This paper explores the background, fan culture and scope of the oppositional stance taken by many Manchester United fans to the corporate takeover of their club by the US‐based Glazer family. The paper will situate the takeover battle within a number of trends within United’s fandom, namely: the reassertion of locality among United’s Mancunian fan base; the formations of fan groups at Manchester United;[1 [1] Nash, 2001; Brown, ‘United We Stand: Some problems with fan democracy’. ] the nature of fan communities. The paper will explore the failure of highly politicized and radicalized fan organizations to stop the takeover and the destruction of community that this entailed. It will conclude by exploring the formation of a new, fan‐owned football club – FC United of Manchester, established by disaffected and disillusioned Manchester United fans – and begin to situate this within different theoretical approaches to ‘community’.
No takes yet. Share an insight, caveat, or question.
Adam Brown (2007) studied this question.
Synapse has enriched 2 closely related papers on similar clinical questions. Consider them for comparative context: