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The Palgrave International Handbook of Football and Politics

Abstract

This chapter explores the relationship between football and politics in the UK, a nation state where, with certain exceptions, the game has rarely been considered overtly political. It contends that politics, broadly defined, has been interconnected with organised football from its very beginnings in the mid-nineteenth century. The chapter examines first of all the emergence of football as a popular expression of local and civic identity and considers how it also helped to shape regional and national identities. It considers the nature, and history, of club rivalries in the UK, suggesting that rivalries have always been about cooperation as well as opposition. The chapter then explores the political dimension of the football spectacle, looking especially at attitudes to supporters, supporter groups and spectator violence over time. It concludes by examining the contemporary globalisation of British football, and the extent to which this has transformed the sociocultural place of the game in the UK.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Humanities, De Montfort University, Leicester, UK

    Matthew Taylor

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  1. Matthew Taylor
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Correspondence to Matthew Taylor .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Philosophy and Social Sciences, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Brussels, Belgium

    Jean-Michel De Waele

  2. Centre d’Etude de la Vie Politique (CEVIPOL), Université libre de Bruxelles, Brussels, Belgium

    Suzan Gibril

  3. Centre d’Etude de la Vie Politique (CEVIPOL), Université Libre de Bruxelles, Brussels, Belgium

    Ekaterina Gloriozova

  4. Institute for Health and Sport, Victoria University, Melbourne, Australia

    Ramón Spaaij

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Taylor, M. (2018). United Kingdom. In: De Waele, JM., Gibril, S., Gloriozova, E., Spaaij, R. (eds) The Palgrave International Handbook of Football and Politics. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-78777-0_10

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