of what Brian 2 Glanville once coined a “Faustian pact with television.“ 1 Arthur Hopcraft, The Football Man: People and Passions in Soccer , London 1968, 9. 2 Brian Glanville, Football Memories , London 1999, 268. 2 2. Methodological approach 2.1 The aims of the present study against the background of previous research In contrast to the United States where the literary representations of sport have long been subject to intensive research by a multidisciplinary community of scholars guided by the Sport Literature Association, research on the ground has been scarce in British and German academia.