Football Fandom and European Practices of Social Cohesion: How Football Fandom Shapes and Structures Cross-Border Communication and Travel in Europe

Abstract This paper investigates how football fandom as a highly popular and socially diverse leisure activity contributes to practices of social cohesion within Europe and interacts with underlying socio-demographic and socio-economic inequalities. Behaviours such as cross-border communication and travel across the continent are concrete contributors to social cohesion in the European Union and broader Europe, as they induce inter-cultural and inter-personal contacts and promote exchanges and collaboration between otherwise unconnected European citizens. However, engaging in these interactions is often influenced by socio-demographic and socio-economic factors, since more well-off, more highly educated, more physically able individuals, as well as those more strongly socialised with international exchanges have a higher propensity for cross-border engagement. Football fandom provides a unique setting to explore whether these inequalities can be overcome. This paper addresses two key questions: (1) Does football fandom increase the likelihood of cross-border communication and travel? (2) Does football fandom mitigate socio-demographic and socio-economic inequalities in these practices? Based on Schiefer and van der Noll’s (2017) framework of social cohesion and using representative population data, the study examines the effects of football fandom and socio-demographic and socio-economic factors, as well as their interaction, on cross-border engagement in fans and non-fans. The results indicate that football fandom significantly enhances cross-border communication and travel, supporting the view that fandom can strengthen European social cohesion. However, football fandom partially amplifies underlying disparities regarding age and education status. These mixed results suggest that while football fandom can induce social interactions that strengthen social cohesion across Europe, it does not serve as a strong equaliser of social inequalities in cross-border engagement.