Colleagues and myself have studied football fandom and alcohol in terms of what is called the carnivalesque.(Bandura et al. 2023). This is an idea that has been applied quite a bit in alcohol studies. A lot of theories of the carnival have relied on Bakhtin (1984) and the idea that the social order is inverted, with a focus on this spectacular. The model here is the mediaeval festival. The idea is that the carnival involved the suspension of some hierarchies, the inversion of others, and the focus on the baudy and foul language ofbillingsgate. This is a development of the drinking as time out idea with a focus on extreme intoxication.
Intoxication is the practice of learning to separate the individual from their everyday self. Both football and alcohol consumption create a similar social space with qualities of collective effervescence, inversion and so on – and also, following from what Haydock says, this is both validated and seen as a problem in capitalist leisure society. This might explain the tension between football as a form of entertainment and football as a carnival. I’d also use that to highlight our methodological approach – we see supporters as being actively involved rather than passive consumers of the sport, and part of this is the way they gather and celebrate/commiserate.
The relationship between alcohol and football is pulled in three directions: political; commercial; and popular. A sign of the politics of alcohol and football : Alcohol consumption is treated as a health issue, but only outside of football and public space, where it becomes a public order issue. In popular terms football is part of the carnival of social life. It brings people together on an occasion where some rules and norms are suspended. However the carnival can also be quite habitual and mundane. Going to a football match can feel just like a regular habit. The value of it is a renewal of central bonds and identity.
A football match is a great collective act of will. That’s why the worse your team does, the more stubborn your support. The worse your team is doing the greater the will, the greater the belief, the greater the bond between supporters. I know enough Jambos to know the perverse satisfaction that comes through your team once again falling over itself to put the ball in the back of its own net. In that way, fandom them has something in common with gambling. Gamblers do not like winning streak to go on pretty long. Winning is a new experience that is risky and generates uncertainty. It disrupts the pleasure of the zone.
In commercial terms both alcohol and football are great commercial enterprises. They do have some features in common. They both draw on this idea of the carnival but also helpful to the mundane spaces of life. Drinking in a pub might be like going to your living room. Drinking at home might be taking that pleasure back into the domestic space. The commercialised image of alcohol consumption is of spectacular joy when most alcohol consumption is day-to-day. Likewise the image of football might be all massive commercialised cups and expensive stadiums, but on that is built a pyramid of every day practice. Saturdays and Sundays on the bus. Midweek queuing in the cold. Now you might think, well one of those is more authentic than the other. But I think both need each other and benefit from each other. The real needs the fake like a gambler needs losing.
