Football Fan Initiatives

Barcelona –

I found about 5 academic articles (which I have not read) on Barca as a brand. Here is some general information:

Their motto is ‘som mes que un club.’ (more than a club). “The growth of Barca as a sporting success projected the region’s cultural and political revival to the outside world, as the club developed into the most revered symbols of Catalan nationalism as well as an expression of human rights. Repressed during the dictatorship of General Primo de Rivera in the 1920s and during the Franco years, it became a vehicle for a powerful collective identity, both defiant of dictatorship, and proud of a sporting language and expression that reached out, beyond the isolating frontiers of Spain, to Europe and beyond.” (Burns, Barca: A People’s Passion, Foreword)

“This was not the opium of the masses, but pure adrenalin, passion deeply held and defiant – the kind that makes one happy to be alive.” (ibid)

The fans own and operate Barcelona (incidentally, as do the fans of the Green Bay Packers –see Jan. 31, 2011 New Yorker article).
According to Wikipedia: Along with Real Madrid, Athletic Bilbao, and Osasuna, Barcelona is organised as a registered association. Unlike a limited company, it is not possible to purchase shares in the club, but only membership.[82] The members of Barcelona, called socis, form an assembly of delegates which is the highest governing body of the club.[83] As of 2010 the club has 170,000 socis.[59]

Unicef deal (2006):

NEW YORK, 7 September 2006 – Futbol Club Barcelona and UNICEF today kicked off a global partnership to benefit children in the developing world.
http://www.unicef.org/media/media_35642.html

"For the first time in our more than 107 years of history, our main soccer team will wear an emblem on the front of its shirt," said Laporta at a Unicef executive committee meeting. "It will not be the brand name of a corporation. It will not be a commercial to promote some kind of business. It will be the logo of 'Unicef'. Through Unicef, we, the people of FC Barcelona, the people of 'Barça', are very proud to donate our shirt to the children of the world who are our present, but especially are our future." Barça take the moral high road

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2006/sep/13/barcelona


Unicef deal (2010):

Qatar Foundation to join Unicef on jerseys: “Barcelona reached a five-year, €150 million ($200 million) deal with the Qatar Foundation for it to join UNICEF as the Spanish champion’s jersey sponsor, the Associated Press reported.”
http://www.spainreview.net/index.php/2010/12/10/qatar-foundation-to-join-unicef-as-new-barcas-jersey-sponsor/

Barcas debts force the deal with Qatari non profit:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2010/dec/10/barcelona-25m-shirt-sponsorship-qatar-foundation

Critical blog post:
http://barcelona.theoffside.com/team-news/fc-barcelona-has-a-new-sponsor-the-qatar-foundation.html

Israel tells Barca that QF funds Hamas?
http://www.bnet.com/blog/advertising-business/barcelona-sponsor-linked-to-hamas-has-qatar-bitten-off-more-than-it-can-chew/7028


Leo Messi becomes a UNICEF goodwill ambassador:
http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/spain_52997.html

Partnership to help children with HIV
“The partnership, benefiting children across the developing world, will focus on those affected by HIV/AIDS in Swaziland during its first year.”
http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/spain_35644.html




As for England, I’ve exchanged messages and will likely speak to my cousin, who is still employed at the Football Foundation :

He said ‘I can get you some stuff that football's done on that front. We did a little project with Nike called Stand Up Speak Up a few years ago, and have funded Kick It Out projects.’



The Football Foundation is the UK’s largest sports’ charity. Funded by the Premier League, The Football Association and the Government, the Foundation directs £40m every year into grass roots sport…..to deliver a programme of new and improved community sports facilities in towns and cities across the country. The Foundation also funds projects that increase participation in football and other sports and address some of society’s key challenges, such as social inclusion, health, education and equalities.
http://www.footballfoundation.org.uk/

He led me to a few Nike-inspired intitiatives:

Stand Up Speak Up – Thierry Henry inspired anti-racism campaign.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stand_Up_Speak_Up

http://inside.nike.com/blogs/gamechangers-en_US/2009/10/30/stand-up-speak-up

Children’s BBC article on the Stand Up Speak Up campaign:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/cbbcnews/hi/newsid_3750000/newsid_3757300/3757386.stm

Criticism of Nike’s anti-racism campaign:
“Controversy sparked when Gary Neville claimed Nike were only involved for commercial gain and not their anti-racism stance. This carried over into a match against Arsenal as Neville and Manchester United team mate Paul Scholes refused to wear the different anti racism tracksuit top that players from both sides wore.”
http://www.sportinglife.com/football/premiership/news/story_get.dor?STORY_NAME=soccer/05/02/10/SOCCER_England_Neville.html&TEAMHD=premiership

Football Unites Racism Divides: Football Unites, Racism Divides (FURD) is a community project and charity (charity number 1075678) based in Sheffield, England, which works locally, nationally and internationally to combat racism and increase understanding between different communities.
The project was started in 1995 by a group of Sheffield United fans

http://www.furd.org/default.asp?intPageID=275


Football Against Racism in Europe (available in French, Italian, English, German) :
The FARE network dedicated itself to fight racism and xenophobia in football across Europe, through co-ordinated action and common efforts, at local and national level, to bring together all those interested in combating discrimination in football
http://www.farenet.org/

Kick it Out – (associated with FARE)
The brand name of the campaign - Let's Kick Racism Out of Football - was established in 1993 and Kick It Out established as a body in 1997.
Kick It Out works throughout the football, educational and community sectors to challenge discrimination, encourage inclusive practices and work for positive change.

The campaign is supported and funded by the game's governing bodies, including founding body the Professional Footballers Association (PFA), the Premier League and The Football Association.

2004 marked ten years of campaigning.
http://www.kickitout.org/1.php
Kick it Out on homophobia:
http://www.kickitout.org/1048.php


Manchester United Grassroot stuff

Fan Organization against the US ownership of Manchester United:
http://www.worldsoccer.com/features/manchester_united_fans_could_yet_unseat_the_glazers_writes_david_conn_features_297029.html

Man U. Independent Fan Trust
http://action.joinmust.org/index.php/content/splash

Fan Boycott
http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2010/apr/28/imusa-manchester-united-season-tickets


FC United of Manchester – a fan founded club:
The club was formed in 2005 by Manchester United supporters following Malcolm Glazer's controversial takeover which led to hundreds of supporters defecting from the club. They are affectionately referred to as "The Red Rebels".
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F.C._United_of_Manchester

AFC Wimbledon – fan controlled team:
http://www.afcwimbledon.co.uk/aboutthetrust.php?Psub_nav_id=1&Psection_id=10&Psub_section_id=63
Dons Trust is a not-for-profit organisation that owns AFC Wimbledon and is guardian of all principles and aims by which it operates. It is committed to strengthening the voice of supporters in the decision making processes at the football club,

Blog – why he loves Manchester City (branding)
http://jeremywaite.wordpress.com/2010/08/17/19-reasons-why-i-love-manchester-city/


In Italy:

Before every game there is announcement against using racial, territorial or other discriminatory language.


Progetto Ultra – associated with the FARE network described above and Football Supporters International (FSI – link below):
http://www.progettoultra.it/cms/index.php?option=com_frontpage&Itemid=99
• difesa della cultura popolare del tifo (defend the popular culture of fandom)
• limitazione della violenza e dell'intolleranza attraverso un lavoro di tipo sociale rivolto ai tifosi e portato avanti insieme a loro (limit the violence and intolerance through social work aimed at and in association with fans)



FSI has been an independent union of various fan-related organisations that have taken up football supporters interests and provided and developed “fans’ embassy” services for football supporters travelling abroad for more than 15 years. http://www.footballsupporters.info/

FSF Football Supporters Federation: (an advocacy group?) The Federation regularly takes up specific complaints and cases which are raised with it by individual members or affiliated organizations.
http://www.fsf.org.uk/about-the-fsf.php


Then there are the fans I discuss in my Fans Romans Countrymen…
They sponsor financial adoptions of babies in Malawi, have had fund raisers for individual children, coordinated efforts to aid eartquake struck Aquila in Abruzzo in April 2009.

dal 1997 con lo scopo di promuovere il tifo sportivo per l’AS Roma calcio e sviluppare lo studio e la divulgazione delle tradizioni della città. (from 1997 with the scope to promote sport fandom for AS Roma soccer and the development and distribution of the city’s traditions) http://www.corederoma.it/online/?page_id=52

In Abruzzo - photogallery
http://www.corederoma.it/online/?p=18865


Anti racism in league structures:
Europe
http://www.uefa.com/uefa/socialresponsibility/antiracism/index.html

Fifa
http://www.fifa.com/aboutfifa/worldwideprograms/footballforhope/news/newsid=518183.html



Other notes of possible interest.


On Oviedo - A spanish club
They are, however, a club who would have long since gone under had it not been for the reaction of their supporters, the backing of a community that thought they deserved better.
http://www.worldsoccer.com/features/rebirth_of_oviedo_features_67151.html


the quandary of the soccer fan:

There is an old philosophical question that runs along the lines of:
My grandfather has an axe. He hands it down to his son. Over the years, the handle breaks so he replaces it. He then hands it down to me. In time, the head becomes too worn so I replace it. When I come to handing said axe down to my son, is it really still the same axe, consisting as it would of none of the parts my grandfather ever touched?

What relevance hath this? Well, I was just reading about the prospect of Coventry being bought by a US consortium, as is de rigeur these days, and the concept of us being able to buy some decent players...taking this one step further, what if they replaced the entire team? And say the backroom staff? And everyone else until all that was really left was the name and the stadium? Look at chelsea now compared to chelsea 5 years ago. They are not the same club...yet they are still chelsea. Football clubs retain their identity as usually, change happens over time. No-one ever replaces an entire team (to my knowledge), but if that happened, what exactly of the old team would still exist? The name, the history (and of course the fans, but they are primarily external to the club as an entity), the ground. So, if in the case of MK Dons, the name, the stadium, the location even, were all changed in one go, what exactly remained of Wimbledon FC? Many consider AFC Wimbledon to be its 'spiritual' continuation. In this case, even a club's history becomes undefined as 2 clubs could claim it to be theirs, so it would seem even history cannot define a club. If a club is viewed in snapshots, season by season, squad / manager changes occurring in the same season as a ground move could result in a club's identity becoming blurred as the change in between those 2 snapshots are vast. It would therefore appear that a 'club' is merely a concept, an intangible idea only made real by tangible, yet changeable properties.
In the case of Coventry, even the short period of a decade has seen both the metaphorical handle and head of the axe replaced, so what makes them still CCFC? http://www.worldsoccer.com/forums/showflat.php/Cat/0/Number/4360/an//page/0/vc/1

Another thread:
Perhaps if the likes of Liverpool & Chelsea reserves were willing to follow the examples of the likes of FC United of Manchester & AFC Wimbledon - starting at the very bottom (or as near the bottom as anyone else has to) of the pyramid.
http://www.worldsoccer.com/forums/printthread.php/Cat/0/Board/BigIssue/main/3174/type/thread


Online branding strategies of UK fashion retailers.Detail Only Available By: Rowley, Jennifer. Internet Research, 2009, Vol. 19 Issue 3, p348-369, 22p, 5 Charts; DOI: 10.1108/10662240910965397
Subjects: INTERNET marketing; BRANDING (Marketing); FASHION merchandising; CLOTHING & dress; ONLINE information services; BRAND equity; GREAT Britain; Family Clothing Stores



Uniform title:
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Title:
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URL:
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Classic TV Links

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Duke Library of TV Commercials.