The implicated supporter: Complicity and resistance in contemporary football fandom

Abstract

Over the last three decades, the commodification of football has progressed beyond a pathological threshold, complicating and compromising relations between fans and their clubs in a myriad of ways. Michael Rothberg's concept of the implicated subject is a useful resource for conceptualizing the changing shapes of fandom under the pressures exerted by the sport's ongoing commodification. A selection of examples illustrate the manifold, diverse ways in which fans are implicated in developments ranging from profiteering to sportswashing.