“By following European football, you get the idea of what Europe is”. This quote from one of our qualitative expert interviews illustrates the simple, but powerful effect football fandom can have on European citizens, and how fans experience, learn about, and connect to Europe through football. It encapsulates how football and its fandom are woven into the political, cultural, and social fabric of Europe, and hints at the impact a seemingly apolitical phenomenon like football can have in Europe in times of multiple, intersecting crises. In this book, we investigate the link between football and Europe, and how the sport and its fandom can contribute to constructions of identity, community, and social cohesion across the continent. It is an in-depth account of our three-year project “Football as the basis for social cohesion in Europe” (FANZinE), funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research from July 2021 to July 2024. Through a mixed-methods strategy combining qualitative and quantitative approaches, we analyse the contribution of football fandom to strengthening identification with and social cohesion in Germany, Norway, Poland, and Spain. We construct a comprehensive theoretical foundation, show robust and novel results that illustrate the football effect on European identity constructions and social cohesion, and develop recommendations for action targeting various stakeholders in football governance.