Insecurities in European Football and Supporter Cultures

Against the backdrop of the recent and renewed political and policy interest in the safety and security in European football contexts, this book examines the ways in which the regulation of insecurities in European football has been advanced by European institutions and organizations, and contested by football supporters, from the 1980s to the present day. This book therefore produces an updated empirical but theoretically informed account of how insecurities in football have been responded to and countered on a European level through expressions of power and counter-power. By drawing on material from interviews, and analyses of international legal texts, policy documents and historical football fanzines, Insecurities in European Football and Supporter Cultures uses European football as a window to understand wider processes of (in)security and the regulation of cultures, social groups and contested spaces. Utilizing perspectives from contemporary sociology and critical security studies, this book produces the argument that, as institutions' risk-focused logics and precautionary principles have been embedded in the attempts to secure European football, it is simultaneously possible to observe a reflexive culture of contestation that has matured across four decades in European football. Insecurities in European Football and Supporter Cultures is an important, fascinating and timely reading for anybody with an interest in the sociology of sport, football, security studies, surveillance, social theory and sport studies.

Jan Andre Lee Ludvigsen is Senior Lecturer in International Relations and politics with Sociology at Liverpool John Moores University, UK. His research focuses on the sociology and politics of sport, particularly security, surveillance, fan networks and sport mega-events. He has authored several books, including Sport Mega-Events, Security and Covid-19 (Routledge, 2022) and edited several special issues. Moreover, his research has been published in globally leading journals, including the British Journal of Sociology, Sociology Compass, Global Networks, Convergence, Current Sociology and the Journal of Consumer Culture.

1 Introduction 2 Football, fandom and supporter cultures PART I 1985-2008 3 Theorizing and historicizing the emergence of regulatory frameworks of security in European football 4 Social movements, surveillance and civil liberties: the British fanzine movement as an exemplar of resistance PART II 2008-2022 5 Unpacking the Saint-Denis Convention: a turning point for fan dialogue and engagement 6 Top-down or bottom-up fan engagement? A sociological exploration of supporter liaison officers 2022-2024 7 Discussion and conclusion