View from the (Virtual) Terraces: Football Fandom in Videogames

Other is a concept that is fundamental to sports: the other team, other player(s), other fans. Football fans share a camaraderie and can enthuse a tribalism (Mangan, 1996) that is difficult to understand and replicate in the virtual world. Yet, that identity and fandom are expressed in virtual spaces. Who is a virtual footballer? What is fandom in virtual football? How is that fandom represented and expressed? How do real-world identities translate to the virtual? What does fandom mean in the virtual footballing context? Football fans are commonly viewed as passionate, vociferous, and loyal (Bradley, 2003). Though often portrayed negatively due to sporadic violent incidents they also represent a peaceful and positive way for fans to connect with ‘otherness’. Fans can entertain (for good and bad reasons), act as ambassadors for their respective club/country and through their behaviour break down stereotypes. We are interested in how that manifests itself in the virtual world.This paper examines virtual football players to explore expressions of identity and loyalty (club or country) amongst those who regularly play major football simulation games, EA Sports FC and eFootball. As current incarnations of longstanding popular franchises (FIFA and PES respectively) we consider how ‘otherness’ affects the player base through popular perceptions and misconceptions of real football, franchise rivalry and platform popularity (Guins et al, 2022). We also reflect on 'other' player agencies, audiences, and experiences between different types of football games. Lastly, we examine how these games act as a gauge in representing real football fans and how they are used to portray different notions of self, other layers of identity and what these might mean in understanding gamer identity. We then consider how these provide comment on some of the political, social, religious and national nuances involved in football more generally.