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Cornel Sandvoss 12 maltatoday | WEDNESDAY • 28 APRIL 2021 OPINION Cornel Sandvoss is Professor of Media and Journalism, University of Huddersfield theconversation.com THE plan by 12 football clubs from Spain, Italy and England to form a "European Su- per League" (ESL) collapsed in less than 48 hours in the face of near universal op- position by fans and players. Based on my research on football fans, I want to sug- gest three key considerations helping us to map the future of the game following the ESL's swift demise. 1. Football and commerce are more closely linked than we like to admit Football's most pertinent myth is that of a golden age when football belonged to fans before being corrupted by forces of commercialisation. The power of this myth derives in no small part from fan experiences: the cost of tickets, pay-TV subscriptions and merchandise; chang- ing kickoff times to maximise television revenue; billionaire owners with ques- tionable intentions. More problemati- cally, the myth is also attractive to those who resent the greater role in football fan culture of those previously exclud- ed: women, those who are not white and fans from other countries. Politicians nevertheless embrace this myth. To many on the left, the ESL serves as an illustration of how capital- ism destroys all that is dear to us. The right proclaims football to be part of our national soul and heritage that hence warrants protection and market inter- ference. And that, as a special case, this holds no lessons about what a global plutocratic elite might get up to other- wise. Football and being a fan are however inseparable from the social order that gave rise to both: industrial capitalism. The practice of medieval folk football was a violent free-for-all, marked by an absence of rules and played between vil- lages in open fields. The modern game, formalised in the 1863, reflected a new era. Time was now measured by clocks, touchlines separat- ed those playing from those watching. Soon stands and stadiums followed. Those who did not play had to pay to watch. Media have since dramatically increased access to such forms of spec- tating and so revenue. The failure of the ESL does therefore not represent a victory of fans over com- merce, or of culture over capitalism. It is the very existence of fans that cements football's commercial nature. Instead, what is at stake is the question of how capitalism is governed. As sharp as the contrast between laissez-faire capitalism and social-democratic wel- fare states, different forms of football governance allow for vastly different ex- periences of the game for fans and spec- tators. 2. Globalisation slowly but steadily changes football In their opposition to the ESL, many fans expressed the worry that national leagues which have been the focus of their fandom for decades will be down- graded or even disappear. Yet, the fail- ure of the ESL tells us more about the pace of globalisation than indicating its reversal. With the deregulation of broadcast markets and the rise of digital media, football's horizons have been trans- formed, gradually shifting from the national to international frames. In the early 1990s, national newspapers at most afforded a few lines in the re- sults section to footballing competitions elsewhere. Today detailed coverage of football from around the world fuels a diversifying football media landscape in- cluding pay-tv providers, streaming ser- vices, paywalled digital print magazines and podcasts. For those whose fandom originates in this changing football landscape, the im- portance of matches between, say, Real Madrid and Manchester City – full of famous players from across the globe – will only grow. But this is generational shift, not one that will save clubs from the imminent financial doom that Ma- drid president Florentino Pérez warned of. 3. Many football executives have a surprisingly poor understanding of what being a fan involves As journalist Simon Kuper reminded us, the performance standards required on the field are rarely matched by foot- ball executives. The failure of ESL own- ers and executives to command a basic understanding of those at the heart of their revenue model, fans, is staggering. From replica shirts to match day at- tendance, being a fan is a way of signal- ling what is important to us, of perform- ing who we are. As other aspects of our lives that de- fine us – employment, romantic part- nerships, nationality – have become less stable and more flexible, being a fan serves as a fixed point. When fans talk about their favourite club, they're also talking about themselves and what is important to them. Their club matters so much to fans because it also defines and signals who they are. Success and a style of play that fans embrace are both important in the way they imagine their clubs - and by ex- tension themselves. Clubs that fail to replicate past successes lose fans. More importantly though, clubs need to allow fans to recognise their values in their clubs. Commonly, clubs achieve this by not doing very much at all – fans readily bring these beliefs to their reading of the team they support. However, if fandom functions as a mir- ror that matters because fans see them- selves in the clubs they support, the ESL proposal amounted to taking away the frame that holds the mirror in place. Fans' emotional investment in clubs is premised on these feeling true. No one builds their sense of self on something they perceive as inauthentic. A proposal that suggested bypassing competition-based qualification for a privileged few ran counter to fans' fun- damental sense of who they are and of the purpose of the sport they support. As one Chelsea fan concluded: "My only issue with it really is the fact that teams don't need to qualify." Forces of commercialisation and glo- balisation will continue to shape foot- ball, while the failure of many inside the sport to understand why football mat- ters to fans means we won't have to wait long for the next ill-judged proposal. Three things the European Super League fiasco tells us about the future of football