FOOTBALL. IT’S A HABIT, MAN

In an era of social media and 24-hour news reels, Luke Richards conducts a roundtable debate into whether the information age is turning ‘legacy fans’ away from the beautiful game.

“It’s terrible.” Mike Dwyer tells me as we discuss modern football.

Much has changed for the 48-year-old Arsenal fan that witnessed Michael Thomas’s last-minute winner at Anfield to win the 1989 Division One title.

“If you wanted to watch your team, you really had to go to the games,” he explains.

“Match of the Day was sporadic and Sky didn’t exist back then. So, to get what they were about you had to go to an actual game.”

“Once you had been a few times, the excitement of sitting in the Clock End or North Bank was massive. It was loads of fun and we had wicked times. I don’t think it’s like that now.”

Surely football fans have similar experiences all over the country, I ask. “I know it’s an old man thing to say,” he responds.

“But I don’t think football fans now have the mad tribal experience that we had. It’s all amplified by social media. It’s been cleansed by sponsorship and money.”

However, research by Oxford University in 2017 found that tribalism is stronger than ever amongst football fans. 

Supporters - regardless of attending games – still spend an enormous amount of time, energy, money, and commitment to their clubs.

This is reflected in the amount of football-related content that they consume. A change that has seen broadcasters develop new ways to appeal to an armchair generation who have been priced out of the match day experience.

The information age has had benefits for these fans. 24-hour news, social media and message groups keeps football fans more engaged and tribal than ever.

“I watch most games,” says Billy Davies, 46, a Spurs fan. “I’ve got BT, Sky and Amazon. I will watch every televised game. Even if I’m working, I will put it on the iPad on the desk in my office.”

“I reckon I spend 10-15 hours a week,” he says confidently. “For me that takes up a lot of my time. Especially when you have responsibilities.”

“I’m in Whatsapp groups that I spend a lot of time in,” Billy laughs, “You get sent links to memes on TikTok or Twitter that takes the piss out of the other team.”

For others like Claudio Costello, 46, an Arsenal season ticket holder, social media accompanies his football consumption.

“Saturday or Sunday is a football day for me,” he explains of his matchday ritual. “I meet up with my mates. You have a beer to soak up the atmosphere and talk about the game. Then do the same after.”

“I’m quite big on Twitter, especially during transfer season. Literally, on the train to work and back, so that’s at least another two hours a day.”

Instant access to journalists such as Fabrizio Romano has become a ritual for supporters, so it was interesting to divulge into the negative influences of social media.

“I don’t pay attention to the rubbish on social media because it’s not a reflection of how I think a lot of people in the stadium feel,” Claudio says on the rise of fan channels.

It starts a passionate debate.

Mike tells me, “These accounts hook on to something that makes them money.”

“AFTV gets paid per hit. When Arsenal had a shit game, their hits were a lot higher than when they were winning games. They thrived off the back of Arsenal losing.”

“There’re two different types of fans,” Billy insists. “Those old school diehards who go to the ground and then the online supporters who are vocal and get wound up.”

“They go out there and make their own news,” he expands. “They find people who are a bit outspoken, and video it because it makes good content. It’s pantomime… It’s not a reflection of the people on the terraces.”

They are passionate in their defence of tradition but concede they aren’t the target demographic for Youtubers.

The focus is on a younger generation who have grown tired of conventional football broadcasting and opinion.

It has led to broadcasters such as TalkSport and Sky changing how they cover football. “That is a marketing angle now. It works,” says Billy.

“Simon Jordan says something controversial; their main radio show has 2m live listeners, but that video that gets clipped and put on Twitter or TikTok gets 10m views.”

“It’s pure clickbait! Claudio shouts. “Those presenters are there to wind everybody up!”

“Look, I want to listen to sports talk. I want to listen to an actual debate. They manage to turn it into something that winds one set of fans up and then you get another barrage of fans calling up and biting on it.”

It becomes clear that supporters are now under an information bombardment from social media. I ask the roundtable whether this has affected their mood or home life.

“After the game, it doesn’t affect my mood. During the game, definitely,” Billy admits.

“If you put little patches that read my brain activity and my heart rate, there is a definitely a physiological and psychological effect of watching football when your team is doing well and not doing well.”

Claudio acknowledges that he feels worse if Arsenal lose to their rivals because of the grief he gets from colleagues at work.

He also confesses that he is banned from watching Arsenal when he’s at home.

“My misses hates it. I can’t help but act like I’m on the terraces. It used to be a massive issue. So, it’s better for me to be out of the house watching football.”

“It used to bother me a lot more,” Claudio continues. “But now, I can forget about it by the time I get home. It’s probably having kids.”

“When you are 18 or early 20’s it’s different,” Billy emphasises. “When you have children and a mortgage you can’t act like an immature kid anymore.”

The debate later digresses into the Super League and sportswashing. Issues that challenge the traditional values of football and value a new generation of supporter. The administrators of football know that there is more commercial value in the next generation.

Anas Lagharari explains in Apple TV’s ‘Super League: The War for Football:’ “There is so much volitivity in younger generations, 40 percent of them are saying they don’t even watch live sports.”

“Their interest is shifting to other types of content. People globally only follow the best players, the best teams and only play with those teams on the video games. We all need to adapt to the reality of today’s world.”

It is a view that is held by La Liga broadcasters. From next season, coverage will include eye catching graphics and data used by EA Sports in FIFA games.

Drones will be used to go behind the scenes and provide a more immersive experience with the aim of bringing younger audiences to the game.

Roger Brosel, head of programming and content, told Broadcast Sport, “Our goal is to try to extract all those little stories, little things that happened during the game, and offer them to the fans so that it’s not like 90 minutes of continuous action but little stories happening here and there.”

It is undeniable that ‘legacy fans’ and traditional broadcasters are struggling to understand or compete with new media such as YouTube and TikTok where short videos can gain thousands of hits.

As our discussion ends, I ask these ‘legacy fans’ if they could ever give up the club they love?

“It’s the constant in your life,” Claudio explains. “It’s the weekend, it’s going to football with your mates and screaming and shouting, getting it all out and having a good time.”

“You can’t beat the atmosphere of being at a game,” Billy reminisces.

“Getting involved in the singing, at half time having a chat to a stranger you don’t know. There’s that collective togetherness about football. It’s community.”

“It’s a habit man,” says Mike. “I don’t think about it, it just happens. It’s like eating. I can’t imagine not doing football.”

“It annoys the shit out of me and I hate what it’s become in many ways. But I can’t help not being totally absorbed by it.”