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ABSTRACT
Although Asia is an important market for elite European men’s professional football clubs, scholarly attention about transnational supporters from Asia is limited. Based on qualitative interviews and an online survey with Hong Kong-based fans of European clubs, this study shows that the research participants do not regard themselves as less authentic supporters than local fans. However, a hierarchy of fans exists in their imagination since they regard the perceived loyalty to the club and associated practices of local fans should be emulated. While the Hong Kong-based transnational fans may want to become like the local supporters, being beneficiaries of the globalization of the game and the different immediate social networks they are embedded in help explain why they are less critical of the commercialization of the game than the local supporters and their different understandings or feelings of rivalry. The findings can also contribute to debates concerning cultural globalization.
Acknowledgments
This work was supported by the CPCE Research Fund 4.8C.xx.EZ0M. The author thanks Mr Yang Haocheng, Mr Ho Yu Ting and Dr Chan Ka Ming for their research support work or valuable advice.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes
1. Notes.
Millward, The Global Football League, 81.
2. Ferrari, “Traditional and Mediatized Soccer Fanship”; Gong, “Online Discourse of Masculinities”; Gong, “Between Conformity and Transgression”; Gong, “Reading European Football”; Gong, “Virtual Collectivity through Second Screen”; Gong, “Media Reflexivity and Taste”; Lee, “How Do Hong Kong Fans”; Sullivan et al., “Chinese Fans” Engagement with Football.
3. Rowe and Gilmour, “Sport, Media, and Consumption”, 1543.
4. Manzenreiter, “Japanese Football and World Sports”, 309.
5. Manzenreiter and Horne, “Playing the Post-Fordist Game”, 574.
6. Lee, “How Do Hong Kong Fans”, 8; Sullivan et al., “Chinese Fans” Engagement with Football’, 437.
7. Sullivan et al., “Chinese Fans” Engagement with Football’,439.
8. Cleland, A Sociology of Football, 96; Kennedy and Kennedy, Football in Neo-liberal Times, 23; Millward, “A Whole New Ball Game”, 38–41.
9. Cleland et al. Collective Action and Football Fandom; Kennedy and Kennedy, Football in Neo-liberal Times, 117–123; King, The End of the Terraces, Chapter 12; Millward, “Reclaiming the Kop?”, Williams, Walking Alone Together the Liverpool Way’, 432–438.
10. Ludivigsen, “Transnational Fans” Reactions’, 872.
11. Davis, “Football Fandom and Authenticity”, 424–426. Giulianotti, “Supporters, Followers, Fans and Flaneurs”, 33–34; King, The End of the Terraces, Chapter 12; King, The European Ritual, Chapter 10.
12. Sandvoss, A Game of Two Halves, 97–98..
13. Edensor and Millington, “”This is Our City””, 177–186; Evans and Norcliffe. “Local Identities in a Global Game”, 225–228; Keenen, “Celebrating the Local”, 4; Sondaal, “Football’s Grobalization or Globalization”, 495–497.
14. Hognestad, “Transnational passions”, 456.
15. Millward, The Global Football League, 93.
16. Rookwood and Millward, “We All Dream of”, 48.
17. Ludivigsen, “Transnational Fans” Reactions’, 875; Petersen-Wagner, “Cultural Consumption through the”, 964; Rookwood and Millward, “We All Dream of”, 48–49.
18. Martell, The Sociology of Globalization, Chapter 4.
19. Hognestad, “Transnational passions”, 456.
20. Peter-Wagner, “Cultural Consumption through the”, 965; See also Gong, “Between Conformity and Transgression”, 824.
21. Giulianotti and Robertson, Globalization & Football, 45–51.
22. Giulianotti and Robertson, “Glocalization and Sport in Asia”,445.
23. Cleland et al. Online Research Methods, 56.
24. By the end of 2019, less than 35% of Hong Kong’s working population had a degree, and less than 28% earned more than more than HK$30,000 a month. See Census and Statistics Department, Quarterly Report on General Household Survey, 25, 70.
25. In Mandarin Chinese, the term would be pronounced as hege.
26. Braun and Clarke, “Using Thematic Analysis in Psychology”, 80.
27. Ludivigsen, “Transnational Fans” Reactions’, 875; Petersen-Wagner, “Cultural Consumption through the”, 964; Rookwood and Millward, “We All Dream of”, 48–49.
28. Petersen-Wagner, “Cultural Consumption through the”, 960.
29. Hognestad, “Transnational passions”, 456.
30. Sullivan et al., ‘’Chinese Fans’ Engagement with Football’, 439.
31. Nash, “Globalized Football Fandom”, 10–11.
32. Gong, “Between Conformity and Transgression”, 825–826. It seems that Gong was concerned about her interviewees’ understanding of a genuine football fan, not of a fan supporting a particular club.
33. Evans and Norcliffe, “Local Identities in a Global Game”, 228; King, The European Ritual, Chapter 10; Millward, “Reclaiming the Kop?” 638–639; Williams, “Walking Alone Together the Liverpool Way”, 435–436.
34. For a recent example, see Ogden, “Why Premier League Players”.
35. Rookwood and Chan, “The 39th Game”, 906–908.
36. Ludivigsen, “Transnational Fans” Reactions’, 884.
37. Cleland et al. Collective Action and Football Fandom; King, The End of the Terraces, Chapter 12; Kennedy and Kennedy, Football in Neo-Liberal Times, 117–123.
38. Ferrari, “Traditional and Mediatized Soccer Fanship”, 536; Nash, “Globalized Football Fandom”, 14–17; Hognestad, “Transnational passions”, 455.
39. The transnational fans studied by Petersen-Wagner, however, saw learning English as a means to strive for authenticity. See Petersen-Wagner, “Cultural Consumption through the”, 960.
40. Ludivigsen, “Transnational Fans” Reactions’, 884.
41. Nash, “Globalized Football Fandom”, 14–17.
42. Petersen-Wagner, “Cultural Consumption through the”, 958.
43. Keenen, “Celebrating the Local”, 3–4.
44. Millward, The Global Football League, 92.
45. Dmowski, “Geographical Typology of European”, 337.
46. Warner, “You Only Sing When”, 62–63.
47. Nash, “Globalized Football Fandom”, 13–14.
48. Ludivigsen, “Transnational Fans” Reactions’, 882–883.
49. However, most interviewees who supported Manchester United would rather that Manchester City, instead of Liverpool, become league champions.
50. Hognestad, “Transnational passions”, 456.
51. Lee, “How do Hong Kong Fans”, 8–10.
52. Giulianotti and Robertson, Globalization & Football, 38–51.
53. Gong, “Between Conformity and Transgression”, 831.
54. Lee, Labour and Class Identities, 8.
55. Bodet et al., “Appetite for or Resistance”, 330; Brooks, Football, Fandom and Consumption, 151.
56. Dixon, Consuming Football in Late Modern Life, Chapter 2.
57. This was reported by Apple Instant News on 20 April 2021, https://hk.appledaily.com/sports/20210420/OOF5XRXHO5A3ZG3WAO2YAZG74Q/.
58. Lee, Labour and Class Identities, 120.
59. Domestic club football in Hong Kong has been in decline for years partly because of the popularity of the EPL in Hong Kong. See Lee, “Decline of Men’s Professional Football in Hong Kong”, 73–74.