Preserving and Extending the Commodification of Football Supporter Relations: A Cultural Economy of Supporters Direct

This paper examines the role of Supporters Direct, a sports policy initiativelaunched by the British Labour government in 2000. The objective of SupportersDirect is to democratise football clubs by intervening in what it views as theunequal relationship that exists between the relatively powerless supporters offootball clubs and private shareholders who have organisational control ofclubs. They hope to achieve this by facilitating mutual forms of ownership andcontrol of clubs via supporters’ trusts. With respect to this objective,established research concerning Supporters Direct emphasises this initiative asan inherently progressive development for the football industry. The aim of thispaper is to situate the development of Supporters Direct in the wider context ofthe British Labour Government's policy of social inclusion. On the basis of atextual analysis that draws on current literature in the area of culture andeconomy - with specific reference to processes of commodification - we reveal analternative view of Supporters Direct. The Supporters Direct initiative, weconclude, is an integral part of a social policy aimed at the preservation andextension of commodified social relations.