The impact of fans in the management of professional football clubs

Today, football is much more than a game. The role of the actors of this sport evolved a lot during the last century. With globalization, the economic aspects are more than ever the main focus of the clubs, which also implies that the influence of fans decreased. Based on these facts, the fans are slowly turning into spectators instead of supporters. The clubs are not the ownership of fans anymore. This change affects all the decisions and put the fans in the background of the stage. We can wonder how the fans still influence the management of professional football clubs. First of all, we are going to draw the portrait of modern football fans that influence the clubs. Then we will study their role in this football micro society. Finally, we will conclude by describing the relationship between fans and the authorities.

Sociology of the football fans

The profile of the football fan evolved a lot over the last century. We can divide them into three main categories:

• The classic fans: they are more spectators than fans. They go to the stadium to watch a game more than to support the local team.
• The ultras: they want to support the team with songs, choreographies, boos, etc. They are more focused on what is going on in the stands than what happens on the pitch. These fans are not particularly violent, but when there are clashes with some opponent fans or the police, they do not refuse to use violence.
•  The hooligans: they are not interested in the game or the team playing. Violence is their motivation: football is a pretext to find a place where they can express their violence, especially through insults and fights.

The category of fans that is the most influent in the management of professional football clubs is the Ultras. Authorities in Europe have banned most of the hooligans from the stadiums. They are now acting in the street, outside the stadiums and don’t concern the clubs anymore. The classic fans don’t have the aspiration to influence the management of their club, they are more passive than the ultras. They go to the stadium to attend to a game but not to support the team. We will dedicate the main part of this study to the ultras and their role in the management of a professional football club.

The ultras are usually male between 15 to 25 years old. Furthermore, they come from the working class or they are students. They show their worship for the club by attending to all the games, even the games away, arriving early in the stadium and being the last to leave it. The strength of the ultras is their well-structured organization:

This organization works in an associative way, with a membership and subscription system. The officials are elected or designed by members and they decide for the activities of the group. Furthermore, they are the representatives for relationships with managers of the club or the local media.

Giving a precise definition of an ultra would not be possible. Even inside one precise club, the profile of fans can vary a lot. Each club has hundreds of associations with national and international networks. As in all military groups, the supporters of a team are divided. Ethnical affiliations, political point of view or religion are all parameters that create subdivision inside fans of a same team. The stands of a football stadium are like a micro society which reflects the tension of daily live. Inside a same club, there can be different groups politically or ethnically oriented, and inside these group there can be also different factions.

The key role played by the fans

In France, the first club where ultras culture appeared is the Paris Saint Germain. In the middle of 80s, some young skinheads entered in the stadium. They rejected the others minorities like black people, Arabs, Jews, families, etc. The managers didn’t take these gathering seriously; they considered it as an epiphenomena. Some others groups appeared in the late 80s. The solidarity in these groups made them very dangerous. The leaders took profit of this situation by inciting their “soldiers” to be violent and react against the club’s management. To avoid this, football club managers usually deal with the leaders of ultras groups. They accept to give privileges to the leaders of the group in order to stop the anger of the fans. These benefits have different shapes: sometimes money, sometimes extra tickets for the fans or discounts for tickets. Leaders clearly benefit from their position of dominance, even if they keep defending their group. The number of leaders can vary from 1 to 7-8 people. When members feel that their leaders don’t protect them enough, they start to disobey in order to change the hierarchy. All the dynamics are shaped with the goal to have the biggest and strongest group.

The role of fans can sometimes be even more important than just a symbolic part of a game. For the managers of the Olympique de Marseille, the fans are not simple spectators. Indeed, one group controls the sale of tickets through “their own stands”. This group has its own place in the stands where they keep all the tickets. The group sells the tickets to who they want and choose the price of the tickets. This provides to the leaders of the group a huge power. The managers of the football clubs give them cheap tickets in order to maintain calm and respect in the stadiums.

On the other hand, the fans who are willing to be a part of this group need to follow the rules and the decisions of their leaders. Sometimes, when the club is not listening the ultra group leaders push their fans to be violent and to sing insulting chants. Afterwards, the club is forced to negotiate with ultras leaders. If they come to an arrangement, the leaders of the fan group calm the situation.

Relationship with authorities

When the authorities punish a club for the bad behavior of their supporters, the football managers defend their fans even if the punishment is rightful. The managers are united with the fans, as a father would be united to his child who is doing bad things. Even the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) president, Joseph Blatter, considers the fans as an important part of this game:

The commentaries after the game Strasbourg-Metz played behind closed doors in the stadium La Meinau in April 2001 (a firecracker was thrown at the referee in the first game) shows the importance of the fans. “Football is a game which has to be played in front of spectators” reminds Sepp Blatter, president of FIFA in l’Equipe

Dealing with police

There is also a link between fans and police authorities. “Without the ultras, it would be the total chaos” says Franklin Foer in his book "How Soccer Explain The World". Leaders have the respect of their men, they can control them in order to avoid violence and fights. It is the main reason why the police deal with groups of fans. They have to make arrangements with groups, allow them to go into the city center even if it’s dangerous for people. Otherwise, the leaders would be upset and could influence their members to fight against policemen, to act with violence. Local authorities hide this kind of negotiations but as for the drug cartels, they have to think pragmatically and find the best way to avoid troubles. In this case, dealing with a structured organization commanded by rational people is the best way to prevent trouble.

It does matter !

The evolution of football fan profiles has changed the balance of power of the management of the clubs. The struggle against hooliganism pushed violent fans outsides of the stadiums. Only the classic fans and the ultras are now the interlocutors. This situation is beneficial for club managers and also for the authorities because they can discuss and negotiate with structured groups of fans. Obviously, they try to have groups with the smallest influence as possible because these organizations balance the power between the different actors. A strong group of supporters can affect the whole management of the club, from the price of tickets to the players to transfer. This situation is also taken seriously by authorities like FIFA or the police. They need these structured groups to coordinate the movements of fans. All actors of the football scene need each others to exist. However, the protagonists always have the goal to reduce the influence of the others in order to protect their own interests.