If there is anything that incites more fanaticism, frustration, rage and joy in the UK than the English football team, it's football itself.
"As I get older, the tyranny that football exerts over my life, and therefore over the lives of people around me, is less reasonable and less attractive. Family and friends know, after long years of wearying experience, that the fixture list (schedule) always has the last word in any arrangement; they understand, or at least accept, that christenings or wedding or any gatherings, which in other families would take unquestioned precedence, can only be plotted after consultation."
– Nick Hornby, Fever Pitch
The United Kingdom, and England in particular, is a nation gripped by football fever. If you happen to be outside a football stadium on any given match day, you will find it hard not to be captivated. You will see hordes of people wearing their team's colours marching to the stands together, braving the eccentric weather with a determined smile and singing the all-too-familiar football chants prouder than a verse from the UK's national anthem. There is an unmistakable atmosphere at a football match: the smell of pies, burgers and fried onions in the air, the excitable voices of younger generations, the somewhat jaded voices of the older, the loud programme and scarf sellers, the vibrant green colour of the pitch. It's a time when men, women, children and the elderly, of all different backgrounds, colours and creeds come together for a common cause: to cheer for the team they adulate.
Britain has always been considered the home of 'the beautiful game', which is one of the reasons fans are particularly passionate about it. For all the evidence of early ball sports played elsewhere in the world, the evolution of football as we know it today took place in Britain. The game that flourished in the British Isles from the eighth to the 19th centuries featured a considerable variety of local and regional versions – which were subsequently smoothed down and smartened up to create the modern-day sports of association football, rugby football and, in Ireland, Gaelic football. "I guess you could say that it's one of the reasons we love it so much," explains Thomas Livingston, a 33-year-old Fulham supporter. "It's widely accepted that football developed into what it is today here in the UK. It's part of our culture. Football is considered more English than the red telephone box, or even the Queen herself. It may sound dramatic, but for some of us it's so deeply ingrained it's hard to imagine life without it".
The stereotypical English football fan was popularised in Fever Pitch, a movie based on Nick Hornby's autobiographical book of the same name. The movie follows Arsenal Football Club's First Division championship-winning season in 1988–89, and its effect on the protagonist's romantic relationship. Through this, we see an individual who is deeply affected by every single match his team plays. When Arsenal wins, he is highly elated; when they lose, however, he is devastated. This passion is so extreme that it affects his personal life and career. The character, Nick Ashworth, is someone many fans can identify with. "Arsenal's 2006 Champion's League final against Barcelona happened to coincide with my 18th birthday," explains Michael Alexander, a 19-year-old college student. "I was convinced fate had brought it this way and that we were 'meant' to win. We did, of course, lose 2-1 and I was crushed. My reaction was probably worse than Nick Ashworth's reactions to a defeat. I actually didn't get out of bed the next day. It's hard to pinpoint what exactly makes me feel so passionate about Arsenal. I've grown up loving them and you could say I'm addicted. I just love the game, I love my team, and I love everything about it, from the euphoria I experience when we score, down to getting the fixtures list for the new season every summer."
Today, the English football league is one of the richest in the world, with major teams such as Manchester United, Chelsea and Arsenal making millions of pounds annually. Increasing ticket prices and long waiting lists for season tickets have led to a backlash against top-league football. Critics argue that this shift to teams being money-making machines has meant that football is becoming quite inaccessible to genuine fans.
In turn, more and more fans are opting to return to terraces closer to home to support their lower-league local teams. "When you support a smaller team, such as Lincoln, you meet the players, you know them, they probably live locally," explains Rick Keracher, from the Lincoln City Football Club Supporter's Trust. "They are real and you make a connection with them. You actually wish it was you playing for your local team but you manifest a desire to win through your local heroes."
In 2001, fans and local businesses teamed up and bought Lincoln City FC, a lower-league team, saving it from financial crisis and turning it into a 'community-owned' football club. The Lincoln City FC Supporter's Trust was constituted with the purpose of representing supporters in the running of the club. The club's fans loved their team so much, they could not bear to see it taken away from them. This sheer passion is what is so special about football supporters in the UK.
Keracher could not have put this passion more succintgly in words. "To see the club implode and not exist was unbearable; it's part of growing up in Lincoln for many people. Every Saturday is a day when the fate of the Imps is closely watched and the results analysed and discussed. The club has been in existence since 1884, and it would have been heartbreaking to see it cease existence in 2001. There was no way supporters were going to quietly stand by and see that happen."
