I actually see this as part of a vast phenomenon, which I'd call the dematerialisation of society, and it's been going on for quite some time. You see it through Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc (none of which I have ever frequented, nor will), where it's seen as important that someone on the other side of the world who you have never met and never will meet has ‘liked’ your meal at the restaurant, or ‘liked’ the setting of the pub you're having a pint in. You have hundreds of ‘friends’. Perhaps you have an online dalliance with a woman or man you'll never meet.
By analogy, you are a ‘fan’ of this or that club because you see them through a screen while you sit in your Juventus/Barca/City/Liverpool/Real top.
Covid has only accelerated this process of living life through the proxy of a television or computer screen. People have endless Zoom meetings. Everybody complains about it, everybody submits to it.
I draw a hard distinction — purely a private thing, take it or leave it, many won't accept it — between being a fan and being a supporter. A supporter materially supports and contributes to their club, and not simply by being the loudest mouth down the pub.
Make no mistake: if this goes ahead, it really doesn't matter if there are supporters there or not. They are sidelined. The money they bring in through the turnstiles is as nothing compared to the global broadcasting rights which allow someone who has literally never set foot in Maine Road or the Etihad, indeed has never set foot in the UK, to watch their football as consumers. The voice and passion of supporters is not in the stadium? No matter. You can fabricate ersatz crowd noise vaguely related to what's going on on the pitch. The players are not happy? They'll be paid even more of a fortune than they're paid now. They'll shut their mouths, believe it.
If this goes ahead, it is the end of something that has given me great pleasure (also great pain), and great meaning.
I shall always be a City supporter in my heart — I have no choice — but I shall refuse being transformed from a supporter into what I have defined as a fan. I refuse being shunted from being an agent of my club's fortunes — in however tiny a way — to being an inert consumer.
