Young Africans supporting European clubs: the case of football fans from Accra, Ghana

Abstract

The massive following that European soccer leagues enjoy in Africa, especially among urban youth, is an aspect of African youth cultures that scholarship has not adequately addressed. This paper explores the phenomenon and its implications for young people’s everyday identity politics, by focusing on how African popular cultures draw on global cultural trends to appeal to urban youth in local settings across the continent. Specifically, what is being analysed is how young people engage with global modernity by projecting their aspirations and desires through the fortunes of their adopted European soccer teams. Using the questionnaire interview method, I talked to nine Ghanaian youths living in Accra, Ghana’s capital, where there currently exists a vibrant youth support movement for foreign clubs. Findings from the interviews reveal that the glamour of European leagues trigger issues of identity, belonging, and politics among young Africans. While some consider their involvement in European leagues as an escape and a powerful protest to the comparatively unattractive soccer landscape on the continent, others perceive it as an expression of their global citizenship and belonging. Recognising the enjoyment that young people elicit from the European soccer craze, the article argues that not only does the entertainment value of foreign soccer ‘absolve’ youth of their allegiance to foreign interests, but it also provides a powerful cultural avenue for them to vicariously participate in a modernity whose privileges they cannot access locally.

L’énorme popularité des ligues européennes de football en Afrique, en particulier parmi les jeunes citadins, est un aspect des cultures de la jeunesse en Afrique que la recherche n'a pas suffisamment abordé. Cet article explore le phénomène et ses implications pour la politique identitaire quotidienne des jeunes. L'article s’intéresse à la façon dont les cultures populaires africaines s’inspirent de tendances culturelles mondiales pour attirer les jeunes citadins dans des contextes locaux dans l’ensemble du continent. Je montre comment les jeunes s’engagent dans la modernité mondiale en projetant leurs aspirations et leurs désirs à travers le destin de leurs équipes de football européennes préférées. En utilisant des entretiens par questionnaire, j'ai parlé à neuf jeunes Ghanéens vivant à Accra, la capitale du Ghana, où il existe actuellement un mouvement de soutien dynamique des jeunes pour les clubs étrangers. Les résultats des entretiens révèlent que le charme des ligues européennes déclenche des problèmes d'identité, d'appartenance et de politique chez les jeunes Africains. Alors que certains considèrent leur implication dans les ligues européennes comme une évasion et une puissante protestation contre le paysage du football relativement peu attrayant sur le continent, d'autres la perçoivent comme une expression de leur citoyenneté mondiale et de leur appartenance. L’article reconnait le plaisir que les jeunes tirent de l'engouement pour le football européen, et soutient que non seulement la valeur de divertissement du football étranger dispense les jeunes de leur allégeance aux intérêts étrangers, mais ils y trouvent également une avenue culturelle puissante pour participle, par procuration à une modernité insaisissable alors qu’ils n’ont pas accès localement à ses avantages et privilèges.

Keywords:

• youth
• popular culture
• Africa
• European soccer clubs
• development

Mots clés:

• Jeunes
• culture populaire
• Afrique
• clubs de football européens
• développement

Introduction

In many countries across Africa, particularly amongst urban youth, soccer has ingrained itself into the national culture, and many aspects of everyday life revolve around it. The game is the most popular on the continent with each country having millions of supporters, thousands of players, hundreds of clubs, and countless tournaments.¹ As Ghana has qualified for the 2022 FIFA World Cup, it is expected that viewership will exceed 90%, which was the estimated viewership in 2014 when the national team last featured in the competition.²

This fondness for football is not only localised; it is increasingly being extended to foreign soccer clubs. It is now a social fad for many young Africans living in urban spaces to adopt European soccer clubs that they support. The foreign soccer leagues are so popular on the continent that many young sports fans have developed some indifference to the fortunes of local soccer clubs and tournaments. This paper thus attempts to conceptualise football as a form of pop culture (Whannel 2008), while examining the interest in European soccer leagues by Ghanaian youths, and how this affects what this urban popular culture might mean for their lifestyles, self-identities, and the cultural politics of everyday life. The research is grounded in Clark’s (2012) critical framework for analysing popular culture, which argues that the factors influencing socially conscious hip-hop culture reveal broader economic, cultural, and political forces that impact youth expression.³

In this paper, I contextualise the popularity of European soccer in Ghana within the ongoing socio-economic crisis brought about by the introduction of neoliberal economic policies and the consequent collapse of national capitalism, as well as the elimination of programmes designed to address the interests and welfare of ordinary people, including youths. Gyampong, Edward and Anyidoho (2019) state that though marginalised, the African youth must still be encouraged to participate within the social sphere. In the estimation of Bandura (1999), youth behaviours and actions evolve and become more complex and intentional under particular external social forces. The paper thus ponders a series of questions relating to youth mass attraction to European soccer leagues: Why do urban young Africans follow football teams in Europe? In what particular ways do they express this support? What does this do to their self-esteem and identity? How do they negotiate allegiance to these European clubs against teams from their own nation? Finally, the paper presents anecdotal accounts of youth fandom for foreign clubs as well as the implications for the development agenda.

Investigating these concerns led to intriguing insights that are crucial in understanding the positionality of Ghanaian urban youths in their relationship with global cultures. Given the paper’s concern for the particular social conditions surrounding and shaping the popularity of European soccer among a growing youth fan base in Ghana, it adopts a qualitative approach of gathering and analysing data (Mckee 2001). I intentionally selected nine Ghanaians between the ages of 18 and 35, living in Accra. All of them were identified across various social media platforms as ardent supporters of European clubs. Having approached them, I explained the nature of the research and asked for their consent. I engaged with them individually within a four-week period in December 2019 by serving them with an interview guide, and after they had submitted their responses, I followed up on their submissions through unstructured phone interviews. The conversations revealed significant pop-cultural practices occurring around identity, patriotism, politics, and economics, on the national and transnational levels.

The term ‘youth’ has been used to reference a physical, cognitive, emotional, and socio-cultural stage of adolescence, that generally occurs during the period of puberty and adulthood. For many years, development scholars and practitioners have attempted to define youth and design models to illustrate their structure for practical use in the social context.⁴ Asante (2012) considers the term ambiguous because while the United Nations designates youth as being between ages 15–24, the African Union classifies persons within 15–35 as youths, the same as the National Youth Policy of Ghana (2010). For the purpose of this paper, ages 15–35 are taken as the youth bracket. Nevertheless, no matter how they are defined, young people the world over use cultural experiences in unpredictable ways to make sense of their circumstances.⁵

Soccer as popular culture in Africa

The global football brand is followed by more than a billion people around the world, out of which 260 million are in Africa.⁶ While the weekly matches take place across various leagues in Europe, followers of the game in Africa participate by monitoring these leagues in the global media. No part of Africa is untouched by the expansive coverage of Europe’s soccer competitions (Peters 2019). DSTV SuperSport and other conglomerates across the world televise the leagues in countries such as Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. DSTV’s coverage of European football includes the English, French, German, Italian, and Spanish leagues, as well as the Champions League. The Champions League is an annual club football competition organized by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA), and contested by top-division European clubs.

To follow and patronise these European teams, young audiences in Africa invest a range of diverse resources, and therefore these teams consider the continent as fertile ground to grow international patronage (Georgiou 2018). During their time in the La Liga, for example, the rivalry between Ronaldo (Real Madrid) and Messi (FC Barcelona) evoked much enthusiasm among African youths.⁷ Betting centres spring up frequently to take advantage of this type of enthusiasm. In addition, some teams such as AS Napoli have twitter accounts in Kiswahili designed to specifically engage speakers of that African language.

As African fans of European leagues follow these teams, they create sub-cultures that become derivatives linking a global pop culture to local audiences across the continent (Mensah 2006). Defined as the entirety of attitudes, ideas, images, perspectives, and other phenomena within the mainstream culture, pop culture is heavily influenced by mass media, and permeates society across the world (Crossman 2019). The most common pop culture categories include fashion, music, film/cinema, television, and sports, which is mostly patronised by the youth. Therefore, the complex links between football, pop culture, and youth provide a fascinating point of study, the implication of which everyday identity politics in the African continent cannot be ignored. While popular culture engages the creativity of youth in different ways, it also functions as a powerful tool for them to develop a sense of belonging (Barber 1997; Neuman 2014; Ndubuisi 2013; Nkrumah 1960; Nnaemeka 2009). It provides resources for identity construction, for fostering purpose, and for wider political uses.⁸

This paper considers the large-scale youth support for European football teams as a developmental resource.⁹ In her work on young Africans’ engagement with hip-hop and its new forms in Accra and Tanzania, Clark (2012) argues that hip-hop as a popular art form is empowering because it offers young people crucial lines of participation in social and political discourses. Mehler (2008) suggests that the political discourse in football coverage in Ghana, for example, produces a more Pan-African style of patriotism, uniting different subgroups within the nation, as opposed to in Côte d’Ivoire where football language stimulates heated debate over national identity. I deviate from this line of thought to suggest that although young Ghanaians rally around their national team, this allegiance may be compromised as they now also idolise the footballers and coaches of European soccer teams, while subscribing to their ideologies. My study thus draws attention to how soccer functions as a powerful social lever for young people to shift their cultural allegiance from the local to the global.

While the literature on globalisation is replete with allusions to the capitalist aspects of the global economy, some scholars such as Clark (2012) and Mensah (2006) have sought to project the cultural repercussions of the phenomenon. Contributors to the debate include those who posit that Africa has got little to contribute to the process because of what de Rivero (2001) refers to as its ‘non-viable economies’. A more recent argument which this study will highlight considers globalisation as a new form of decolonisation. I propose that Africa’s connection with globalisation is more complex than either of the above positions, and potentially difficult to fathom unless attention is paid to cultural consequences of the phenomenon. This study contributes to the literature by focusing on a popular culture aspect of the continent’s relationship with globalisation.

The era of globalisation has also meant greater access to an international audience. As indicated earlier, recent criticism has underscored how the proliferation of electronic media platforms has enabled the youth of Africa to become absorbed into global cultures and discourses (McLeod 1999). With a click of a button they can like, comment, and share in global conversations around the game. They have access and they in turn become accessible. On her birthday in June 2020, a popular Ghanaian broadcaster and Manchester United fan, Nana Aba Anamoah, received a Range Rover as her gift. On Twitter, this generated well wishes, with one coming from Manchester United’s Spanish player, Juan Mata. Earlier in 2018, this fan shared a selfie against a background purported to be the stands of Old Trafford, the home base of her favourite team. When it was confirmed that she photo-shopped the image, it became a huge talking point, with trolling not only of Nana Aba, but Manchester United and their supporters as well.¹⁰ Much later, when she did get the chance to visit England to watch Manchester United play, Nana Aba shared the authentic video, which was then used to ridicule those on the other side of the argument.

Increasingly, young people partake in such online banter because the internet and social media have become resources for them to partake in both local and global cultural trends, which define their sense of self and how they define themselves in relation to global modernity. European teams have pages on Facebook and related platforms for fans based in Africa. Individual soccer stars also have fan bases and interact with supporters from the continent. Young Africans express their support for European soccer teams as part of their global metropolitan identity.

Not belonging to a foreign football club seemingly suggests a lack of connectedness to global modernity and culture. As well as the immediate pleasure that sports offer young people, they are also intertwined with issues of development.¹¹ Soccer is positioned as a uniting social phenomenon that celebrates youth, talent, and fairness, as seen in FIFA’s ‘For the Good of the Game’ project. Football stars continually adopt charity campaigns that address poverty and well-being concerns within their communities. The employment of soccer icons as brand ambassadors for development causes also highlights the game as working for the good of society.

In the next section, I discuss the legacy of soccer across newly independent African countries such as Ghana, as well as the evolution and iconisation of the modern game on the continent.

Back-heel into history: a genealogy of the game in Africa

In Africa, the game of organised football was first played on the shores of South Africa in 1862.¹² The game has since grown immensely popular, and for the first time on the continent, South Africa hosted the FIFA World Cup in 2010. Africa’s relationship with soccer has had two elements: the foreign factor and the patronage of high political office. With the support of the colonial establishment, the game spread through the mission schools, the military forces, and railways routes.¹³ By the 1890s, there were African teams and Indian teams across Southern Africa. Along the coasts, clubs were also formed quite early on. Up in Algeria, the French already had some clubs set up in the late 19th century, and by the 1930s, the game had spread into Central Africa as well as the interior parts of the continent. In Ghana, along the west coast, students of Cape Coast Local Government Boys School were the first to kick the globular leather in 1903.¹⁴ Under the charge of a Mr. Briton, their Jamaican headmaster, the lads were already sports-conscious, being introduced to cricket earlier. The Excelsiors – as they were called – were inaugurated by the governor of the colony, Sir Fredrick Hodgson at Cape Coast.¹⁵

According to the account, the governor was impressed with the youth’s performance and so arranged for another match; this time against a European side made up of sailors from a ship that had docked at Cape Coast. Some European residents joined the sailor group. If one thing underscored the colonial orientation around the game, it was the names of these early teams: Bolton Wanderers, Energetics, Evertons, Gardens, Judges, Majestics, Titanic Mysterious Dwarfs, and Venomous Vipers. By 1910, Accra, the capital of the Gold Coast, had caught the football fever. The Invincibles, a beach-side local team, was founded in James Town (British Accra). According to Bediako (2012), within a year, the lads from the rival town, Ussher Town (Dutch Accra), founded Accra Hearts of Oak. From Accra, the game spread northwards to the hinterlands. Two decades later, Kumasi Asante Kotoko was founded to become one of the great clubs and to serve as perennial rivals of Hearts. By 1940s, Gold Coast Football Union was formed, and association football became established in the country.

When the colonialists left and African politicians took over governance, they continued with the strong promotion of football. Darby (2013) draws a critical relationship between the leadership of President Kwame Nkrumah, his crafting of a new nation, and the very architecture of Pan-Africanism. Darby states that recognising the passion and potential of the game, Ghana’s first president invested in football as a vehicle through which to spread his nationalistic and pan-Africanistic ideologies. In the estimation of Pannebros (2010), soccer was a rare form of ‘national culture’ in postcolonial Africa where stadiums and clubhouses became arenas in which Africans challenged colonial power and expressed a commitment to racial equality and self-determination. For instance, new nations staged matches as part of their independence celebrations, and joined the world body, FIFA.¹⁶ Indeed, at the birth of a new Ghana in 1957, Marcus Garvey’s concept of the ‘Black Star’ was extended to act as the name of the nation’s football team. Nkrumah ensured that both the coaches and management teams of the Black Stars got their training abroad. He also allowed the national team to tour soccer powerhouses such as Brazil and other places in Europe, and in turn, invited global soccer legends to tour the newly independent country as well. For example, English soccer star Stanley Matthews visited Ghana in 1957.

In 1962, Real Madrid of Spain visited the country for an invitational tour. Their team included eight players who had been part of Spain’s squad at the 1962 World Cup in Chile Accra: (Anaman 2016). The Real Madrid tour was rather expensive (costing Ghana at least 15,000 pounds sterling), but when it was over, the Daily Graphic agreed that it was ‘the most precious service the government can render to Ghana football.’¹⁷ Having noticed how Kwame Nkrumah had successfully exploited the power and popularity of the game, national leaders such as Guinea’s President Sekou Toure and Zaire’s President Mobutu Seseseko followed suit and pumped money into their country’s football. The latter would go on in 1974, to sink a fortune into another sport, boxing, in the famous ‘Rumble in the Jungle’ extravaganza.

Political leadership across Africa has since associated national morale with the fortunes of football. In Liberia, President George Weah’s ascendancy to political leadership came on the back of his illustrious career as a footballer. For his part, Nelson Mandela reflected that during his incarceration at Robben Island Prison in the 1960s, playing football ‘made us feel alive and triumphant despite the situation we found ourselves in (Peacock 2013).’¹⁸

Across Africa, the key body in soccer in each country is the national football association. Most FAs have tried to professionalize the game, and have league boards that oversee the Premier League and the lower divisions. The reality, however, is that the organisation of football is vast and complex and numerous powerful companies and individuals are involved in the sponsoring and running of the game. Anecdotally, there is also the saying that football in Africa is almost never played for football’s sake. To Pannebros (2010), the game is not always about scoring goals on the field of play; it is also about scoring goals in the world of finance and politics. Thus, on the African continent, football offers a good Corporate Social Responsibilities (CSR) prospect, and has proven to be a cost-effective instrument in promoting peace and development objectives. It is a powerful tool with the potential to tackle challenges entailed in at least 10 of the 17DG goal.¹⁹

African soccer professionals: the game changers

The glamour of global soccer was enhanced by the recruitment of players from different parts of the world as well as the mediatisation of the game (Mensah 2006).²⁰ He cites the increasing presence of African soccer players in the European soccer scene from the 1980s, especially as reflective of an indigenisation process. The history, however, goes much farther, with soccer historians citing Arthur Wharton, Hussein Heggazi, Larbi Ben Mbarek, Raoul Diagne, and Ali Bennouna as the earliest Africans to have gone to play professionally in Europe. Since then, football has been life-changing for generations of players from the continent. Decades after these stars, the likes of Roger Milla, Rabah Madjer, Abedi Pele, Jay-Jay Okocha, Nwanko Kanu, and Francois Aubameyang followed suit. For many of these players, it was more than a livelihood (Poli 2006). During an interview on a Teju Baby Face Talk Show, recorded in Nigeria in 2017, Jay-Jay Okocha said that he was determined to humiliatingly dribble past white opponents, to offset the racism that he and other blacks suffered.²¹

The agency shown by African soccer stars to assert themselves in these leagues is inspirational for a mass of youth supporters on the continent. As Said (1983) aptly points out, all cultures are involved in one another: heterogeneous and undifferentiated. From coast to coast, Africans have wrested control of soccer from the hands of Europeans and South Americans, and as Alegi Peter & Bolsmann Chris (2013) puts it, the rise of different playing styles, the rituals of spectatorship, and the presence of witch doctors, have turned soccer into a distinctively African activity and cultural spectacle. They refer to the flourishing of soccer on the continent as ‘democratising the game,’ a phenomenon that began from the 1960s. Cameroonian star Roger Milla, for instance, has been recognised as a pioneer of the many unconventional and imaginative goal celebrations seen since his antics at the Italy 1990 World Cup. According to Golisports, Milla was one of the first people to celebrate a goal in style, when he ran up to the corner flag and did a jig. After that footballers from around the world came up with creative ways to celebrate their goals.²²

The history of soccer in Africa sketched above shows the factors that make African soccer audiences relate to the global game. As African soccer players are recruited into European leagues, the active support of African fans is nurtured. According to a 2015 survey by FIFA, the most attractive soccer league for African countries is the English Premier League (EPL), with Manchester United, Chelsea, Arsenal and Liverpool turning out to be the teams that enjoy the most support from the continent (Kwenda 2015). The dynamics of this popularity is also reflected in the profile of players from the continent playing in the EPL. For instance, in the mid-2000s, the presence of Michael Essien and Mikel Obi at Chelsea guaranteed that the English team garnered much Ghanaian and Nigerian support. One might also add that Nwankwo Kanu was a reason for Arsenal's popularity in Nigeria. South Africa has a huge fan base for Manchester United, and was the first country in Africa to have an official United Supporters’ Club. This is related to the fact that for seven years, one of South Africa’s biggest stars, Quinton Fortune, played for the ‘Red Devils.’ Fortune is also one of the many ex-players who travelled to the region as a brand ambassador every year.

In North Africa, support for Arsenal is huge. The ‘Gunners’ have a massive fan base in Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia. These active fan clubs in Africa have helped popularise the north London club through activities such as the annual fun run, ‘Be a Gunner.’ Meanwhile, next-door in Egypt, Chelsea became the most attractive team thanks to Mohamed Salah’s 2014 move to the English champions.²³ The German Bundesliga, currently behind in terms of popularity, has appointed ambassadors to promote their brand across Africa. Bundesliga’s international chief executive Robert Klein said that the top-flight soccer association has outlined a new growth strategy to connect with fans on the continent. ‘With more than half a billion Africans now owning a mobile phone, we’re working with our broadcast partners to continually adapt our content strategy to account for the different ways people are consuming content, taking a much more localised approach to target specific audience groups.’²⁴

Without a doubt, the modern game has also gained cultural power because of the star status of African players. Football stars such as Didier Drogba and Samuel Eto’o have become global icons. They transcend their role as mere African players and are symbols of the determination, resilience, and creativity of the youth in their respective nations. In countries with political and economic difficulties, these stars can lift the spirit of the people. Samuel Eto’o has set up a football academy in his native country and he has sent ambulances to Cameroon. Drogba is well admired in his native La Cote D’Ivoire for his peace-building efforts after a conflict broke out in 2010–2011. His foundation embarked on infrastructural projects to promote health and education in the country. On his part, Nwankwo Kanu set up the Heart Foundation in 2000.²⁵

Having established the Pan African background for a study in Ghana, I neither wish to homogenise nor essentialise Africa. I only wish to demonstrate that what is being analysed here among young people in Accra mirrors what is happening across the entire African continent, in those massive youth followings of European soccer leagues in places like Nigeria, Rwanda, Uganda and South Africa.

Tackling the problematic: the social constructions of African youth

Young people take inspiration from popular culture. However, popular media and policy makers often view youths in Africa as a challenge; as a population segment experiencing crisis, and prone either to violence or inactivity.²⁶ It must be conceded, though, that recent scholarship is beginning to cast important light on young people’s constructive engagement in different realms of activity (Ugor & Mawuko-Yevugah 2015). From a development perspective, the consequences of not fully harnessing youth’s potential could be dire, leading to significant economic losses, and even armed conflict and social upheaval, as demonstrated in the 2010s by the Arab Spring.²⁷ This analytical lapse has prompted calls from several scholars to integrate culture into the study of globalisation and development.²⁸

Unfortunately, the African youth is either marginalised in terms of voice because of ‘respect for the elderly,’ or is economically disenfranchised. According to Burgess (2005), at the time of independence between the late 1950s and 1960s, there was expectation that the youth of Africa would be given the wherewithal to participate meaningfully in the building of new nations. This has never materialised, as generation after generation, the youth are largely denied social and economic opportunities (Ayesu 2011). On account of this, the image of the African youth in the global cultural imagination has been associated with menace and a lack of progression, a dominant image that the Western media likes to hold up to the world. Young men of African descent are often shown in the forefront of civil wars and civil unrest on the continent.²⁹ Liberia, Somalia, Sierra Leone, and the vigilantes of Nigeria’s Niger Delta area are examples. In recent times, young men and women trekking dangerously across the Sahara Desert to Europe for greener pastures have become a common image of the African youth.

Furthermore, because of media globalisation, the bulk of pop cultures in the continent are foreign, or more specifically, Western influenced.³⁰ This puts the youth under scrutiny as they are continuously accused of not being ‘African’ enough. Laura Fair’s (2001) study of urban popular culture contributes to that assumption by demonstrating that the tension between African youth and the establishment is exacerbated by the perceived notion that the youth are identifying with ideals that are not cultural or native to African aspirations. They are thus ‘othered’ and distanced from opportunities.

Score line: how African youth are engaging the European leagues

In analysing young people’s involvement with the European football leagues, attention must be paid to their agency in producing, establishing, and circulating recognisable socio-cultural norms. The research was conducted with the following questions in mind: Firstly, when African youths adopt and idolise foreign soccer players and their clubs, do they suffer cognitive dissonance with respect to their self-identities? Secondly, how do they engage with these foreign clubs?

Unstructured phone interviews were conducted with participants (only first names provided) in Accra on the following dates: Kwesi, Fred, and Samora (January 12, 2019); Mawuko, Nii, and Jeffrey (January 14, 2019); Nana Sam and Diana (January 17, 2019); and Elise (January 19, 2019). The European team support profile of the respondents are as follows in Table 1 below:

Table 1. European Club Supporters Profile.

Name	Age	Gender	Socio-economic info	European Club	Local Team Supported
Nii	30	M	Sports journalist, ‘family man’	AC Milan	Olympics
Mawuko	28	M	Health worker, single	Arsenal	None
Samora	23	M	University graduate, unemployed	Arsenal	None
Elsie	31	F	Married, entrepreneur	Arsenal	None
Nana Sam	29	M	Trader, school-drop-out, single with child	Chelsea	Hearts of Oak
Kwesi	18	M	University student	Chelsea	None
Diana	34	F	Single, telecom executive	Chelsea (with a soft spot for Barcelona)	Hearts of Oak
Fred	35	F	Teaching Assistant/Uber driver ‘by night’	Manchester United	None
Jeffrey	32	F	HR Practitioner	Manchester United	Kotoko

My approach has helped produce critical data that can inform population-level policy, though it must be stressed the findings do not lend themselves to generalisation. It is significant to note that none of the respondents admitted ever shifting support from one European soccer team to another, although one mentioned some allegiance to a second foreign club. All nine respondents, seven males and two females, had been supporting their teams for between five years (Mawuko) and 18 years (Fred). Four of the respondents had local teams they supported, namely Hearts of Oak, Asante Kotoko and Gt. Olympics. The other five said they did not really support a Ghanaian club side, though they were quick to add that they supported the national team, the Black Stars.

How and where do you watch the games?

Six respondents said they watch live games on their smart phones, at fan zones, on DSTV at home, or at local pubs. Elsie, Fred, and Samora said they do not watch it live but catch up later after school or work. For these three, they are updated by watching highlights of the game online, on Esports websites or on TV.

How did you get to settle on your foreign team club?

Respondents adopted their clubs based on the buzz around the team, club colours, and influence from close associates; specifically ‘parents,’ ‘older brother,’ ‘friend,’ or ‘boss.’ None cited what might be referred to as ‘functional’ reasons, such as the winning performance of teams. It is instructive that the ‘sentimental’ motivation offered by all respondents brings about the most significant factors in settling on a club; mainly group identity, passion, and enjoyment. Following the club allegiance of someone close or influential indicates that these fans’ crave belonging and approval. A follow-up to the above question was what respondents specifically like about their team. Comments included: ‘They play beautiful football’; ‘The culture of the club appealed to me’ as well as ‘the style of play back in 2000’; and ‘Because it’s one of the sweetest teams in the world!’

Why do you support a European soccer club?

Responses to the above question demonstrate how globalisation highlights tension between the global and the local. Answers suggested pull and push factors for choosing to support a European football club: i.e. the glamour of foreign football versus the ‘boring’ Ghana league. The range of reactions mentioned the unexciting nature of the local soccer league; the poor skill level of local players; and the poor marketing of matches by clubs and the Football Association. These factors make the local scene unattractive while making the foreign leagues more alluring. Specifically, Mawuko stated that he simply cannot follow the local league as it would bore him to death, while Elsie simply said, ‘I can’t relate to them,’ when referring to local league clubs. Fred offered a stronger answer: ‘We cannot be forced to limit ourselves to our boring local leagues.’ This sounds as though watching the international leagues can in a sense be seen as protesting the local. The responses are also significant as they show that though they live on the continent, these young Ghanaians can vicariously live out their dreams and aspirations outside of its boundaries, suggesting globalisation playing out between macro and micro phenomena. What this demonstrates is that young Africans living on the African continent can adopt pop culture from the West and reinvent it into a novel form of urban expression.

How do you express your support for your team in your daily interactions?

Answers included ‘wearing my jerseys’; ‘posting team’s pictures on my status’; ‘speaking proudly about the team I love’; ‘making fun of losing rivals’; and ‘arguing sometimes for my team.’ The answers to this question can be grouped under attire/costume and specific communicative actions. Probed further on the items, respondents indicated a variety of cultural insignia they use to show support for their clubs. They cited the team jersey as the favourite piece of paraphernalia, followed by the poster (mostly downloaded), branded key holder, towel, and branded mug. Of the jersey, Samora said: ‘Nothing beats seeing someone in town wearing Arsenal’s jersey. When I’m also wearing it at the time, it is magic!’ Apart from Nana Sam and Kwesi, all respondents said that they buy the jerseys every league season. While some respondents got fake brands because it was less expensive, others ordered them from teams’ online stores such as United Direct and Nike. When it comes to pop culture appropriation, it is pertinent to examine the context in which indigenisation takes place. From the data, it is apparent that the opportunity for decolonising or hybridising these paraphernalia is not maximised, as the branded items are all imported. Respondents buy and use these merchandise, but are not able to produce it as the production is not in Africa. From an economic perspective, this confirms the capital flight arguments of Gilpin and Gilpin (2001) and Hountondji (1996). What is important here, at least in the context of the politics of an ongoing urban youth culture, is that although the production of these cultural symbols are far removed from the local production sites of these youthful fans, the participants are able to localise and re-signify these global cultural artefacts into a discourse that is both local and global at the same time.

How do you express your support for your team on social media?

The literature on new media recognises that social media is a vehicle that drives pop culture. This question was to elicit respondents’ online behaviour towards engaging with their respective teams. The responses included: ‘liking pictures and posts’; ‘sharing pictures and posts’; ‘commenting in favour of my team’; ‘trolling the other team’; and ‘creating and forwarding memes.’ Here again, I attempted to figure out the extent to which my respondents exercised agency in creating and uploading content (Coetzee 2001). None of the respondents created football memes and short videos, mainly due to a lack of technical skills. On the other hand, they created text messages with icons, emojis, and still images on their phones. When asked to disclose the content of European club posts and memes on their phones at the time of interview, it contained messages and posts which used local language, local concepts, symbols, and the use of local actors in sketches that teased specific teams that had experienced defeat.

In this regard, there is an ongoing dynamic of indigenisation in how young Africans engage the European clubs. They also mentioned downloading team logos, mascots and trending slogans on their WhatsApp status. From the overall responses, the smart phone emerged as the most significant medium for local and global socio-cultural engagement. The various answers point to social media as a decolonised space where respondents can express their devotion to their teams. Within this space, they can ‘battle’ fans of other teams who are their peers, and also form peer solidarities with the supporters of their own club.

What personal benefits do you derive from supporting your foreign club?

Entertainment was a common theme across the answers to the above question. Again, the sentimental factor was prominent here, as predictably most respondents said they obtained some joy when their team won.

For example, Nana Sam said: ‘Emotionally, I am happy when our team wins a game; that happiness is reflected in all activities that week.’

Diana said: ‘I feel good when we win.’

And lastly, Jeffrey said: ‘I like to be congratulated when I go to the office. I enjoy it!’

Probed further for more tangible rewards, respondents could not point to anything, although Fred said: ‘Unfortunately, I am not reaping any physical rewards, yet I’m hoping to win a season ticket one day.’ It also must be noted that none of the respondents admitted to engaging in game betting. However, what is crucial about these responses is the invisible politics associated with entertainment. In a postcolonial setting where young people are denied access to the amenities of modern life – especially due to chronic misgovernance by the ruling African elite – creating avenues through which young people can secure pleasure is itself a political gesture, designed to bypass the limitations and restrictions of urban life in Africa. What this politics of urban pleasure in the marginalised youth illustrates is that ‘young people are finding creative means of articulating their aspirations – and their alternatives to established social and political orders – using cultural idioms and establishing modes of association that may be invisible or obscure to national policy-makers.’³¹

Does your support for your European team affect your patriotism or national identity?

Across the board, the responses indicated that African youths did not feel any conflict of interest.

Jeffrey: ‘It’s a global thing and we rep our country Ghana when we support.’

Nii: ‘Good African footballers don’t even play in Africa, so I see no reason not to be part of a global fan base.’

Elsie: ‘Our African brothers are also in there.’

If there was any ideology common to those supporting foreign teams, it was not at the forefront of their minds; they were only focused on the entertainment that their affinity with these teams brought. This affinity could be extended towards a star player or a coach, potentially of a different nationality. The term ‘global citizen’ appeared frequently in how they referred to themselves. They considered themselves not only Ghanaian, but globalised as well. They deployed ‘the tools of globalisation,’ as Clark (2013) describes it, to create their own space. Although these youths see themselves first as Ghanaians, my interpretation is that they lay claim to a global cosmopolitan citizenship through the consumption of pop culture (Dolby 2006). While their international passports may not give them easy access to a stratified world firmly bifurcated between the haves and the have-nots, they assert their global citizenship and belonging through the consumption and politicisation of popular culture.

How does supporting your European club affect your support for your local club or black stars?

The general response was that their support for the foreign club had no bearing on the support for their local or national team.

Kwesi: ‘Not affected in any way … I only support the national team when they play.’

Interestingly, Mawuko said: ‘I don’t support another national team. I only support a club.’

Fred stated: ‘Well, for me, I support the Black Stars more than any football club.’

These answers demonstrate that supporting a national team is different from supporting an international club. The submissions show that the respondents recognise sovereignty: they belong to a nation and therefore owe allegiance to the national team. Whether the national team’s play or programme is attractive or not, withdrawing support from them was out of the question. However, a club offers only passion, which they can dispense with without compromising national allegiance. Therefore, their support of a foreign European soccer team in no way diminishes their commitment to national sovereignty.

As an African, does it not worry you that you are spending resources/passion on a foreign team?

This question was intended to establish the levels of cognitive dissonance from respondents, if any. All but two respondents expressed some concern, but added that it could not be helped. These two were as follows:

Jeffrey: ‘It disturbs me. It is like investing in the entertainment industry of other people. But I love the Black Stars more.’

Elsie: ‘I am worried because it does not bring any direct benefit to me, my family, or nation.’

The other seven members of the youth group, however, expressed less concern.

Mawuko: ‘No, because I love and enjoy the sports, therefore I do not feel the need to worry.’

Samora: ‘I do not worry at all.’

Diana: ‘No, it doesn’t bother me. Our local league is not exciting, the love is long gone.’

Kwesi: ‘It is not only Ghana. We are not the only ones supporting. Nigeria and Kenya and other countries are also doing it.’

Nii: ‘To me it is like any other entertainment product. If the product meets my needs and it’s within reach, I go for it.’

In spite of the fact that these responses do provide some useful insights, one must guard against the attempt to generalise too much from them. Nevertheless, the answers did show that some young Ghanaians are caught up in the glitz and glamour of these tournaments, without sparing a thought for ideology or opportunity cost. These interactions and the integration into a wider global culture have been aided by technology, as construed within the tenets of globalisation. This paper has thus demonstrated how pop culture, especially for young people, can be a rallying point to whip up global citizenship.³² Just as Mehlers suggested, Ghanaians are united in their citizenship when it comes to the Black Stars. It also seems that the nation’s youths are united in their resolve when it comes to supporting the European leagues. The findings above show a positionality that occurs at the intersection between the local and the global, because youths, as active social agents, continuously encounter, observe, imitate, and respond to outcomes of social actions, in relation to both local and external political-economic and cultural forces.³³ Based on Clark’s framework, the influence of the social, economic, and political environments have inspired young Ghanaians to use support for European clubs to challenge accepted choices and to assert their self-identities brought about by economic globalisation (Crain 2015).

To Moje (2002), these actions are embedded within social networks, which when encountered regularly, stimulate the active engagement of youths with the world around them. Contemporary scholarship that examines youth and popular culture also emphasises how these things facilitate young people’s sociopolitical critique and action and their incorporation into broader social norms. This article reveals that global pop cultures can be plugged into by any group that finds the motivation. Young Africans living in urban spaces have found European clubs alluring, and have integrated their support of them into their lifestyles. They live on the continent, yet they have access to a pop culture that provides them with what they understandably perceive as a higher quality alternative than they can obtain locally. The youth in Africa would not resign themselves to an unattractive local league just because it belongs to their nation. They gravitate towards a more attractive one, far from them though accessible virtually. In doing so, they are negotiating local aspirations that express what they identify with, what they deserve, and what they want. The ethnographic data in the paper shows that there are young, football-loving Ghanaians who do not support any local football club, and have no qualms about this. In this way, the youth of Ghana are taking a political stance: ignoring, scorning, and resisting their comparatively unattractive football league.

Going for goal: a conclusion

This paper started out by questioning whether there was some concern among young fans of European soccer leagues in Ghana, but found very little evidence of that. The question then is would cognitive dissonance be more present among senior Africans who follow the European game? That is for further studies. Another area worth researching is the dynamics that female supporters bring to the topic. Although the respondents included two women, it was difficult to see a distinction in the data provided between both sexes. In any case, the gender factor was not a research objective. The paper has also revealed how young African women and men are engaged in efforts to connect to a wider global pop culture at two levels: Firstly, the micro, where they socialise with other supporters of their adopted European team, bonding with them at work, home, church, or school. Secondly, at the macro level, where they are accepted into a global family of supporters, which is enabled by fan zone platforms. Soccer then becomes a powerful site of sociality, in which young people create a sense of both local and global belonging. As the paper has shown, the growing influence of African players in these foreign leagues, as well as the foray of the European clubs into fan bases across Africa, have bolstered and legitimised the stakes of these young supporters from the continent. In their support engagements, young Ghanaians invest considerable time, energy, passion, and funds into the movement. But as the respondents have stated, the entertainment value and association with the international brands make it worth it.

What is not happening is local merchandising that is wholly Ghanaian, which would bring economic value to the local fan base. Nevertheless, through this engagement, young Africans are creating spaces of sociality in which they establish strategic interpersonal relationships, and networks of solidarity. In effect, they are aware of being-in-the-world and they act upon it, at the same time as they negotiate their everyday practices. In supporting foreign teams, they not only project their personal aspirations; they see themselves as ‘repping’ their nation in an international roll call at the table of global soccer. Supporting a European football club gives them voice in an international conversation that has become important in the social and political realms. I propose that these young Africans have become globalised in their patriotism yet dualised in their allegiances.

Based on the findings, this paper postulates that young Africans are using their support for European soccer teams as a tool of social commentary and for self-expression. They often instrumentalise their belonging to a higher football culture to mute out the misery of their local situation, to resist the restrictions from international spheres, and to aspire to the same fun-filled life which their young counterparts abroad lead. Considering the value that young people place on supporting European teams, even if their national leagues improve, there is a doubt that this trend will recede. Further examination will lead to a better understanding of the rising implications of the phenomenon for the continent. What is clear is that young urban Africans consider supporting a European football club as a rite of passage to a global cultural sphere that enables them to access the pleasures of modernity.

Statement of Ethics

All interviewees have been anonymised and gave consent to be interviewed for the purposes of this research. At the time this study was conducted, Central University did not require ethical approval to be sought for this type of research.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Panneborg, ‘Football in Africa.’

2 MacLean, Bob-Milliar, Baldwin, & Dickey, ‘The construction of citizenship.’

3 Clark, ‘Hip Hop as Social Commentary.’

4 Crandell, Crandell, & Vander Zanden, Human Development.

5 Moje, ‘But Where Are the Youth?’

6 Best African Football Teams. The Africa Report. 2019. FIFA/UEFA https://www.theafricareport.com/21666/best-african-football-teams-in-2019/.

7 At time of writing, Messi played for Paris Saint-Germain, while Ronaldo is with Manchester United.

8 Edensor et al, National Identity, Popular Culture and Everyday Life.

9 Deschamps, Impact of Music Lyrics and Music Videos on Children and Youth.

10 (https://www.peacefmonline.com/pages/showbiz/news/201509/255653.php).

11 Wagner, ‘Africa’s World Cup.’

12 Poli, ‘Migrations and Trade of African Football Players.’

13 Alegi, African Soccerscapes.

14 Bediako, The Complete History of Ghana Football League.

15 Gyan-Apenteng, Pride and Glory.

16 Alegi, African Soccerscapes

17 Anaman, The Tale of Kwame Nkrumah and Real Madrid.

18 Mandela, ‘How Sports Helped to Transform a Nation’ BBC

19 https://www.efdn.org/blog/news/football-and-the-sustainable-development-goals-sdgs/

20 Mensah, ‘Cultural Dimensions of Globalisation in Africa.’

21 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yVFgwoUSAfQ).

22 (https://www.golisports.com/world-cup-moments)

23 At time of writing, Mohamed Salah played with Liverpool Football Club

24 Georgiou, ‘Bundesliga outlines new African content strategy,’ p. 1.

25 Poli, ‘Migrations and Trade of African Football Players.’

26 Hansen, ‘Cities of youth.’

27 Gyimah-Brempong, & Kimenyi, Mwangi Youth Policy; Ayesu, ‘Billboards, Youth, Unemployment and Superstition in Mamfe-Akuapem, Ghana.’

28 Idang, ‘African Culture and Values,’ & Robertson, ‘Globalization.’

29 Asante, The Youth and Future of Democracy in Ghana.

30 Crossman, Sociological Definition of Popular Culture, Mensah, ‘Cultural Dimensions of Globalisation in Africa’; & Said, Culture and Imperialism.

31 de Wall, ‘Realizing Child Rights in Africa,’ p. 19.

32 McLean et al, ‘The Construction of Citizenship’; Clark, ‘Representing Africa!’

33 Crain, Theories of Development: Concepts and Applications.