Matches on and off the field

Three kinds of football families

I found that family support for a club is dictated by what the husband favours. There are three types of families: those with husband and wife supporting the same club; couples who support rival clubs; and those where only one spouse (usually the husband) is a fan.

Where both are fans of the same club side, the women say that this keeps their husbands close to the family. Through sharing the club’s fortunes, the family is well bonded and communicates peacefully. One wife said she had no choice but to support her husband’s club: “ I am automatically a fan of his club so I can have my husband with me. … the best way to make him remain my husband is to be a fan of his club”.

Where the husband and wife belong to different clubs, they become rivals at home. In most cases, the wife was already a soccer lover before marriage. They may joke, laugh and bet about which side will win. But there can also be arguments and bad feeling.

Where a wife lacks an interest in soccer, she may have to bear consequences such as the husband watching the match outside the household. A mother of two children stated: “I watch soccer but not with passion. I watch maybe because there is a Nigerian in the club. My husband is a fanatic! He devotes hundred percent of his time to it and does not want any disturbance. Even when I try to understand everything they are doing, he simply will tell me I cannot understand”.

How the match result affects the family

Respondents described the mood in their household when their husband’s club loses. They said communication ceases and children must avoid crossing their father’s path. Some fathers didn’t inflict their bad mood on their children but rather on their wife. A respondent said: “ He never lets it affect his relationship with his children. I am the one who bears the brunt”.

On the other hand, a victory for the husband’s club is a victory for the entire household. Wives reported that their husbands are cheerful and may bring treats for the children. Communication between spouses is enhanced and issues affecting the family are discussed. It is a strategic moment for the entire household.

Studies in Israel and Australia have found the same patterns.

The Israel studied titled `Not just for men: Israeli women who fancy football’ interrogated three basic questions relating to female fans: becoming a football fan, fandom as a way of life, and the relative autonomy of behaviour in the stadium. While admitting the fact that women enjoy only relative autonomy in football fandom, it concluded that football no longer remains ‘just for men’ as the game provides autonomous, albeit relative, space for women to assert their identity and commitment in the football stadium.

The Australian study titled `Rogue Men and Predatory Women: Female Fans’ Perceptions of Australian Footballers’ Sexual Conduct ‘ was conducted against the background of claims made by women about football and rugby players behaving inappropriately towards them.

This was a big issue around the start of the 2004 Australian Football League and National Rugby League seasons. A raft of allegations surfaced in the media, prompting nationwide debate on the issue of sportsmen and violence.

The authors noted, in the abstract, that while sport sociologists have made important inroads toward understanding sexual misconduct by male athletes, much of this research appears to focus on the socio-cultural factors informing the perpetrators’ actions. They designed their study to take a different approach; of analysing the perspectives of female Australian football fans to consider gendered narratives of sexual misconduct. Their findings demonstrated that discourses of individualism, along with a mix of socio-cultural and biological arguments, are used by women to reconcile players’ misconduct with continuing support of their sport.

The Nigerian women in my study took an interest in European soccer so as to sustain the family and ensure effective communication, bonding and crisis management. This suggests that if men were more open to including women in their soccer world, it could benefit relationships at the family level.

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Oludayo Tade is a Researcher in criminology, victimology, electronic frauds and cybercrime, University of Ibadan