Kicking Politics: How Football Fan Communities Became Arenas for Political Influence

TL;DR

This study explores how UK football fan communities on Twitter became influential spaces for political campaigning and discourse, revealing mechanisms of influence and mobilization within seemingly apolitical online environments.

Contribution

It introduces a novel analysis of political engagement within football fan communities, combining social network and content analysis to uncover influence strategies post-Brexit.

Findings

Political actors used hashtags and activism to embed messages in football conversations.

Football communities served as platforms for mobilization and opinion shaping.

Various actors, including media and pseudonymous influencers, exploited fan culture for political influence.

Abstract

This paper investigates how political campaigns engaged UK football fan communities on Twitter in the aftermath of the Brexit Referendum (2016-2017). Football fandom, with its strong collective identities and tribal behaviours, offers fertile ground for political influence. Combining social network and content analysis, we examine how political discourse became embedded in football conversations. We show that a wide range of actors -- including parties, media, activist groups, and pseudonymous influencers -- mobilised support, provoked reactions, and shaped opinion within these communities. Through case studies of hashtag hijacking, embedded activism, and political "megaphones", we illustrate how campaigns leveraged fan cultures to amplify political messages. Our findings highlight mechanisms of political influence in ostensibly non-political online spaces and point toward the development of a broader framework in future work.