In the aftermath of a typically heated and fractious Merseyside derby (won by Liverpool after eventually wearing down an Everton side controversially reduced to 10 men), Leaf tea bar played host to a discussion on fanaticism in the 21st Century, dealing with how fandom has evolved over the last 20 years or so.

Chaired by Professor Andy Miah, with artist and Huddersfield fan John O’Shea (of the ‘Pigs Bladder Football’ project) and James McKenna from the Spirit of Shankly Liverpool FC supporters’ union forming the panel, the stage was set for an interesting afternoon.

O’Shea kicked off the salon with an overview of his anxieties about football in its current context, his biggest concern being the distance that has developed between fans and the modern game, supporters being relegated to the position of mere consumer. This point was echoed by McKenna, who said: “Spirit of Shankly came about [in 2008] due to the growing commercialism of the game, it’s quite sad really…life as a fan is difficult to quantify.”

The discussion threw up numerous questions, among them what can a fan do – given their seeming inability to walk away – to reduce the growing chasm between themselves and the game they love?

I’m a fan of football, but my relationship with it is love/hate.

McKenna spoke about the various options SOS looked at in their attempts to unseat LFC’s previous owners, studying various ownership models with Germanys viewed as the ideal, where fans have 50% of the votes on decisions involving their clubs, with an extra, ‘golden’ vote, effectively meaning they can never be overruled by commercial interests and so on.

The elephant in the room of course is, are fans complicit in this? McKenna pointed out: “If you go to a restaurant and get bad service or are overcharged, you don’t go back again, they lose your custom.” And this is where clubs and the game have fans over a barrel, with support of a particular club often ingrained through familial ties and in many cases with a fervour verging on the religious, you cannot simply go elsewhere, all your emotion and loyalty is irrevocably linked to the game and your club. O’Shea probably put it best, simply stating: “I’m a fan of football, but my relationship with it is love/hate.”

In the end, as is often the way, this debate raised more questions than it did answers, but it was incredibly worthwhile; John O’Shea and James McKenna providing great value and insight into a subject of great import. One hopes in the end, the peoples’ game will revert to exactly that: with modern-day fans developing a greater consciousness than previously on how their game is run, one hopes for a sea-change in football culture, perhaps fans could plan mass non-attendance, after all, TV execs don’t like empty stadia; it looks bad.

Image courtesy of Chris Pennington, 2011, all rights reserved.

Blog by Mike Pinnington, editor of forthcoming Arts, Design, Film and Music website, thedoublenegative.co.uk – Launching later this year – follow their progress on twitter: @doublenegativeM / @doublenegativeL