The fan is a necessary but ambiguous figure in sport. A vital part of the spectacle as well as a source of financial support, he (and it’s most often a he) can be a dutiful follower, fierce critic, passive spectator, possessive adulator, worshipful and entitled, and not infrequently all at the same time.
This tribal dependency, with all its pain, disappointment and fleeting moments of triumph, has made for some powerful memoirs, such as Frederick Exley’s (loosely fictionalised) A Fan’s Notes and Nick Hornby’s Fever Pitch. But in the age of fans’ podcasts, when scenes of young men having meltdowns are commonplace on social media, what more is there to say about the experience of being a fan that hasn’t already been memorably explored?
