Football commons and the radical expansion of self-managed clubs: the case of ‘Riksi’

The emergence of self-managed soccer clubs has drawn the attention of academic research to the ways in which political activism manifests itself in the late modern era. However, there is a research gap surrounding the ways in which fans active in these types of clubs construct meaning, build their strategies, and rally around the slogan ‘Against Modern Football’. Using conceptual approaches through the lens of prefigurative politics, this study investigates the identity formation and practices of fans in a self-organized sports club ‘Riksi’ in crisis-ridden Greece. Based on qualitative methodology and applying a focus group discussion, this study aims to illustrate the emergence and radical spread of a selforganized sports club during the accelerated social period of recent economic crises in Greece. The findings suggest new typologies, with political activism and the revival of classic repertoires of action acting as a social bond between commercialized fan identity and resistance behaviour.