Challenging ableism and disablism in English football fandom: disabled supporters and repertoires of ‘everyday resistance’

Connor Penfold, Paul Darby and Paul Kitchin

Abstract

Recent research has shown that disabled people who attend professional football matches in England are confronted with a series of barriers rooted in ableism and disablism. However, we know significantly less about how they respond to, navigate and resist these. Addressing growing calls among scholars of disability activism to capture the whole spectrum of resistance articulated by disabled people, particularly more individual, spontaneous forms, this study aims to expose the mundane, individualised and ‘everyday’ resistance enacted by disabled football supporters.

Drawing on a dual-phased netnographic methodology involving online observations of fan message boards and online semi-structured interviews with 33 disabled supporters, we uncover three primary ‘repertoires of resistance’ consisting of: visibility politics; avoidance; and speaking up. Through these verbal, cognitive, and/or physical acts of resistance, this study reveals that disabled people do not remain ‘passive’ when confronted with discriminatory discourses and practises in English football but rather, actively challenge them.

Points of interest

• The study explores how disabled people engage in everyday resistance to challenge the barriers they encounter as match-going supporters of professional English football clubs.
• Drawing on rich narratives from disabled supporters, the study identifies and discusses three key forms of individualised resistance that they perform in the context of their football fandom.
• The research highlights the importance of focusing on the full range of resistance disabled people practice, particularly the more individual and everyday forms.
• The study is the first to reveal English football fandom as a social context where disabled people respond to discrimination through everyday resistance.