The changing face of fandom: the case of Israeli football supporters

ABSTRACT

The article seeks to document the changing patterns in football fandom over the past three decades, since the advent of the so-called era of globalisation, using the case study of Israel. It shows how, in line with global trends, Israeli fans moved from passive following of sport clubs identified with political parties to becoming active supporters with growing involvement in the clubs’ management. The article also traces the shift from party politics to patterns of nationalism and ethnocentrism amongst sport fans. Finally, it shows how Israelis moved from fandom of local clubs to that of foreign clubs, mirroring a similar trend in other countries.

KEYWORDS:

• Football
• fandom
• Israel
• glocalization
• globalisation sport
• fans
• football clubs

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. UEFA, strategy document, 2019.

2. Ben-Porat, Oh Beitar Jerusalem, p. 128.

3. Giulianotti, The Globalisation of Football, 550.

4. Ben-Porat, The Political Economy of Football, 49, 52.

5. Guttman, Sports Spectators.

6. Dunning, The Development of Football as a World Game, 90.

7. Colles, Football as a Surrogate Religion, 68.

8. Real, Deep fan, 331.

9. Wann, Sport fans.

10. See note 2 above 2, 128.

11. Guttman, Sports Spectators.

Dunning, The Development of Football.

12. Giulianotti, Sport Mega Events, 3301.

13. Bennett, Sports Sponsorship, 302.

14. http://fasfe.org/images/docs/SDEurope-Full-Report.pdf.

15. Porat, Football Fandom, 289.

16. Aisch, World Cup opinions in 19 Countries.

17. Samuel-Azran, Germany’s Victory on Brazil was like the Blitzkrieg.

18. Ibid., Jewish-Israeli Attitudes towards the Iranian Football Team, 263.

19. Giulianotti and R. Robertson, Forms of Glocalization, 134.

20. Kerr, Foreign fandom and the Liverpool FC, 889.

21. Bornstein, Now it’s official.

22. Daskal, Maccabi, Barcelona.

23. Ynet Sport, Barcelona is the Most Talked about Team in Israel.

24. Ibid., The Most Loved Team amongst Arab-Israelis: Real Madrid.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Yair Galily

Yair Galily Ph.D is behavioural scientist and founder & head of the Sport, Media and Society (SMS) Research Lab at the Sammy Ofer School of Communications, Interdisciplinary Center (IDC) Herzliya.

Tal Samuel-Azran

Tal Samuel-Azran is the head of the International Program at the Sammy Ofer School of Communications, Interdisciplinary Center (IDC), Herzliya, Israel.