Paper Presentation IV:
Past and Future of Football
Friday, April 9, 10.30–12.30
English National Identity and the National Football Team: The Views of Contemporary English Fans
Tom Gibbons
Teesside University, UK
Since the ‘Euro 1996’ football tournament English football fans have increasingly used the English St George Cross rather than the British Union flag in relation to the English national football team. King (2006) suggests that this is linked to a rise in a specifically English national consciousness, which is a response to loss of Empire, advancing European integration and political devolution within contemporary Britain. However, the opinions of English football fans on this topic (which might act to reinforce any actions observed) have not been systematically collected and critically assessed by scholars before now. In the current paper it is argued that such statements can only be evidenced through asking fans themselves about their own interpretations of national identity and how this relates to their fandom practices. As such, online survey data gathered between 2006 and 2009 from different samples of English football fans is drawn upon to suggest that the relationship between English national identity and feeling represented by the national football team is multifaceted. Specifically English articulations of identity were observed in the majority of responses obtained. However, local, regional, British and European layers of identity were sometimes considered to be just as, if not more, important to fans. In addition, results signified a complex relationship between fans’ support for their English club and their support for the English national team, which was often related to the level and success of their club. It is concluded that the ways in which football fans articulate English identity in the twenty-first century can provide some evidence that English national habitus is still undergoing a state of flux (Elias, 1991). The relationship between the recent rise in the use of the St George Cross at English football fixtures and feelings about Englishness amongst fans is not as straightforward as it appears.
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