Fandom in Europeanised Football
摘要
This chapter first deals with the identity-forming nature of football fandom as one of the largest forms of collective behaviour in contemporary society (Sect. 3.1). The everyday activities of millions of fans across Europe bring people from different backgrounds together to jointly engage with football on a regular basis, offering the potential to develop shared allegiance beyond certain clubs or countries. We then present our understanding of Europeanisation, elaborating on the main developments concerning the Europeanisation of football since the 1990s. Given that the institutions, structures, and processes of football have been significantly Europeanised, exposure to Europe as the new normal is ubiquitous for fans (Sect. 3.2). Hence, the final part of the chapter explicitly discusses the potential implications of the Europeanisation of football for fandom (Sect. 3.3).