Preliminary findings from a longitudinal examination of the impact of the COVID‐19 pandemic on domestic supporters of England's professional football clubs: A social capital perspective [Abstract]

In a recent commentary published in the Soccer & Society journal on professional football and the COVID‐19 pandemic in England, Kevin Moore (2021) argued that despite the importance of the sport in English culture, “It is just a game. We can easily live without it – if we have to” (p.43). The overall aim of this research, therefore, is to explore what happened when domestic supporters of England’s professional footballs teams did live without the sport throughout the COVID19 pandemic (during national lockdowns and social restrictions, and cancelled fixtures and seasons), how the pandemic impacted upon them and their support for the sport (and beyond), and what they did when the game slowly returned. In doing so, the research is guided by the following research question: “What were the effects of the COVID‐19 pandemic on football fandom and supporters’ social capital in the UK?”