Abstract
Based on Raymond Williams’s concept of ‘structures of feeling’, this chapter argues that football writing channels subjective emotion into social feeling. Football fandom is a sensual experience, and it is again and again narrated as nostalgic recollections of said experiences. As the spaces of these experiences have become increasingly regulated, football fans’ discontent is often articulated via smells, tastes or sounds of the football ground. New Football Writing therefore frequently signifies differences between pre- and post-Taylor football by emphasising olfactory or auditory impressions. The first half of this chapter critically discusses Williams’s concept and its merits for analysing football fiction, while the second half applies this concept to the study of how our five senses interact with the football ground.
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Notes
- 1.
A hot and salty beef tea.
- 2.
Chocolate-covered marshmallow biscuits.
- 3.
A white substance used for drawing the lines on the pitch until banned for potentially ill health effects.
- 4.
Smelly skin balm or liniment for injuries.
- 5.
Given that the Pukka company was only founded in 1963, Taylor’s argument may not be historically precise but should be regarded as a general comment on the non-range of food on offer. The symbiosis between football and pies can also be seen in the popular terrace chant “Who ate all the pies?”, sung at slightly overweight players, or the title of Lyons et al.’s collection Power, Corruption and Pies (2006). See also Goldblatt (2015: 50–53) for the significance of stadium pies.
- 6.
FIFA has been repeatedly criticised for its contract with American brewers Anheuser-Busch, which prohibits grounds at World Cup matches to sell another brand of beer than Budweiser’s; only after long discussions did FIFA allow the sale of local beer at public viewing events in 2006. For the 2014 tournament in Brazil the debate became even fiercer: it is against the law to sell alcohol in Brazilian stadiums; FIFA and Anheuser-Busch, however, insisted that these laws should be changed for the duration of the World Cup. The Brazilian government finally complied and temporarily lifted the ban on the sale of alcohol in football stadiums.
- 7.
I am well aware that too many fans trying to enter the stadium close to kick-off has been proposed as one of the reasons for the catastrophe at Hillsborough. The fact that this was an FA Cup match played at a neutral ground may, however, serve as an explanation: as Hillsborough meant ‘home’ to neither fan group (probably even less so to the Liverpool supporters who were allocated the traditional away end at Leppings Lane), fans did not feel the urge to enter the stadium as early as they would at their own home ground. The hour before kick-off is much more crucial for home fans as their topophilia is enhanced by well-known pre-match rituals.
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Piskurek, C. (2018). Football Fan Cultures and Their Structures of Feeling. In: Fictional Representations of English Football and Fan Cultures. Football Research in an Enlarged Europe. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-76762-8_3
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