‘I Hadn’t Realised That Change Is Not a Difficult Thing’: Mobilising Football Fans on Climate Change

Abstract

The damaging consequences of anthropogenic climate change are well documented. In order to engage the public on the serious question of climate change, there is a need to use different approaches to connect climate change with other concerns. This study is the first to understand how football fans engage with climate change and how a campaign should engage with them. It does this through an analysis of fans’ engagement with a campaign to engage fans (Pledgeball). It is situated within the literature, which argues that climate change communication needs to engage with the culture, values and worldviews of the target audience. It argues that football fans could be a significant form of collective behaviour to engage with climate change; and that aligning with the identity and worldview of fans, as well as the broader culture of football, can promote engagement and possible social change.

Introduction

The damaging consequences of anthropogenic climate change are well documented (IPCC, 2021). There is a long history of activism in this area, more recently the School Strikes for Climate in Europe and Extinction Rebellion. Despite this, action is insufficient and significant sections of the public are unsure how to take action (Bouman et al., 2020). As the difficulty in communicating the risks of climate change has become more apparent, the role of culture, morality and values has become clear (Munshi et al., 2020). Although there is a wide call for more public engagement on climate change, there is little empirical data (Hügel and Davies, 2020). To engage the public on the serious question of climate change, different approaches are needed to connect climate change with the values of pre-existing communities. This article is the first to explore how the political mobilisations of football fans could be utilised to engage them on the issue of climate change.

While recognising the structural change required, this article also recognises the need to engage the public through their own cultural framings and social relationships. Jamieson (2020) reinforced the importance of social relationships in engaging big issues like climate change. Using football fans as the core of the study, this article argues that collective action is required to address unsustainable behaviours, while also becoming advocates for change. Although some writers suggest social and political life is becoming more individualistic (Beck, 1992; Giddens, 1990; Putnam, 2000), new collectives around consumption and identity (like environmentalism and football fandom) have formed (Maffesoli, 1996; Touraine, 1981). Approaches to climate change policy in the UK have been characterised by neoliberal approaches of individual responsibility through green consumerism (Webb, 2012). The football industry is a problematic ally for pro-environmental campaigns as the organisation of the clubs and tournaments encourages constant consumption and extensive travel, including flights. While governing bodies have made some policy statement in this area (e.g. UEFA, 2021), they are not addressing the root causes of climate change. The danger is that the football industry may push the issue of climate change onto fans. Yet fans also contribute to climate change, particularly through their consumption choices and form of travel to matches (Goldblatt, 2020). This article acknowledges this paradox, but situates fans as a social movement that pro-environmental campaigns could collectively mobilise to change behaviours and advocate for change.

This article focuses on one such campaign, Pledgeball, to argue how fans can be engaged on pro-environmental issues. In the words of Katie Cross, the founder of Pledgeball:

Fans demonstrate characteristics that make the potential for instigating collective action more likely: the bonds they share through uniting so regularly in such an emotionally charged way; the competitiveness that is inherent to being a fan; the sheer numbers involved and the accessible nature of football mean that the impact of even small changes done collectively is impressive and consequently empowering.

Pledgeball is an initiative that aims to connect the immense numbers of people passionate about football into climate action. ¹ Through their website, Pledgeball invites fans to make pro-environmental lifestyle ‘pledges’ in support of their favourite team repeatedly over the season. Fans are asked to choose from a list of 65 environmentally friendly behaviours that range from using reusable cups or shampoo bars to installing solar panels or switching to a green energy supplier. Their aim is to demonstrate to fans the potential collective impact that their seemingly small individual changes can have on the environment, especially when carried out by a fan group as a whole. After submitting their pledges, fans receive an email with a pledge summary. Pledgeball uses the quantity carbon dioxide equivalents (CO2e), which ‘is a term used for describing different greenhouse gases in a common unit’ (Brander, 2012) to measure pledges’ impact. Fans’ pledges are then tallied and compared with the savings of the opposition. These savings are then visualised in a league table that shows fans how much they saved collectively and equates the number to cars taken off the road. The club whose fans pledge to save more CO2e climbs up the virtual league table. These ‘Pledge Offs’ are connected to the club’s fixtures thus making use of this inherent regularity within football to encourage and remind fans on every match day, particularly the home games, through, for example, announcements, supportive social media postings, the club’s newsletter or the match day programme to pledge.

Football fans are a pertinent example of regular collective behaviour in contemporary society that contributes to a strong sense of belonging, which can promote activism (Cleland et al., 2018; Doidge et al., 2020; King, 1998, 2003). This article explores how the regular, routine commitment fans have with their club can be engaged to discuss and tackle climate change. It will argue that fans constitute an existing social movement and an example of an existing collective that could be utilised to engage in environmental advocacy. It will do this by addressing the existing literature on climate change mobilisation, before identifying existing social movements within football fandom in the UK. Following the methodology, the article will focus on how a pro-environmental campaign called Pledgeball engaged with fans of a semi-professional men’s football team based in Brighton by engaging with the existing cultural values of the fans, and connected this to environmentally sustainable actions. This became a new and meaningful way for environmentally aware (and less aware) fans to engage with the topic. It is difficult to generalise from one study with a small and politically engaged fanbase, yet there are certain key aspects that emerge for further research. The article argues that campaigns like Pledgeball should first understand the fan group, and how they see themselves, then connect with the wider culture of football. This can help change outlooks and push for structural changes.

Climate Change Communication and Mobilisation

The question of participation has been central to social movement studies, and climate change in particular. Recent analysis recognises that the public are generally concerned about climate change, yet this has not translated into action (Bouman et al., 2020). There is always varied active support among interested parties, and a career journey within the group (Oegema and Klandermans, 1994). Jordan and Maloney (2006) identified the ‘concerned unmobilised’ who were concerned about the environment, but not members of an environmental organisation. Those who were members of these organisations had more resources (networks, income) to contribute to the organisation – and were more likely to be invited to join as a result. Similarly, ‘slactivism’ facilitates ease of entry to online movements through minimal resource requirements (Morozov, 2011). Emotions are also an important aspect to engagement. This is not just the emotional content of the message (Chapman et al., 2017), but also how the individual manages their own emotions. Norgaard (2006) suggests that ‘collective avoiding’ is a way for people to manage their own emotions when faced with the existential anxiety of environmental catastrophe. Indeed, football fans are also adept at emotion management in anticipation of difficult results (Amann and Doidge, 2022).

Social relationships are vital when advocating for collective action. Jamieson (2020: 220) reminds us ‘that family, intimate and personal life generates human agency both as an abstract possibility and as context-specific, embodied, variable capacities for effecting social change’. These social relationships, and the rituals associated with them, can help develop identification with the group (Durkheim, 1964). Strong affinity with the group can increase the likelihood that an individual will adopt the behaviours of the respective group, ‘which may support or undermine pro-environmental attitudes and behaviours’ (Jans and Fielding, 2018: 236). Stoknes (2015: 107) concludes that new strategies need to be ‘as social, interactive, and local as possible’. In order to develop these strategies, approaches should be participatory and encourage dialogue and interaction. In particular, they should stress individual agency so that participants are agents of change rather than objects to be changed (O’Brien et al., 2019).

There is increasing literature on the importance of the narratives that are communicated around climate change (O’Brien et al., 2019; Stoknes, 2015). Apocalyptic visions of the future remove the agency of individuals by making them feel overwhelmed and powerless, hence minimising action (O’Neill and Nicholson-Cole, 2009). As the difficulty in communicating the risks of climate change has become more apparent, the role of culture, morality and values has been stressed (Munshi et al., 2020). In particular, these narratives should be tailored to the emotions and identities of the target audience (Chapman et al., 2017). Consequently, climate change messages and strategies need to be tailored to a specific group’s needs, their worldviews, values and beliefs (Abrahamse and Matthies, 2018). Somers (1994) argued for a narrative construction of identity as a way of understanding how people ontologically and epistemologically connect with the social world. Individuals’ and groups’ narratives about themselves help people make sense of what is happening, guides how they move forward and connects them to a larger community or group. Narratives are formed relationally, through conversation with group members and help create the group’s narrative of themselves.

Football Fandom as a Social Movement

New collectives have formed around consumption and identity (Maffesoli, 1996; Touraine, 1981). While new social movements identify the partial dissolving of traditional class-based solidarities based on economic activity, football is an example of longstanding social groups coalescing around an act of consumption, leisure and fashion. Although not all fans engage (or want to engage) politically (Doidge, 2015), football fans have acted politically for several decades. In some cases, their political engagement can be seen through identities of gender, class, race, nationality, politics and their intersections (Campbell, 2016; Doidge, 2015; Doidge et al., 2020; King, 1997; Pope, 2015; Ratna, 2014). Acting as a new social movement, fans have mobilised around a number of issues affecting the game, including governance, commercialism and anti-discrimination (Cleland et al., 2018; Doidge et al., 2020; King, 2003; Millward, 2012, Millward et al., 2016; Numerato, 2018). All of these studies, however, are explicitly related to the material conditions of the sport that fans love: football. While it is rare for fans to mobilise around issues that exist outside of football, there are precedents, such as ‘Fans Supporting Foodbanks’.

Football fandom is an excellent way of understanding how social groups emerge and interact. As Cleland et al. (2018: 9) argue, ‘Football fans are heterogeneous and come from a wide range of backgrounds and interests. They share a love of the game and their clubs, and . . . this is increasingly becoming an area of political mobilization.’ Many supporters would agree that ‘being a supporter is a key part of their “real” lives: a regular, structuring part of their existence that enables them to feel belonging in the relative disorder of contemporary social formations’ (Brown et al., 2008: 308, emphasis in original), indicating a high level of identification and deep emotional attachments to their team. The rituals associated with fandom, and matchday attendance in particular, generate a collective emotional energy and sense of belonging to the club. Ontologically, the team becomes an extension of the self (Doidge et al., 2020). While the fans may treat the team as their Durkheimian totem, they are really focused upon themselves, which gives them meaning and purpose (King, 1997). This emotional sense of belonging helps structure the relationships and interactions fans have within their own fan groups, with other fan groups, and with various authorities (such as the police and governing bodies) (Doidge et al., 2020). The social relationships developed through regular matchday attendance reinforces the identity of the individual within the group (Cleland et al., 2018).

Despite the evidence of political engagement of football fans, there have been only two studies of football fans’ engagement with climate change (Baldwin, 2010; Daddi et al., 2020). Baldwin (2010) assessed the impact of an environmental campaign and its acceptance by fans of a professional men’s football club. He identified the football supporter community as a promising unit of analysis – due to their group characteristics, previous mobilisations around social issues and their potential to positively influence the creation of social capital. This assessment highlighted ‘that identifying with a community may not be enough to encourage change as members within it may have varying levels of commitment to it ranging from total to marginal’ (Baldwin, 2010: 863). Consequently, there needs to be more nuanced approaches to engage fans, rather than simply assume that they will do it out of loyalty to the club. Meanwhile, Daddi et al. (2020) undertook an initial assessment of football fans’ environmental concerns in Italy and Sweden. While establishing that football fans were aware of environmental issues, they were unclear how to take action and unaware of the impact individual actions could make. Fans (like the general public) are not necessarily aware of their embeddedness in a broader social or ecological context.

Methodology

This study is based on an analysis of an inductive case study of the collaboration between the Pledgeball campaign with their first pilot club Whitehawk FC. It is underpinned by a five-year ethnography (Brewer, 2000) of Whitehawk by the second author. Specifics of the Pledgeball campaign were addressed by the first author through 12 semi-structured interviews (Bryman, 2012) with fans of Whitehawk, which explored their fandom, sense of community and awareness of climate change. It also included follow-up interviews to assess how they engaged with the Pledgeball campaign. Of those 12 interviewees (10 men and two women), seven signed up and pledged. The majority of the interviewees was between 55 and 64 years old. Although 29 people indicated their willingness to take part in follow-up interviews, 12 replied to the interview invitation sent to schedule an interview on Zoom. There is a danger of self-selection bias here, yet the data suggest that while some of the fans may have been interested in the topic, they were not activists. The founder of Pledgeball, Katie Cross, and the vice-chair of Whitehawk FC, Kevin Miller, were also interviewed to understand the motivation and strategy of Pledgeball, and its impact on the football club.

Owing to the COVID-19 pandemic, most interviewees were familiar with Zoom, the software chosen for the online interviews. Online interviews were chosen to avoid human contact in a pandemic, as well as being comfortable for the interviewees, as they were at home (Oliffe et al., 2021). Despite the familiarity with the software, there were still some minor technical difficulties such as occasionally frozen screens or empty batteries occurred. Being online also creates a discordant situation that makes it harder to read visual cues of the interviewee, particularly if the light was not bright (Oliffe et al., 2021). All interviews were undertaken by the first author and validated with the second author. During the interviews, notes were taken and all interviews were recorded and transcribed. Thematic analysis was used to identify the underlying approach and thematic issues associated with fan engagement with Pledgeball. This involved an inductive process of coding the data without a pre-existing framework, reviewing and producing the final analysis (Braun and Clarke, 2006). The gathered themes were visualised in a mind map, which, together with the transcripts, provided the foundation for the arguments within this article, particularly identifying the fans’ narrative of themselves, their engagement with climate change and how Pledgeball impacted on the fans and the club.

There were two principal reasons for the choice of Whitehawk fans. The first was accessibility. They have been the subject of an ethnographic case study by the second author for five years. This provided a level of access and trust to potential interviewees. Second, Whitehawk was the first pilot club for Pledgeball, so it provided an important insight into the operation and functioning of the campaign. This study derives from an assessment of Pledgeball by the first author as part of an internship. Whitehawk is a ‘members’ club owned by a coalition of fans but with financial support coming from [a group of] directors’ (Cleland et al., 2018: 75) based in East Brighton, UK. They currently play in the men’s non-league (Isthmian League) and have attendances of around 350 people. Whitehawk fans emphasise their strong ties with the local community and support, for example, local food banks, and vocal expression of anti-discrimination (Cleland et al., 2018). Whitehawk FC is located in the area of Whitehawk in East Brighton, which is considered ‘one of the most [socio-economically] deprived areas of the country’ (Drew, 2010). The wider city of Brighton and Hove is also the first city in the UK with a Green-led council (The Green Party, 2011) and is also currently run by the Greens (BBC, 2020), as well as having the UK’s first Green MP, which indicates a possible pro-environment electorate. The city on the English south coast is known for its inclusivity and tolerance and is sometimes referred to as the ‘LGBTQI capital of the UK’ (Holtz, 2019), which is reflected in the club, who have hosted the first officially sanctioned LGBT football matches in the UK (Holmes, 2021) and the fans who are vocally anti-homophobia (and anti-racism and anti-sexism).

Owing to the nature of the city, football club and campaign, it was not possible to fully anonymise Whitehawk and Pledgeball. Both Katie Cross (founder of Pledgeball) and Kevin Miller (vice-chair of Whitehawk) consented in writing to be identified, along with their respective organisations. All other participants consented to the club being identified (through pride for the club’s approach), but were anonymised, with limited demographic data (of age and gender) for additional information. Since the research was undertaken the second author was invited as a trustee for Pledgeball, while the first author has started to volunteer as research and development consultant. Drawing on Gouldner’s (1968) work on objective sociology, the team explicitly critically reflected on the impact of these relationships on the data and the subjects. Consequently, there were no conflicts of interest within the data collection and analysis. As the relationship developed, the authors were able to present critical analyses as Katie Cross actively wanted to develop the campaign based on critical research. This project was primarily undertaken at the University of Gothenburg and conforms to their Ethical Guidelines and those of the British Sociological Association.

The Whitehawk Way: Engaging with Groups’ Conception of Themselves

The challenge for climate change campaigns is how to link with existing communities and their worldviews (Abrahamse and Matthies, 2018). For campaigns like Pledgeball to connect with pre-existing communities, it is important to understand the groups’ narrative of themselves. Groups narrate their identity in order to help them make sense of the world and their place within it (Somers, 1994). Whitehawk fans construct a narrative of their club around sociability and community engagement. Simmel (1950) observed that the sociability of connecting with like-minded people is important for social groups. As many fans have made an active decision to support Whitehawk, with many migrating from outside of Brighton, the social aspect of fandom is important, as one (of many fans) identified: ‘The football itself, I mean, it’s important and we all love it. But it kind of seems to be secondary to all the other things that we do as a group for the community’ (Interviewee 10, 56, M). Football merely operates as a totemic focus for fans; effectively the football match is an ‘excuse’ for like-minded fans to socialise. Through this socialisation, social relationships form, which can influence collective action (Cleland et al., 2018; Jamieson, 2020).

From this engagement with like-minded fans, a sense of community emerges, which in turn engages with wider social issues. These values are painted on the steps of the main stand, declaring ‘LOVE, PEACE, NO RACISM, NO SEXISM, NO VIOLENCE, NO HOMOPHOBIA’ and were repeatedly mentioned in interviews. The fans frequently sing songs against racism, sexism and homophobia, as well as producing stickers and T-shirts with similar sentiments. The narrative around a significant section of the fanbase is one of friendliness and inclusion. As one interviewee observed, this is echoed on the terraces:

It’s just a great atmosphere, it is a community club, it is a family club. We don’t allow any swearing or offensive chanting. We get on well with opposition fans and that doesn’t happen in the top leagues football; there’s always some hostility. (Interviewee 9, 64, M)

Many fans grew up supporting other football teams and made an active choice to follow Whitehawk after migrating to Brighton. In some cases, this was due to a disillusionment with the commercialism of men’s professional football (Cleland et al., 2018), or frustration with the tribal aspects and aggression of elite men’s football.

East Brighton, where Whitehawk is located, is an area of relative poverty. Although many of the fans do not live in the environs of the club, many identified with East Brighton and saw it as a duty of fans to support the local community. The club has organised many events for the local community, including starting the 2021–2022 season with a Community Day, while also having regular collections for the Whitehawk food bank, support for the Whitehawk food co-operative that provided food during the lockdowns, and other activities, including a project to tackle social isolation among older people in the area and organising a fundraising day to bring children affected by the Grenfell disaster ² to the seaside and be mascots at a match:

Community means involving people living around the area to wanting them to be actually involved, like supporting the food banks and having children to come into the ground and visit, and have photographs taken with the players and be able to stand on the terraces with us and play our drums and instruments. [. . .] It’s just to do things for Whitehawk and for East Brighton in general. (Interviewee 9, 64, M)

The values of the club that, you know, just tries to embrace and encompasses every person and tries to give them something to look forward to and to feel part of. [. . .] It’s just amazing, every game tends to be something, either a collection for a charity or everyone that comes in bring something for the local food bank or we’re working towards making people aware of campaigns. (Interviewee 10, 56, M)

The combination of welcoming sociability and clear community values helps locate the individual fan into the wider fan group, and beyond into the wider community. Football becomes a focal point for the sociability, while specific acts (such as food bank collections) also operate as key symbolic totems acting as the values of the club and its fans.

While the fans of Whitehawk have organised a variety of campaigns and activities to engage in issues that affect the local community, climate change was not one of them (and this is not atypical of football fan groups). Despite this, the majority of interview respondents were concerned about environmental issues and expressed a willingness to take action (and/or were already taking action independently of the club). Even with this general awareness, a direct connection between football and climate change was not immediately apparent to most interviewees who hesitated or required prompting, such as this respondent:

Being a football fan you kind of have to say, well, the amount of electricity. [. . .] You know, if I watch United on television, well, how many cameras are there? What is the carbon footprint for Manchester United to be filled? And shown on television? [. . .] But environmentally I think, football has the advantage of being a game that can be played almost literally in all weathers. (Interviewee 2, 57, M)

Some interviewees mentioned football’s potential to help tackle climate change, yet no one viewed football as something being negatively impacted by climate change – at least not more than anything else: ‘Well, climate change will affect everything. So it won’t affect football in a special way or something, but it will affect football as it affects everything’ (Interviewee 3, 54, M). Goldblatt (2020) identified a significant impact on football from climate change, including flooded pitches and cancellations due to extreme weather. What this illustrates is that the wider information-deficit model, where the potential catastrophes of climate change are presented, has not resonated with fans (O’Neill and Nicholson-Cole, 2009).

Significantly, many of the fans interviewed saw the club’s collaboration with Pledgeball as positive and engaging with environmental sustainability as something that matched the club’s existing values. As Interviewee 10 stated, ‘It just fitted in so naturally [. . .] it’s just another natural process and embracing the values and aims and visions.’ Even though the fans were not explicitly engaging in campaigns around climate change, they could see how the Pledgeball campaign linked to fans’ identity; for example: ‘I think that we are just the right club to partner with in terms of our fans who will engage with it eventually. [. . .] I just think the majority of people that come to Whitehawk will engage with it’ (Interviewee 1, 55, M). The pre-existing narrative that many Whitehawk fans have of themselves suggests that aligning with an environmental sustainability campaign would be easy, but Pledgeball’s founder Katie Cross worked hard to build relationships with the club and its fans, and utilised the existing social networks and relationships at the club. Even during lockdown, these networks continued through other activities, such as online quizzes and panel discussions with players and coaching staff. Pledgeball engaged with these events, and was seen as fellow fans, rather than an external campaign. Letting people choose the change they want to do, and by doing so, recognising their agency, was found to be very important in encouraging individual action (O’Brien et al., 2019). The sociability of the social relationships, combined with the values of the club, were key in fan engagement.

Pledgeball: Using the Culture of Football to Engage Fans

While the Pledgeball campaign engaged with fans socially and with their values, the campaign still needed to engage with the culture of football. Munshi et al. (2020) identified the need to centre culture at the heart of climate change communication. While values, place and narrative are important aspects of their framework, the key mechanism is deliberative processes that connect individuals and groups with appropriate cultural activities. Pledgeball utilises key aspects of football culture – fandom, competition, regular engagement – in order to engage fans, entice them to pledge and hopefully help them to reflect and act on their pledges. Pledgeball’s founder stated that ‘Competition is what will drive engagement’, as this section will illustrate. Katie also identified that: ‘Authenticity and personal engagement are key . . . you have to be unafraid to explain the motivations behind the strategy.’ Building personal relationships with fans and club members helps create the trusted and collaborative networks required to build engagement. This also helps present oneself as an ‘authentic’ fan. Authenticity also came from honesty about the campaign. This includes explaining that everyone, fans and Pledgeball were on a journey towards more environmental sustainability, and no-one is expert.

Competition was achieved through the regular fixture list and presented in league tables. Pledgeball utilised CO2e-savings (Brander, 2012) to help fans visualise their contribution, as founder Katie explains:

The reason for CO2e is to take into account all carbon emissions (not just CO2) and we also count unquantifiable pledges in there, so that we can have more of a holistic approach, addressing sustainability rather than just carbon emissions. We aim to bring about an holistic shift in mindset so that people consider their impact on their planet, not just limited to emissions.

This holistic approach saw climate change as a social, not just environmental issue, and was a useful method of translating the pledges into something more tangible. This also needs to be translated into the cultural language of football. This is where the composite totals of pledges from all fans illustrated in the league table helped, as Interviewee 11 identified:

Initially, you don’t realise that just one person can make a change. But because of the way it’s put out in Pledgeball and shows you at the end of your pledge how much you have potentially saved, I think that actually gives you a bit more ownership towards it and then makes you realise you can make a difference. And if everybody made just small changes or more than it is going to make a bigger difference. (Interviewee 11, 61, F)

The visualisation of aggregated CO2e-savings in a league table made people realise the impact their individual actions have, especially when also carried out by fellow fans. The league table also made other fans’ pro-environmental commitment visible, which some interviewees perceived as encouraging.

The CO2e-savings were translated into numbers of cars taken off the road. This provided a tangible way of quantifying fans’ actions in a way they did not have before. This helped the individual fan locate themselves in the broader community and social movement. This was most clearly articulated by Interviewee 10, who said: ‘It made me feel part of a global movement I think, part of a global course . . . It makes you feel part of a community I guess as well.’ Likewise, this engendered a sense of belonging away from football:

[It is i]nstilling a sense of value and community and a feeling of belonging to something important and something meaningful beyond football. But it says something about your club. And so by extension says something about you and the fans you watch the game with. (Interviewee 2, 57, M)

The narrative construction of identity is not restricted to the stories one tells about the group, but also about how these narratives are enacted and performed. Much of football fandom is a performance (Doidge et al., 2020), with the chants and material culture (of flags, banners, stickers and fanzines, for example), helping to tell the story of the fan group. Showing an engagement in environmental sustainability adds to the narrative of Whitehawk fans.

Engaging fans through their clubs, and based on inter-club competition, helped create an easy entry point for fans. This gave fans a sense of agency in their engagement with climate change in addition to their sense of collective achievement. Even though they signed up because of the football club, for many, it aligned with their values. The discourse around climate change can often see change as something uncomfortable or difficult, but Pledgeball also illustrated that making some of these changes does not have to be hard, and can be enjoyable, as well as reinforcing individual agency:

It’s made me realise that I can change the Pledgeball things like the recycled loo rolls and all the things. But especially the diet, if I could change that that easily and enjoyably, then maybe there’s other new things I don’t know about that I’d get just as much pleasure, so it’s been a big learning curve . . . What I hadn’t realised is that change can be not a difficult thing. It can be something that is pure pleasure, that you want to do the new thing so much. Then you just love it. (Interviewee 5, 62, F)

Making these pledges together with like-minded people in support of the team created a less controversial justification for committing to pro-environmental behaviours such as reducing their meat consumption.

By aligning with the team’s fixtures, Pledgeball created a regular, repetitive way for fans to see and pledge to make changes. Linking the pledges to a significant part of the individual’s identity (their fandom), helped translate the act of pledging into a conscious act:

It does make you think, you know, going around the house, turning off lights, for example. I’m always thinking of how much the pledges I’ve made save. It’s that kind of being conscious of it a lot more . . . It raises awareness all the time because it’s at the forefront of our thinking. (Interviewee 10, 56, M)

I’m still doing all the stuff that I’ve pledged to do, so it’s not just pledging and doing it that one week or whatever. I have continued to do what I had pledged. It’s become part of the routine. (Interviewee 11, 61, F)

The act of pledging in support of the football team acted as a form of consciousness-raising. Being aware of mundane regular acts helps reinforce those acts and put them into practice.

From Individual Action to Structural Change

It is not just fans who construct a narrative of themselves; clubs do likewise. Aligning with campaigns like Pledgeball can help promote a positive image of the club. As Kevin Miller, the vice-chair of Whitehawk observes:

it [Pledgeball] was good for our club’s stance on everything, and our perceptions from the outside world . . . And it’s not a purely commercial decision, obviously, because there is a moral justification for being involved, which we completely embrace. But there is going to be an opportunity for us to get the message out and perhaps talk to other environmentally friendly companies to align with us, because of the fact that we are with Pledgeball. And that is a good thing, because there are quite a few companies that perhaps wouldn’t be part of Whitehawk Football Club, had they not realised that we’re taking this kind of stance.

Taking a stance on climate change can become a symbolic marker for the club, which in turn can attract sponsorship. It also helps create a virtuous circle, which in turn attracts more like-minded fans.

While Whitehawk may seem like a ready-made audience for the Pledgeball initiative, shifting behaviour on climate change is not automatically achieved. Pledgeball can start a conversation, but as Kevin critiques:

You can say that you’re going to be environmentally friendlier, but you don’t have to do it. And we assume that, because they say yes, they’re going to switch their lights off when they’re not in rooms. You can say you’re doing it and it makes you feel quite good, but if you’re not doing it. Actually it defeats the object. We’ve got to try and find ways of actually quantifying what people do. And we can do that in fun ways. We can get fans to make vegan food online, we can get fans to do things like recycling challenges, and we can do – I wouldn’t say about filming people in showers for five minutes – but certainly walking to work and taking the bike, or maybe bike repairs.

Football fans do not operate in a social vacuum, but live within a whole range of social networks and relationships. Raising the consciousness of fans can mean that they take these acts or raised awareness into other areas of their lives:

So now in my mind it’s like: OK that goes there [recycling]. Do I really need to use the car? Do I actually need the car? So I’m thinking along the right lines. Do I need to wash that? Could I do that by hand? So it’s in my thinking and I take it into my work now, because I work with young people. (Interviewee 1, 55, M)

These individuals can influence the people they work and live with, as well as locating oneself as an individual agent in the social structure:

Allowing people to make small adjustments to themselves and to their own lives and to make them therefore feel good about themselves. [. . .] I think, the way to deal with environmental problems is there being enough people making these changes for themselves who then are more likely to think, ‘well, hold on a minute, why are these companies not making these changes? Why is this political party not arguing for these changes?’ (Interviewee 2, 57, M)

As identified earlier, new social movements centre on political activism around identity. While football fandom is a significant part of fans’ identity (Cleland et al., 2018), connecting significant issues, such as climate change, to fan engagement can initiate greater political awareness.

Climate change requires collective action and structural change. Raising awareness of the group can provide more power to push for these changes, but the role of the club is limited, as Kevin outlines, ‘unless there is political change, where things that are bad for the environment are banned, and a more alternative source is adopted, all you can do is make lifestyle choices’.

As a result of the engagement with Pledgeball, the football club initiated changes to be more environmentally sustainable. When looking for a new supplier for their kit, the club actively looked for those who were environmentally sustainable. In May 2021, they announced a new kit supplier (Hope and Glory) for two seasons. The new shirts are made entirely of recycled bottles, ensuring the kit is more environmentally friendly than others on the market. The club also committed to a two-year deal, which meant that they would not replace their kit each season, meaning fans would not feel obligated to buy a new shirt every year. Additionally, the club purchased reusable plastic glasses in order to replace the single-use plastic on sale at the club, and sourced environmentally sustainable packaging for its catering outlet. They also introduced recycling bins and have started conversations with the council about bike racks and connecting the club to active travel and public transport networks in the city. A further development that emerged from conversations among fans and board members was the proposal to install bee hives to promote the population of bees in the local area.

Conclusion

This study is the first to understand how football fans engage with climate change and how a campaign should engage with them. It did this through analysis of fans’ engagement with the Pledgeball campaign and how they reflected on their engagement. It is situated within the literature, which argues that climate change communication needs to engage with the culture, values and worldviews of the target audience (Abrahamse and Matthies, 2018; Munshi et al., 2020). Pledgeball drew on the culture of football fandom – rivalries, competition and collective identity – in order to encourage fans to make pledges to do something to help reduce CO2 emissions. These pledges were arranged around fixtures and collated to show the amount of CO2 equivalents this would save, while comparing it with the rival team to show which group of fans ‘won’. Pledges provided a tangible translation and visualisation of the acts, and their potential impact on the environment. It was a new and meaningful way of engaging and learning (more) about the topic even for the very environmentally aware ones. But most importantly, it gave the fans agency over the issue and a sense of contribution to something bigger than the group. Even though their pledges were anonymous, they were acting as a team to explore new patterns of behaviour and social action.

Encouraging individual choice from a list of pledges helps promote the agency of the individual fans (O’Brien et al., 2019). This, and aligning with the culture of football, provided an easy entry point for fans who were both environmentally aware and those less so. Interviewees found the league table format (which showed that other members of the fan group are concerned about environmental issues and taking action as well) very encouraging. Feeding the sociability of fans, it created a safe space to discuss environmental issues with like-minded people. Engaging with those pro-environmental changes also resulted in fans re-evaluating their relationship with the world around them, including people and nature. Not only did people become more aware of their responsibility and agency but making these pledges and actually following up on them shifted their perceptions of change in a more general way. Change does not have to be something drastic, difficult and unpleasant, but can be enjoyable and lead to beneficial results for oneself, the broader (football) community and, in this case, the environment.

This study illustrates two key findings: that football fans could be a significant form of collective behaviour to engage with climate change; and that aligning with the identity and worldview of fans, as well as the broader culture of football, can promote engagement and possible social change. While the fans of Whitehawk may represent a smaller collective who are already engaged with social issues, it does not preclude teams with larger fanbases or different levels of social engagement. Football fans are heterogenous and there are fans in every fanbase who can be engaged. The key is that many fans have a high level of identification and emotional attachment to their clubs (Doidge et al., 2020). The regularity of the football fixture calendar and element of competition provides a cultural framework within which to engage these fans. Fans already mobilise collectively around a variety of issues (Cleland et al., 2018; King, 2003). While many of these are specifically linked to the organisation or activities of football, fans are also engaged in community work, such as collecting for food banks. Recognising the impact of climate change on football, and these local communities, will also connect these fans’ activities to the issue.

Finally, it is important to recognise the importance of structural change in order to address the issue of climate change. Football fans alone cannot solve the crisis, nor can individual actions (whether collective or not). Involving target groups in the creation of strategies and tools as well as making these as local, social and interactive are those most likely to bring about change. Rather than seeing football fans as a problem, or a group that needs to be educated or instructed what to do, active engagement with them, utilising the language and culture of football, while aligned to the values and beliefs of the fan groups themselves, is more likely to have a positive outcome.