A 'crisis of community' has emerged in many areas and many have sought to blame a variety of other 'social issues' on the decline of community. Football clubs now embody many of the collective symbols, identifications and processes of connectivity which long been associated with the notion of 'community'.

Football clubs across the world continue to embody many of the collective symbols, identifications and processes of connectivity which have long been associated with the notion of 'community'. In recent years, however, the very term 'community' has become the focus of renewed interest within popular discourse and amongst academics, politicians and policy makers. It has become something of a 'buzz' word, wheeled out as both a lament to more certain times and as an appeal to a better future: a term imbued with all the richness associated with human interaction. 'Community' has also been...