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Abstract
The ‘foreign ownerships’ apparent in the English Premier League have received little academic attention, despite being a controversial issue for football fans and commentators. This study examines local Liverpool Football Clubs fans’ perceptions of the clubs’ American ownership and to what extent criticism aimed at the owners are framed in terms of nationality. Hence, data from the ‘Red and White Kop’s’ online message board (found at www.redandwhitekop.com) were collected. This is an interactive message board used primarily by Liverpool fans. The purposively sampled data, consisting of 3,322 fan comments was analysed with a frame analyse technique advanced by Erving Goffman. The study’s main argument is that Liverpool fans have become normalized to the global features of football, thus the nationality of the clubs’ owner seems unproblematic, when they assess the club’s ownership; an ownership a significant number of fans have positive perceptions about.
Notes
1. Bi, ‘Integration or Resistance’; Giulianotti and Robertson, Globalization and Football; Millward, The Global Football League .
2. Bi, ‘Integration or resistance’; Millward, The Global Football League.
3. Leveraged buy-outs refer to a method used by some ‘foreign owners’ to acquire clubs with borrowed money. One may see Millward, The Global Fotball League, 41–2, for an introduction to this way of buying the economic rights to EPL clubs.
4. Nauright, and Ramfjord, ‘Who Owns England’s Game’.
5. Williams, ‘Walking Together the Liverpool Way’.
6. Millward, The Global Football League .
7. Millward, The Global Football League; Coombs and Osborne, ‘A Case Study of Aston Villa Football Club’.
8. Giulianotti and Robertson, ‘The Globalization of Football’.
9. Foer, How Football Explains World .
10. David and Millward, ‘Football’s Coming Home?’
11. Giulianotti and Robertson, ‘Recovering the Social’.
12. Petersen-Wagner, ‘Cosmopolitan Fandom’, 19.
13. Giulianotti and Robertson, ‘The Globalization of Football’.
14. Ibid.
15. Grieco, Ikenberry, and Mastanduno, Introduction to International Relations.
16. Castells, The Power of Identity, 72.
17. Appelrouth and Edles, Classical and Contemporary Sociological Theory, 789.
18. Hamel, Lustiger-Thaler, and Oieterse, Globalization and Social Movements.
19. Ibid.
20. Millward, The Global Football League.
21. Giulianotti and Robertson, Globalization and Football.
22. Ibid.
23. Ibid., 5.
24. Millward, The Global Football League, 2.
25. Giulianotti and Robertson, ‘Recovering the Social’.
26. Petersen-Wagner, ‘Cosmopolitan Fandom’, 19.
27. Millward, The Global Football League, 1.
28. Millward, The Global Football League; Bi, ‘Integration or Resistance’.
29. Bi, ‘Integration or Resistance’, 18.
30. King, ‘The Lads’; Chadwick and Hamil, Managing Football.
31. King, ‘The Lads’.
32. Hayton, Millward, and Petersen-Wagner, ‘Chasing a Tiger in a Network Society’, 8.
33. Bi, ‘Integration or Resistance’, 17; Sondaal, ‘Football’s Grobalization or Globalization?’, 489.
34. Millward, The Global Football League.
35. Ibid., 29.
36. King, The End of the Terraces, 18.
37. Bi, ‘Integration or Resistance’, 18; Chadwick and Hamil, Managing Football, 242.
38. Millward, The Global Football League, 23, 26, 29.
39. Rookwood and Chan, ‘The 39th Game’. However, the idea of a 39th game seems to be abandoned now.
40. Chadwick and Hamil, Managing Football, 260.
41. Morrow, The People’s Game?, 43.
42. An example of this is Manchester United’s ability to reform and enhance their a global brand, as studied by David L. Andrews in ‘Situating Manchester United plc’ in Manchester United: A Thematic Study.
43. Deloitte, ‘Revolution Annual Review of Football Finance – Highlights’.
44. Ibid., 37.
45. Ibid.
46. Chadwick and Hamil, Managing Football, 248.
47. Jones and Cook, ‘The Spillover Effect’, 188.
48. Bi, ‘Integration or Resistance’.
49. Chadwick and Hamil, Managing Football, 26.
50. Nauright and Ramfjord, ‘Who Owns England’s Game’.
51. Millward, The Global Football League; Jones and Cook, ‘The Spillover Effect’.
52. Bi, ‘Integration or Resistance’, 18.
53. See Milward, The Global Football League; Millward, ‘Reclaiming the Kop?’; Williams, ‘Walking Together the Liverpool Way’.
54. Millward, The Global Football League.
55. Chadwick and Hamil, Managing Football, 26.
56. Millward, The Global Football League.
57. Ibid., 48.
58. Houlihan, Sport and Society; Jarvie, Sport, Culture and Society.
59. Millward, The Global Football League.
60. Jones and Cook, ‘The Spillover Effect’, 188.
61. Nauright and Ramfjord, ‘Who Owns England’s Game’, 429.
62. Millward, The Global Football League, 182.
63. Marrow, The People’s Game?, 4.
64. ‘Sky and BT retain Premier League TV rights for record £5.14bn’, The Guardian.
65. Ernst & Young LLP, ‘The Premier League: Economic Impact Analysis’, 12.
66. Ginesta, What is the Next Step?, 69.
67. Premier League Season Review 2014/15, ‘Supporting-Investing Delivering’, 8.
68. Chadwick and Hamil, Managing Football.
69. Millward, The Global Football League, 38.
70. Chadwick and Hamil, Managing Football, 248; Millward, The Global Football League, 51.
71. Millward, The Global Football League.
72. Giulianotti and Robertson, Globalization and Football, 89.
73. Chadwick and Hamil, Managing Football, 26.
74. Ginesta, What is the Next Step?, 69.
75. Millward, ‘New Football Directors’, 406.
76. Millward, The Global Football League.
77. Bi, ‘Integration or Resistance’, 40.
78. Millward, ‘New Football Directors’. Further, one may consult Hayton et al. for a better understanding of how some ‘foreign owners’ deploy various strategies to enhance their clubs’ brands globally.
79. Chadwick and Hamil, Managing Football, 26.
80. Millward, The Global Football League.
81. Bi, ‘Integration or Resistance’.
82. Jones, ‘An Examination of the Motivations’.
83. Bi, ‘Integration or Resistance’, 23.
84. Millward, ‘Reclaiming the Kop?’.
85. Bi, ‘Integration or Resistance’, 33.
86. Ibid.
87. Millward, The Global Football League, 31.
88. Bi, ‘Integration or Resistance’.
89. Coombs and Osborne, ‘A Case Study of Aston Villa Football Club’, 203.
90. Millward, The Global Football League, 40.
91. Nauright and Ramfjord, ‘Who Owns England’s Game’, 437.
92. Ibid., 349.
93. Yakushko, ‘Xenophobia’.
94. Millward, The Global Football League, 44.
95. Coombs and Osborne, ‘A Case Study of Aston Villa Football Club’, 219.
96. Williams and Hopkins, ‘“Over Here”’.
97. See for instance: Cleland, ‘Racism, Football Fans’; Millward, ‘The Rebirth of the Football Fanzine’; Millward, ‘“We’ve All Got the Bug for Euro-Aways”’; Ruddock, ‘Let’s Kick Racism Out of Football’.
98. Millward, ‘The Rebirth of Football Fanzine’, 308.
99. Ibid.
100. Ibid., 38.
101. Gibbons and Dixon, ‘“Surf’s up!”’.
102. Millward, The Global Football League.
103. David and Sutton, Social Research.
104. Ibid., 304.
105. Here, the first thread was created in 2012, whereas the second thread was created in 2015, which enabled the researcher to see changes in fan perceptions over the time period.
106. Cleland, ‘Racism, Football Fans’; Millward, ‘“We’ve All Got the Bug for Euro-Aways”’.
107. Millward, ‘The Rebirth of the Football Fanzine’, 309.
108. Hine, Virtual Ethnography, 118.
109. David and Sutton, Social Research, 313.
110. Millward, ‘The Rebirth of the Football Fanzine’, 307.
111. Millward, ‘True Cosmopolitanism or Notional Acceptance’, 606.
112. So-called ‘off-topic’ posts that did not contribute to the discussion were also analyzed and recorded. However, these were ignored when data was analyzed. This can be justified as a large number of comments on online message boards simply will not address the topic. Overall, 2455 out of 3322 comments were disregarded.
113. Goffman, Frame Analysis.
114. Delanty and Strydom, Philosophies of Social Science.
115. Millward, ‘“We’ve All Got the Bug for Euro-Aways”’.
116. In the 2010/11 season FSG took over at Anfield, Liverpool ended failed to qualify to the Champions League and ended 6th, while the 2011/12 season the team enjoyed some success in the cups, winning the League Cup, but ended on a disappointing 8th place in the EPL.
117. Portelli, ‘The Rich and the Poor’, 82.
118. Chadwick and Hamil, Managing Football.
119. Bi, ‘Integration or Resistance’.
120. Coombs and Osborne, ‘A Case Study of Aston Villa Football Club’, 202.
121. King, The End of the Terraces.
122. ‘Kenny Dalglish Denies Luis Suárez Racism Row Cost Him Liverpool Job’, The Guardian.
123. In the 2013/14 season of the EPL, Liverpool ended 2nd, only 2 points behind league winners Man City, after what must be characterized as a strong season for LFC.
124. Nauright and Ramfjord, ‘Who Owns England’s Game’, 439.
125. Bi, ‘Integration or Resistance’.
126. Millward, The Global Football League, 161.
127. Bi, ‘Integration or Resistance’.
128. Ibid., 40.
129. Millward, The Global Football League, 40.
130. ‘“What Are They Smoking?” Liverpool Owner John W Henry Mocks Arsenal’s Luis Suarez bid’, The Daily Mirror.
131. Bi, ‘Integration or Resistance’.
132. Bi, ‘Integration or Resistance’; Coombs and Osborne, ‘A Case Study of Aston Villa Football Club’; King, The End of the Terraces.
133. King, The End of the Terraces, 166.
134. Millward, The Global Football League, 74.
135. Nauright and Ramfjord, ‘Who Owns England’s Game’.
136. Ibid., 437, 439.
137. Giulianotti and Robertson, ‘The Globalization of Football’.
138. Giulianotti and Robertson, ‘Globalization and Football’, 58, 59.
139. Giulianotti and Robertson, Globalization and Sport.
140. Millward, The Global Football League, 2.
141. Millward, ‘True Cosmopolitanism or Notional Acceptance’, 602.
142. Giulianotti and Robertson, ‘The Globalization of Football’.
143. Bi, ‘Integration or Resistance’; Coombs and Osborne, ‘A Case Study of Aston Villa Football Club’; Millward, The Global Football League.
144. Bi, ‘Integration or Resistance’.
145. Millward, The Global Football League; Chadwick and Hamil, Managing Football.
146. King, The End of the Terraces.
147. Giulianotti and Robertson, ‘The Globalization of Football’.
148. Millward, The Global Football League.
149. Future studies conducted on ‘foreign ownerships’ does not have to be limited to the EPL. These types of ownerships are also apparent in other European Leagues, such as in France, where for instance Paris Saint German is under Qatari ownership.
150. Petersen-Wagner, ‘Cosmopolitan Fandom’.