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research-article2016
CTP0010.1177/2057047316668364Communication and the Public X(X)Levental et al.
Original Research Article
Imagined communities, the online sphere, and sport: The Internet and Hapoel Tel Aviv Football Club fans as a case study
Communication and the Public 1–16 © The Author(s) 2016 Reprints and permissions: sagepub.co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav DOI: 10.1177/2057047316668364 ctp.sagepub.com
Orr Levental Ohalo College, Israel
Yair Galily and Moran Yarchi
The Interdisciplinary Center (IDC) Herzliya, Israel
Ilan Tamir
Ariel University, Israel
Abstract The Internet, particularly social media, has enhanced civic movements’ ability to communicate and organize their activities. This study addresses this issue in the realm of sports and examines fans’ online interaction while analyzing different platforms Hapoel Tel Aviv FC fans use (websites, forums, Twitter, and Facebook), especially during their 2011–2012 protest against the team’s owner. Findings indicate that technology enables fans to create and distribute information and organize beyond just official team activities and platforms. These trends are more salient in times of a protest.
Keywords Civic movements, fans, social media, sport
Introduction Upon the 2011–2012 kickoff of the Israeli football season, local businessman Ellie Tabib made a successful bid for the exclusive rights to Israeli Premier Division side, Hapoel Tel Aviv FC. Business ventures into the world of sport are not new. In fact, it is becoming frequent, in light of Israeli sport’s increasing commercialization. However, contrary to other instances in which fans were predominantly supportive, the majority of
Hapoel Tel Aviv FC fans essentially declared war on the new owner. In 2011, they launched an unprecedentedly widespread protest of a scope previously Corresponding author: Moran Yarchi, Sammy Ofer School of Communications, The Interdisciplinary Center (IDC) Herzliya, Kanfei Nesharim St, PO Box 167, Herzliya 46150, Israel. Email:
[email protected]
2 unseen in Israeli sport. One of the main elements in the anti-Tabib campaign involved fans’ ability to organize as an independent entity from any official club media platforms. This shift was the result of significant developments in fans’ abilities to communicate and share information among themselves, particularly via online social media platforms. In Hapoel Tel Aviv’s case, the Internet facilitated a major change, shifting the main impact of the fan community away from the actual physical space of the football stadium to the Web. The Internet made information inexpensive to create and distribute, not to mention more accessible to various demographics. This allowed fans to break away from their dependence on traditional, club-owned, and controlled media. This trend started a dynamic, informationorganizing entity, based on fans’ collective knowledge and the sum of their capabilities and willingness to contribute toward creating and sharing information pertaining to their mutual areas of interest. This article examines the media and social phenomenon of the online fan community in Israel. This is a dynamic phenomenon that will only spread as the result of imminent technological advances. It may overhaul Israeli sport fandom in a way that would give rise to independent sport fan communities. This shift stands in contrast to how previous ties between fans and teams were structured as strictly one-sided communications. At the heart of the article is a study that aims to answer three questions: How did fans harness the Internet as part of their campaign against the club owner? How did their fight promote methods for gathering, organizing, and disseminating information, and the extent of fan involvement and reliance on the Internet to create an independent, online community? What are the main trends from this transition into an online environment, and how have they altered the portrait of the modern sport fan?
Literature review General technological development of the Internet and social media in particular provides social movements with powerful, speedy, relatively low-cost tools for recruitment, fund-raising, information distribution, and mobilization for action (Bennett,
Communication and the Public 2006; Bimber, Flanagin, & Stohl, 2005, 2012; Earl & Kimport, 2011). Movements use these tools in various fields, including sports. Social media rivals traditional media in the realm of sports (Boehmer, 2015). There is scarce evidence for a change in consumption patterns. Given the availability and usage of social networks, professional sport teams use social media to reach and recruit fans (Pronschinske, Groza, & Walker, 2012). Haridakis and Earnheardt (2012) claim that sport fans possess a certain social identity, whose core lies in predominantly geo-based identification with the sports team and its fan community. They add that the social context, from co-spectatorship at the stadium to other social circumstances, lies at the convergence point between social identity and intergroup communication. The researchers believe this convergence point is not self-sustaining. Kraszewski (2008), in a study of US sports team geo-location, demonstrated how sport fandom is a vehicle for identifying with one’s home. However, sport fandom also serves as a pretext for maintaining tangible ties with individuals, or embracing cultural features and traits that are part of the fan and team’s location. Williams (2007) highlighted how the local aspect of English football is steadily declining. This is the product of elitist oligarchs’ financial investments that have turned fans into consumers. Global fandom severed from any local roots replaced traditional fandom. According to Wenner (2008), fans must be examined, mainly based on the commercial role that they play, as portrayed in the media. Not only are fans doing their duty as sport consumers, but they are also asked to adhere to a range of ideals within a commercial context. This is shown in the subjects photographed during a match or in media professionals’ accounts of appropriate behavior expected of the ideal fan. Crawford (2004) stressed how the ingredients of ideal fandom, such as visibility, cheering, singing, and externalizing emotions, are not self-sustaining. Instead, they draw their strength from a sense of an imagined community generated by fellow sport fans. However, broader changes in the nature of communities, major developments in the state of sporting facilities, and various media becoming prosperous with steadily growing consumer product variety,
Levental et al. added a unique consumerist ingredient to fans’ sense of community. Giulianotti (2002) argued that the definition of fans underwent a major overhaul and distancing from the traditional model of profound identification with the local club, in light of sport’s commercialization in recent decades. There is now the transient spectator. The fan community’s desire to set itself apart from the transients takes aspiring to the traditional fandom ideal and unyielding club loyalty to new extremes. Nowhere is this more evident than in fans’ investment of their own personal resources, mainly time and money. Diehard fans fancy themselves not only as consumers of the sports product, but also as members of an organization. Identifying with the team does not express kinship with the players, coaches, or even fellow fans. Rather, it articulates identity and a sense of group belongingness. Profiling the symbols and ideas for which the sports team stands and making them the glue that holds the social group together only add to fans’ emotional investment in the team and further boosts their sense of loyalty (Heere & James, 2007). Drawing on the social–psychological orientation, Porter, Wood, and Benigni (2012) examined online sport fandom, empirically examining the content and use of popular fan-based Internet sports communities (FBISCs). Fans primarily visit FBISCs to get information and provide their own analyses. Earlier sport fan communities whose members shared strong geographic ties (rooted in the area their team represents), certain demographic traits (mainly men and young boys), and social values (political and/or ideological) had limited recourse to fan interaction, mainly due to media barriers. Until the advent of online platforms, these fan communities’ main bulk of activities were passively consuming information gathered and distributed by team officials or by fan organizations led by a handful of supporters. The Internet brought these communities (as well as others) considerable new advantages, including the ability to recruit new members, efficiently creating and distributing information, and assembling and organizing community information between the various media platforms. The online sport fan community’s primary focal point and main motivation is the sports team. For the most part, these communities draw on each other for
3 additional aspects, such as sharing information regarding certain products and services and creating forums for sharing positive and negative experiences (Armstrong & Hagel, 2000). However, the heart of activities revolves around sharing private and collective information concerning the sports team, which is the main focus of all community members. Beyond just attending the team’s home or away matches, diehard sport fandom is also seen in fans who regularly follow their team across a variety of media platforms. Sandvoss (2005) found that these online practices among UK football fans extend to consuming general sports-related information, match fixtures, and results; watching TV broadcasts; purchasing team-related items; and placing bets. Gibbons and Dixon (2010) noted that Sandvoss’ study was mainly concerned with passive consumption of textual information, focusing on audio-visual broadcasts. It almost completely failed to acknowledge the key element of active fan interaction. Galily, Rubin, and Levy (2011) found that on football teams’ official websites, unlike traditional sports media platforms, the team exerts total control over content and communication modes with fans, the community, and possible clientele for team products and services. Gibbons and Dixon (2010) called attention to the large number of fans who actively partake in online discussions and blogs. These fans set up organized communities, to which they turn to voice their opinions about current affairs that have bearing on sport and their team, and as vehicle for promoting and instigating changes in the teams they support. Edensor and Millington (2008) share this opinion. They argue that sports culture is a viable field for studying identity formation processes, particularly die to the fact that sport fans worldwide use the Internet as a platform for communicating with one another on a variety of subjects. In a study of the US football (soccer) league, Wilson (2007) offered a direct example in support of these arguments, positing that the development and increased accessibility of information and communication technologies (ICTs), particularly the Internet, are likely to lead to the formation of online communities catering to sport fans who wish to closely and regularly follow their team and sport of choice.
4 Studies tend to present online communities as successful when members who generate and distribute information share mutual ties and similar identity traits (Clark, Warren, & Au, 2007; Harper et al., 2007; Iriberri & Leroy, 2009). In this context, the community’s shared events outside the virtual sphere are a pivotal element in empowering the sports team (Young, Takeda, & Cuellar, 2011). Regular gettogethers and various activities raise these online communities’ odds of survival. The Internet has cemented its status as a major media and communications vehicle for sport fans. They sound off on forums and blogs and establish direct lines of communication with the subjects of their fandom and fan peers (Kassing & Sanderson, 2009). Recent studies of fan use of interactive media have broadened (Hugenberg, Haridakis, & Earnheardt, 2008), with Haridakis and Earnheardt (2012) noting how interactions between fans generate and maintain their identification with their favorite sport team. The majority of sport teams, especially top-tier ones, have an official website that contains information, images, and a platform to support direct contact with fans. Although the technology is meant to enable richer, broader communications between team and fans, team officials’ exclusive control over site content undermines the partnership between teams and fans. This content control hinds fans from playing an active role in the team. According to McLean and Wainwright (2008), the majority of information is disseminated via television channels, print media, or the team’s official website. All of these platforms actively exclude, delete, and censor any content and opinions that are against team interests. In doing so, they sabotage the full, necessary partnership that fans require for maintaining the team. This content control, along with fans’ sense of historical ownership of the team, leads to a slew of unofficial sites that allow fans to comment on upcoming matches, guess the results, form social bonds, become immersed in the fan community, and even discuss broader political topics. This is done via computers or mobile phones (sometimes during actual matches). This mode of interaction empowers the community, in that it successfully meets many of its needs, from sharing information to exchanging ideas and entertainment.
Communication and the Public Another important point of discussion refers to the developing bond between teams and fans, mainly via multiple schemes that facilitate and encourage greater fan involvement, and influence team decisions. Cleland (2010) argues that fans seek out more active modes of dialogue with the team. Having recourse to this direct communications channel keeps fans immensely satisfied and benefits the team’s longterm financial stability. The study stressed how this bond was founded on fans’ need to engage in handson support activities through direct involvement with the team itself or the fan community. Israeli studies mainly centered on the role sport plays in influencing a variety of related social trends and processes. Some studies also extended to other fields such as media, economics, and physiology. However, studies in the last decade have also examined the sport fan in the context of local and national identity (Ben-Porat, 2001, 2003; Sorek, 2006; Tamir, Galily, & Yarchi, 2015), instances of conflict and clashes between fans and team owners (Rubin, 2009), and social, individual, or collective involvement in team matters (Levental, 2013; Muchtar, 2007). Studies of sport fans’ online communities (or general modes of communication) are scarce and offer no direct acknowledgment of the independent formation of fan communities. However, Galily, Tamir, and Muchtar’s (2012) study found evidence of rapidly growing interest in sport blogs as a platform that champions additional sport fields beyond the popular ones while promoting in-depth, interactive discussions of various sport-related subjects. Although the study did not focus either on organizing information or online fan communities, it did present a bold perspective on how the Internet is the next step of evolution for Israeli sport fans. Guy (2006) is the only study directly tackling the subject of online communities. It highlights how Israeli sport fans’ online communities create a distinctive, individual identity that is separate from other fan groups. Guy raised a number of important points. They argue that the online community is not necessarily a direct extension of the fan community that exists outside of cyberspace. Furthermore, one of the online community’s key strengths lies in its ability to attract large membership numbers, since the Internet has made time, space, and money restrictions all but
Levental et al. obsolete. The fan-made content world (complete with various points of view) sets out to replace its predecessor, which failed to adhere to the needs of the fan community. If so, a major impetus behind the drive to gather and distribute information is rooted in fans’ desire for a unique definition of selfhood. This prompts them to make this fan-created information radically different from that disseminated by other, more traditional media. Finally, sport fans’ online communities strive for particular goals (led by those creating and editing online content) that are relevant to a specific period and team activities that are not all necessarily sports-related. Fans pursue these goals by coming up with a coherent definition of agreed-upon ideas that aptly represents the community in its entirety. Before we move on to this study, we need to look historically at the development of sports content and information in Israel.
Development of sports content and information in Israel Distribution methods of Israeli sports and sportsrelated social information among football fans over the years can be split into three periods. Israel’s founding in 1948 until the 1990s was underscored by predominantly passive consumption of journalistic and televised information, alongside the fan community’s spatial dependency on their team’s home grounds. From the 1990s to the early 2000s, the Internet’s popularity and the commercialization of Israeli sport soared, and the very nature of sports content was radically overhauled. The current decade hailed a shift in the power balance toward fans who create, organize, and share individualized information using online technology. The first period was characterized by two primary means of presenting and sharing sports content and information: limited, interpersonal communication, and interaction between fans at games, and carefully picked and packaged information highlights from journalists and major media outlets with vested interests. Fan encounters at games were predominantly social by nature, albeit on a limited scope. The exchange of information and opinions would, at most, involve a small group of fans who came together in real time in their immediate surroundings.
5 The majority of shared information came from observing fan peers and listening to support songs and chants. Discussions of the team and other related subjects were minimal and limited to a handful of fans who would talk among themselves during matches. Small social factions evolved on the basis of aisle location and seating, rather than as a whole fan community. Sport fans’ information was founded on content advertised and reported in mass media, particularly popular sports media (print and television). This very element is present in Bernstein’s (2007) study of the Israeli national football team’s media coverage. Bernstein argued that all media platforms champion their respective country’s national identity during media coverage of international sports competitions. In terms of smaller geographical units, such as cities or neighborhoods, Bernstein noted how journalists covering the national team were spatially close to the team on a regular basis, for practical reasons. This boosted the journalists’ sense of social belongingness and emotional ties. The journalists’ dominance, both as information creators and leaders of public opinion, was further asserted by their role as primary disseminators of content to fans, sharing information from team officials. Until the rise of television in the 1960s, the sports journalists (along with other media professionals) were exclusive mediators between teams and fans and could easily edit any information, packaging and presenting its coverage as they saw fit. In the late 1960s, television’s surging popularity brought about two new trends. The visual aspect became more important, as did fan visibility (Whannel, 1992), and all broadcast media was taken under the IBA’s (Israeli Broadcasting Authority) wing. The shift to a single media source (Israel’s Channel One) did not have any major implications on the type and scope of content, or the means by which it was distributed. Fans’ visibility was emphasized, which added another facet to their role as team supporters. Merely turning up at the stadium would no longer suffice. Fans now had influence on how they would organize as a community and how they would gather and distribute information and content. Maintaining uniform visibility by set standards and staying on top of rival fan bases required maximum coordination and synchronization. However, sports
6 content and information consumption remained predominantly passive, as each fan was still indoctrinated into traditional fandom norms by observing fellow fans at football games and watching televised coverage of the matches. Television’s popularity as the leading provider of sports content accelerated the commercialization process. For instance, sports teams were enjoying far broader exposure. Meanwhile, television prime-time hours suddenly began carrying considerable weight on scheduling match times, which affected fan turnout, both by numbers and by demographics. Another effect of television included upgrading lighting infrastructure at stadiums. During the 1980s, Israeli football began gradually commercializing in tandem with certain major financial trends in Israeli society (Ben-Porat, 2009). This socio-economic landscape very much elevated the importance of sport fans to their teams, both in the sense of their direct contribution via ticket sales and added visual and experiential value that goes handin-hand with sport. As a result, fans became more appealing to advertisers and broadcasting corporations. Acknowledging the integral role fans play in sustaining and developing sport teams led these teams to improve and upgrade their relationship with their fan base. This new bond between teams and fans was mainly enabled by turning fans, both as individuals and as a fully formed community, into an inseparable part of the team. Meanwhile, fans enforced the conservative notion of their immense contribution to the team, while also maintaining the more radical idea that the club essentially had no right to exist without them. In their efforts to better their relationship with their fan base from a commercial standpoint, football teams took two main initiatives based on the principle of directly sharing information: increasing active and passive fan involvement with the team and disseminating marketing information to boost ticket revenues and introduce related merchandise. That being said, with online technology’s two-way nature and mass accessibility still some years ahead, the main bulk of information could still only be shared during limited encounters at the team’s home grounds during matches. Some teams’ official attempts to connect with the fan base were implemented by hosting
Communication and the Public fan and team get-togethers, issuing official press releases, officially introducing players, opening designated shops and museums, and even by handing out match programs at stadiums. During this period of sport’s commercialization and growing professionalization, Israel saw a substantial rise in the number of media corporations exclusively dedicated to sport. An inevitable rise in the volume of content and information followed. The 1990s and 2000s saw the arrival of multiple, domestic sports channels, all of which were joined by international channels such as FOX Sport, Eurosport, and ESPN. Increasing fan demand may have led to a significant rise in sports information consumption, but these channels still operated under the limited, one-way information flow scheme synonymous with the television medium. The Internet’s infiltration into private homes during the 1990s, and the steady rise in its usage, spearheaded two major shifts: the relative ease with which users could create and share information and the radical improvement in the quality and diversity of media platforms. Guy (2006) noted that Hapoel Beer Sheva FC’s fans, who were independently broadcasting their team’s matches during the 2005–2006 season, allowed users to comment, ask questions, and offer real time recommendations, using interactive platforms. The catalyst for this change was fans’ need to band together as an independent community. This need could finally be met, due to the latest technological advances. The Internet’s development as a whole was not a linear process and included a variety of trends, each having its own impact on sports content and means of consumption. Three main periods emerge in terms of sport fans’ use of online technology. From the mid-1990s until the mid-2000s, the Internet was overrun with countless fan-made websites. These predominantly simple sites featured information and images of fans’ favorite team and/or players. The prevalence and dominance of fan sites were mainly the result of team officials’ lack of attention to their fan base but could also be attributed to levels of exposure or financial feasibility. Eventually, team officials could no longer ignore the success of these fan sites or the steady surge in Internet usage, so began creating and maintaining official team websites. From the mid-2000s onward,
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Levental et al. virtually every financial, commercial, governmental, and sports body was ensuring they each had an official website. The co-existence of official and fan sites is the very essence of this current period, predominantly underscored by sports teams’ comprehensive use of the Internet (mainly via websites and Facebook pages) to keep in contact with fans and bring them up to speed on team-related news, and as a marketing tool. Furthermore, fan sites (along with Twitter accounts and Facebook pages) have seen major technical and content upgrades. They now feature vast quantities of information, in addition to enabling and facilitating communal ties between users. Three main reasons account for improved quality of fan sites: the aim to meet a team’s official website standards, tremendous technological innovations that made creating and disseminating organizational information easier, and fans putting in more of their time and money, encouraged by the instant feedback they received (site traffic numbers, acknowledgment, or ad revenues) and a deep sense of commitment to the fan community. This study will focus on sport fans’ usage of online platforms, using Hapoel Tel Aviv FC as a case study.
Method This study focuses on top-tier Israeli football club, Hapoel Tel Aviv FC, the most popular extension of the greater Hapoel Tel Aviv Sports Club. It was chosen as the test case on the merit of it being a premier league team, having a fan base that is one of the five largest Israeli sport fan communities. Furthermore, Hapoel Tel Aviv fans are involved in a variety of social, media, and sports campaigns that extended far beyond the limited scope of the football team (such as the battle for the Ussishkin basketball arena or the Tabib ousting campaign). Another reason for this choice was fans’ diverse geographical locations, which required that means of communication other than just at the stadium be in place. This need for additional communication platforms is evident in the fact that Hapoel Tel Aviv fans, far more than other fan bases, maintain two websites, a forum, multiple message boards, and online discussion groups.
To expand our understanding of fans’ usage of online tools, a multi-method approach was taken using two qualitative research tools: a content analysis of fans’ websites and social media platforms and in-depth interviews. A number of fan-owned online platforms, whose primary goal was to disseminate Hapoel Tel Aviv–related information, were analyzed. The six most popular sites were used in the analysis: Adom Oleh (Red on the Rise), Wikipoel, Forum Ha’shedim Ha’adumim (Red Devil Forum), Matzilim et Hapoel (Saving Hapoel, n.d.), Ultras Hapoel, and Ha’adumim (The Reds). In addition, we analyzed two Twitter accounts: Hapoeltanews and Hapoelnews (7455 tweets) and an overview of all team-related activities on Facebook (13,576 posts). We attempted to identify repeating trends regarding the information that fans created and distributed on the different platforms. The analysis was conducted by two trained coders. A reliability test based on a sample of 10% of the messages showed high levels of agreement between the coders, and the level of agreement did not drop from 83%. In addition to the content analysis, interviews were made with 10 leading fans between the ages of 22 and 41 years (eight men and two women) to get their perspective on the issue. The interviews, which were compatible to the findings of the content analysis, provide validity and reliability. The study period primarily spanned from 2005 (when the first fan site went online) to 2012. Moreover, we also examined how fans previously communicated, gathered, and organized their information. Special attention was given to the fans’ campaign against club owner Ellie Tabib during the 2011–2012 football season. During that time, fans’ need increased for an effective method of communication that would be independent of all traditional information sources.
Findings Online tools at fans’ disposal Table 1 shows an overview of fans’ online activity, divided into the different platforms we analyzed. Three categories of information were identified: purpose, nature, and authors. Of the three, it became
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Communication and the Public
Table 1. Website and social media content analysis categories.
Fan rallying Content authors’ identity Op-eds Reports and coverage Amount of content Quality of content Content objectivity Number of images and videos Level of exposure
Adom Oleh
Wikipoel
Ultras Hapoel
Ha’adumim Hashedim Haadumim
Metzilim et Hapoel
Twitter
Facebook
None Web masters Found Found Great High High Great
None Sum total of fans None None Great High High Great
Noted Web masters Found None Scarce Medium Low Great
Noted Web masters Found None Medium High High Medium
None Sum total of fans Found Found Great Medium Low Low
Noted Web masters Found None Medium High Medium Great
None Account owners Irrelevant Found Scarce Medium Low Low
Noted Sum total of fans Irrelevant Found Scarce Medium Low Medium
High
High
Medium
High
High
High
Low
High
apparent that differences existed between various fan sites, social media platforms, and even official sites, which were the result of some fundamental disparities between the sites’ creators, goals, target demographics, resources, technological capabilities, and tech savviness. Two main motivations currently drive fans’ online activities. The first involves the need to tangibly and coherently articulate their support of their team, while the second expresses their desire to form an official entity that would stand with and, if needed, against official media outlets. In terms of the first motivation, it is easy to see fans’ needs to practice their fandom more actively, whether by making a social contribution to the fan community or positioning themselves as public opinion leaders. The second element driving fans’ online activities is their motivation to create an alternative to existing information, whether from a place of antagonism toward the source (such as the team or its owners) or a need to focus on more relevant areas of interest that appeal to a particular fan sect. For instance, information about fans’ social activities that are independent of the team is a content type that would not even be treated as a footnote on major sports websites or be acknowledged on the team’s official site but which has special meaning to fans. New content created by fans is mainly concerned with topics such as social activities, fan get-togethers, team-related discussions, gossip, voicing opinions, calls for boycotts or demonstrations, and fan op-eds.
This brand of content was particularly visible at the height of Hapoel Tel Aviv fans’ 2012 protest. Fans’ need for independent action grew considerably, which accelerated the formation of fans’ group identity, and the acknowledgment of the power they could harness as a collective if they banded together. The infrastructure for fan-controlled online information was already operational by that point. However, the surge in Hapoel Tel Aviv fans’ online activities is attributed to the anti-Tabib campaign. The need for a type of content, untainted by the team’s management, allowed fans to unite and quickly share and exchange ideas. Therefore, similar to the case with Hapoel Beer Sheva (as presented in Guy’s 2006 study), the Hapoel Tel Aviv fans’ protest was the main catalyst for their embracing the Internet as a platform for promoting their own agendas. The sheer force of Hapoel Tel Aviv fans’ protest also highlighted their online presence, giving them more online visibility than other sport fan communities in 2013.
The 2011–2012 fan campaign and the rise of the online community In the age of modern, commercialized sport, the rise in football teams’ financial dependence on fans epitomized fans’ growing power in terms of their ability to make demands and carry weight on decisions related to the team’s managerial and practical aspects. With that, fan protests against anything they perceive as an attack on their own community or
Levental et al. team, both locally and worldwide, have also risen. These protests have come in the form of match boycotting, demonstrations, and sometimes violence. In Israeli football, one particular kind of protest seems to have really taken off, in which fans take active measures toward having the team manager or owners removed from office. That was the case with the Hapoel Beer Sheva fans’ protest against Ellie Zino, Hapoel Petah Tikvah fans’ campaign against Meir Shamir and Danny Levy, Beitar Jerusalem fans’ feud with Arkadi Gaidamak, Hapoel Haifa fans’ campaign against Yoav Katz, and this article’s case study, Hapoel Tel Aviv fans’ campaign against Tabib (Mann, 2013). The majority of protests are the product of commercial, global, and social shifts, with most having taken place at a time when the Internet was already an established tool in the hands of fan communities. The steady rise in Internet usage, with an emphasis on social media, went on to play a pivotal role in how Hapoel Tel Aviv fans led their online protest that began mid-2011. On the heels of a court verdict issued on 18 July 2011, Israeli businessman Ellie Tabib became the sole owner of Hapoel Tel Aviv FC, following a year during which he shared ownership of the team with Monnie Harel. During the first 2 months of the 2011–2012 football season, no notable fan protests were recorded, until 17 October 2011, when the Ultras (an extremist online fan community) issued the following statement on its website: When the ownership dispute between Ellie Tabib and Monnie Harel was resolved earlier this year, the Ultras took it upon themselves to wish Hapoel well, giving Ellie Tabib their blessing […] genuinely believing that their success is synonymous to ours, and hoping to see the team resume a style of management that would do right by itself and by us, the fans. Unfortunately, as time goes by, we are coming to realize that the managerial patterns we have been witnessing are in fact the very opposite of everything we had prayed for. The club is failing to meet its fiscal obligations to its players, past and present, as well as to other clubs, vendors, and staff. The lack of financial transparency with regards to transactions the club has made raises a major red flag as well some serious questions amongst the fan community. Extortionist, bully-like behavior
9 towards the players compromises the team’s social fabric and threatens to undo it […] while portraying Hapoel supporters as a racist fan base who team officials have been threatening; all this and so much more has led us to the realization that things cannot go on like this much longer. In light of the aforementioned, community members have decided to fire the starting shot in their campaign to put the club back on track […] This utter unwillingness to acknowledge criticism, along with all the opinion-gagging […] suggest that the club management has no interest in taking any form of criticism, nor is it open to any kind of dialogue with fans or receptive to fan opinions and complaints. It is evident that the management intends to deal with its own ailments by way of silencing and obliviousness as opposed to taking measures to righting all that is wrong […] our protest will not be silenced despite the wonderful news of us making top of the table. From hereinafter, we will carry on fighting to restore managerial sanity to Hapoel Tel Aviv. (The 100-day grace period is over)
On 15 January 2012, many Hapoel Tel Aviv senior management officials tendered their resignation, including the CEO and chairman, both of whom had harsh words to say in the media about the team’s management. CEO Nir Inbar pointed a direct finger at Tabib, blaming him for the predicament the team was in (Harusch, 2012). That was the turning point for the greater portion of the team’s fan base, which essentially marked the start of Hapoel Tel Aviv fans’ official campaign for the removal of Tabib. During the first match that followed the resignation, thousands of fans at the stadium held up signs calling for Tabib to step down. By the end of that month, the Metzilim et Hapoel (Saving Hapoel, n.d.) website was already online. In the 3 months that followed, the protest primarily consisted of signs at stadiums, advertising on billboards, and severing ties between fans and the team. However, the major shift took place in April 2012, when the protest took on a more active shape, in the form of demonstrations outside Tabib’s home and his wife’s various business establishments. In June, Tabib expressed a willingness to sell the team, and the process of transferring ownership promptly
10 commenced on 4 July 2012 (The Ellie Tabib Fan Protest, Wikipoel, 2012). What made this protest so unique in the landscape of Israeli sport was the widespread, conscious harnessing of the media, particularly television and the Internet, and its bold usage of all available online platforms to organize and mobilize this protest. This fan campaign was not led by just one entity and certainly not by a single media platform. However, all prime directives and unofficial protest statements ultimately came just from the Metzilim et Hapoel website, where the campaign goals were outlined as follows: changing public opinion and thought patterns; changing ownership; and a better Hapoel Tel Aviv (taken from the About page: www. savehapoel.com). The above goals clearly demonstrate the importance of public opinion that the media coverage scope and content produced, despite the fact that previous fan protests that had widespread media coverage (notably, Hapoel Tel Aviv basketball fans’ 2007 campaign to save the Ussishkin arena from demolition) ultimately ended in failure. The rationale behind fans’ focus on the media aspect in their protest relates to the fact that the majority of Israeli football team owners have no distinct financial interests vested in their team. The main reason for their investment in the team is more likely rooted in general sport fandom or support of the team. Therefore, one might assume that when an individual who is not a team supporter seeks to own it, they are more than likely motivated by gaining media exposure. Therefore, undermining Tabib’s public image was an ideal way of coercing him into stepping down from Hapoel Tel Aviv. With maximum exposure as the goal, fans covered virtually all forms of protest, particularly demonstrations, even when traditional media showed next to no interest. Images and videos were shared on various social media and fan sites, with some making it to the major, local sports sites and even Israeli television’s most watched sports channels. Fans’ main strategy for mobilizing their protest and turning it from an esoteric campaign into a fully fledged protest movement was preventing association with a certain fan sect. This would later be the case again in 2013 with Beitar Jerusalem FC, whose
Communication and the Public fan protest was immediately associated with the ultra-radical fan group La Familia, drawing heavy criticism from public and media figures alike. The rallying of Hapoel Tel Aviv fans was the product of numerous media outlets’ collaborative efforts. Each social media platform posted and shared information relating to upcoming protest activities and worked toward promoting fans’ shared goal. Fan coordination involved a form of institutionalized mobilization on both official sites and fan pages, and in direct interactions between fans and how they distributed and shared protest-related information within the community. The protest’s online headquarters was the Savehapoel website, where all information about Tabib, including a detailed account of how he harmed the team, was available; there were also updates on all protest-related events. In a 23 May 2012 post, similar to previous posts, there were two main protest themes and strategies: carrying on distributing protest-related information and putting out a call to arms. The post’s creator, acting on behalf of the website, called readers’ attention to Tabib’s intentions with the team and petitioned all fans to show up at an upcoming meeting, including a link to the event’s Facebook page. The post was signed with the campaign’s Saving Hapoel slogan. Interestingly, while the original post was conceived with the particular aim of saving the team from Tabib’s hands, the essence of the final call to arms ended up echoing a far greater aim to save the club’s future by banding together as fans. Of the 200 fans who had RSVPed on Facebook, dozens were affiliated with other Hapoel Tel Aviv Facebook groups. Meanwhile, owing to how social media links operate, the information could easily be shared by users on Savehapoel, by Facebook page members who posted it in other groups, via Twitter and a variety of other websites. Another protest activity that warranted elaborate fan collaboration was Operation Dana, which took place at the end of April 2012. It was essentially a series of mini-demonstrations staged by small fan groups outside a number of fashion boutiques owned by Dana Ashkenazi, Tabib’s wife. The demonstrations’ primary goal was to put Ashkenazi’s shops in the direct line of fire, causing them financial losses
11
Levental et al. via bad publicity while raising public awareness to fans’ plight. The protest was aimed personally at Tabib, so demonstrations also took place outside his private residence. These staged protests sought to create a symbolic parallel between the harm Tabib had inflicted on the fan community and their home (the football team) and the non-violent harm fans were causing Tabib and his family. In a post published on 18 April 2012 on Savehapoel, the operation and its duration (April through to May) were officially announced, as well as the elaborate logistics it would involve. Every shop branch required four activists, including one branch head who would hold up protest signs, and hand out pamphlets to prospective shoppers along with a verbal explanation of their cause. All of this was slated to take place during weekend peak hours: Fridays from 10:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. What set this staged protest apart from its predecessors was how demonstrators explained their rights and that the entire operation, including all communication, was done via mobile phones and email. Furthermore, a wide range of relevant information were gathered and disseminated, including shop locations and peak hours, legal permits to hold the demonstrations, and the actual events all documented on camera and video. Fans were also called to join the cause via Facebook. For instance, fan RK posted the following status update on 20 April 2012: Tomorrow, we’ll be staging two protests outside two of Dana Ashkenazi’s Tel Aviv shops between 10.30am– 1pm. Addresses are 37 Sheinkin St. and the HaMedina Square branch on 26 Hey Be’Iyar Road. It is essential that we get as many Reds as possible to turn up!
That same day, fan LP posted the following update: *** attention—latest updated re: Operation Dana (change of location) *** we’ve decided to shift our efforts onto two shops and today (Friday) we’ll be meeting at 10.30am at Dana Ashkenzi’s Sheinkin branch on 37 Sheinkin St. and at the G Mall on 10 Nissim Aloni St., both of which are in Tel Aviv. Anyone wishing to turn up at either shop independently is welcome to do so.
Hapoel Tel Aviv fan Adi Gal indicated that all team-related content she consumes comes from multiple online sources, from watching matches online to keeping up with the team on various web platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, sport sites, fan site Adom Oleh (Red on the Rise), Wikipoel, and sometimes even checking the Red Devils Forum. Gal stressed that she would check the Internet at least once an hour for updates. Despite being a heavy information consumer, Gal does not actively partake in sharing or creating content, save for the anti-Tabib campaign, during which she was part of an attempt to start a partially fan-owned team (personal interview, 27 May 2013). Two key points in Gal’s account warrant attention. The campaign period sent many fans into a one-time state of hyper-involvement. The vast amount of content consumption notwithstanding, none of this involvement ultimately shows any kind of willingness on fans’ part to independently create and share content within the community. Therefore, the campaign saw the full integration of online tools into the protest. These tools were not only used as a primary means of organizing protestrelated events but also as platform for eliciting greater fan involvement with the team. The campaign was a major, milestone moment in re-conceiving modern sport fans and their role in the team.
Conclusion: the modern sport fan Professional sport’s commercialization process coincides with rising demand to use fans as a financial vehicle. Therefore, sport fans have become a central part of a team’s makeup. Over the last decade, passive support in the stadium has made way for a more active mode of fan involvement. Fans’ sense of identity and emotional ties to the team deepened, along with realizing the financial power they possess as a community. For these reasons, fans sought to unite and act in tandem with the team’s management or, if need be, against it. Previously, such coordination was handled by fan groups that would meet at matches or during practice. This has radically changed in the last decade with the help of new Internet features and platforms. These technological innovations have led to a radical overhaul in how sports content is gathered, organized, and
12 disseminated among fans. The online fan community now supplies sports content, which is stored, reorganized, and distributed, using a range of advanced media platforms. Hapoel Tel Aviv fan Ravit Nachman explained that when she came upon a team-related news item posted on one online platform, she would immediately share it on another platform for fellow fans who may not have seen it (R. Nachman, personal interview, 27 May 2013). Nachman’s actions were not as motivated by a conscious decision to share relevant information for the community’s benefit as they were by a spontaneous, random impulse that was a momentary judgment call. Therefore, information is not possibly shared within the fan community because of a well-oiled mechanism being in place, but rather owing to a sense of mutuality and sacrifice that makes fans want to pull their own weight and distribute content among fellow fans. The team’s home pitch was traditionally a symbol that met fans’ territorial needs, in terms of both space and visibility (Levental, 2013). However, this symbol is not without shortcomings, the majority of which have to do with space limitations, which not only determine the maximum number of fans who can partake in activities but also influence the nature of team-related content and how it is distributed. In this regard, the Internet revolution has influenced both the nature of fans’ sense of kinship with the team and how fans consume content. There are two main aspects to information consumption: habits and possibilities. As far as habits go, football fans were all in a status quo situation, in which they had to conform to a one-sided relationship with available content sources (television, radio, and print media) while playing a predominantly passive role as information recipients. The Internet accelerated the already rapid growth rate of content sources and immediately rendered obsolete the majority of limitations with which fans previously had to contend. No longer did fans need to sit in front of a television set or rework their daily schedule to accommodate match broadcast times. These possibilities are the very epitome of the revolution that swept through sport fandom culture. New online tools, platforms, and content at fans’ disposal have a major impact on fan habits and on the importance of
Communication and the Public sports content and how it is organized and shared. Omer Dovev, head of content at Haadumim.co.il (The Reds), provided an example of these new possibilities: The Internet helps connect people and spread ideas. Content is shared easily and quickly for the benefit of anyone who’s interested. Facebook groups for instance, really help in organising activities and getting new volunteers onboard. The fan forum is helpful in getting productive discussions about various ongoing activities off the ground (at times) and even gives these activities some feedback. (O. Dovev, email correspondence, 10 June 2013)
Dovev highlighted two forms of action Israeli sport fans have embraced: organizing activities via the online community and engaging in discussions. Such activities further deepen the bond between fans which, prior to the Internet, was just a footnote in the world of Israeli sport. The evolution of the online fan community is essentially the Internet’s biggest game changer in that the community now had both power and means to form an independent entity, removed from the team. The nature of content and how it is organized are influenced by individual fan decisions and the online platform fans use. Eliran Binmann, Adom Oleh’s webmaster, emphasized how the content on his website may be used as information that is parallel to traditional, commercially available content. The website has a fully functional news desk of volunteers who are earning journalism credentials and are managed by a head journalist who is also a team fan. However, Binmann stated that, contrary to commercial sport sites such as Sport5 or ONE, his site is not driven by ratings. Instead, the main goal is to offer fanproduced quality content and services to fellow fans. In the past, decisions as to how quickly to post and distribute content were influenced by commercial considerations. Nowadays, the majority of independent fan sites will comprehensively fact check any news item before deeming it acceptable for posting (E. Binmann, email correspondence, 17 June 2013). This work ethic has given birth to a new kind of content that is fundamentally different from official content posted by the team. Content is not influenced by any management agenda or an insatiable thirst for
Levental et al. ratings. Meanwhile, fan-submitted content becomes much more credible. The ability of fan-run sites to criticize the team, players, and owners, influence public opinion, and instigate discussion among fans is another important aspect of this type of content. Hapoel Tel Aviv fan Adi Gal noted that, despite the affluence of content on fan sites (mostly trivial information), fans’ op-ed columns do add value. According to Gal, the actual content is already available on major sport sites and the team’s official website (which is completely reliable). However, the strength of op-eds lies in the ideas and opinions they express within the fan community. These are thoughts and sentiments that are sometimes not in line with the agenda or interest of official team or major sport sites (A. Gal, personal interview, 27 May 2013). The biggest change in the organization and dissemination of sports content lies in its source, specifically in two main processes: the transition into a media landscape of multiple sources, and the shift from official to fan content. These changes have led to an overhaul of how, and to what extent, sports content is presented, edited, and consumed. This trend is not exclusive to sports content, as it also extends to other types of online information. The Hapoel Tel Aviv fan forum, as well as its Twitter and Facebook accounts, shows how content’s order of appearance is not necessarily that instrumental. The three platforms are based on textual, chronological content that does not get promotion- or boosting-based visual merit, alleged importance, or level of interest. Many fans likely prefer that the majority of sports content they consume be made up of fan knowledge and opinions, as opposed to quality content contributed by official, allegedly reliable sources. Traditionally, sports content was ranked by importance (determined by the media), with only the news items that are deemed consensus earning wider coverage, further fueling existing interest around them. Meanwhile, controversial content that may champion non-mainstream opinions and sentiments was predominantly relegated to limited distribution and availability. Now, the Internet is home to multiple equally accessible sources. Chronologically displayed content can be shared quickly and easily, so the potential for equal, unlimited exposure for all
13 types of content grows considerably. However, there is also a significant drop in efficient searching for content online. Another facet of sports content’s evolution in the digital age involves the fact that the Internet has not really upgraded what was already in existence. Instead, it created an altogether new landscape, in terms of both content origin and open modes of distribution. Internet websites are no more a direct evolution of fanzines than Facebook forums are of fan get-togethers at stadium aisles. These new platforms, driven by communally shared elements, are an altogether new creation. Pre-Internet, Israeli sport fans were mainly a byproduct of a professional football club, as opposed to an independent entity. However, football fans’ support is now measured by their level of interest in the team, which is expressed by watching matches and consuming related content. The change in content in the digital age has also altered the very core of modern football fans, turning them from a local into a global supporter. The Internet is now another platform for watching the team’s matches, but is chiefly for content consumption. This is why it has become the most popular stomping ground for the modernday football fan. Several teams caught on to this trend early, with the biggest being Barcelona FC. In 2003, inspired by club president Juan Laporte, Barcelona FC began focusing on online-media marketing strategies in a bid to increase the team’s global fan base (Wilson, 2012). The team shifted its focus from local Catalan pride, and the symbol of the fight against Castilian Spain, to the global, commercial market that is neither ideology-based nor subject to any geo-restrictions. This approach happened because fans worldwide now could tune into matches via the Internet and access content on the team’s Facebook page, Twitter accounts, and official site, which is translated into six languages and attracts tens of millions of daily visitors. In Israel, the country’s top teams now enjoy a wider fan base well beyond the local geo-units they actually represent. In an age in which fans can tune into every team match, keep up with the team, and take part in online discussions, they can now be a full-fledged fan, even if they do not attend team matches at all.
14 Modern fans are more part of an independent community than they are of the team. With that in mind, Adom Oleh’s Eliran Binmann argued that it is essential for the fan community to remain independent in terms of the content it produces and consumes, and its ideology and goals. That being said, the fan community can, and in some cases must, become actively involved in team management. Hapoel Tel Aviv fans acquired 20% of the team (a move which took place via the Adumim (Reds)), earning them a number of prominent seats on the Board of Directors, in addition to securing them exclusive, decisionmaking privileges in a number of areas. According to Binmann, this acquisition has more than proven itself, in that fans are currently very successful in spearheading initiatives for their own benefit, while still looking out for the team’s best interests. However, Nachman pointed out how fan sites will run news items far more frequently than will the team’s official Facebook page or website. While we could argue the positive merits of this phenomenon, as it does showcase the major growth in content volume, we ultimately cannot ignore the fact that the team’s official site continues to lag behind fan sites (R. Nachman, personal interview, 27 May 2013). Nachman’s position indicates that, despite the major rise in the volume of fan-created content, fans remain eager for content from official channels. This official content is a direct, credible alternative to fan content. It also indicates that the team is making an actual effort to acknowledge and meet fans’ needs. In the Israeli football league, match ticket prices have gone up in the last two decades, contrary to the German Bundesliga, where prices have remained relatively low (around the equivalent of 50ILS for a top-tier team match). The Germans maintain this price range due to the country’s unique ownership structure, in which football teams are legally required to be 51% fan-owned. This protects fan interest in the team, while ensuring that the team also maintains a high level of involvement. When sport fans serve as management, they show far greater online presence on websites, forums, and social media. Furthermore, when fans became more actively involved in the team, as was the case with the Tabib ousting campaign, it was not long before the community also began banding together around additional matters,
Communication and the Public such as the Heichal HaTehila shel Hapoel Tel Aviv (Hapoel Tel Aviv’s Hall of Fame) Facebook group and the Adumim (Reds) fan society, which acquired 20% of the team. Guy (2006) argued that the Internet is an important tool for mobilizing and uniting fans in the community. However, online rallying does not come at the expense of fan presence at stadiums. For instance, at the height of their campaign, Hapoel Beer Sheva fans were still hoping to return to their favorite team’s stadium aisles, while Hapoel Tel Aviv fans demonstrated their creative prowess by singing original songs and holding up signs at matches, which they would later discuss on many fan sites. Therefore, it appears that the stadium and the Internet are engaged in a two-way relationship. Guy’s reading was based on the notion that expressing fandom by stadium presence strengthens the otherwise abstract bond between fan and team. However, this study’s analysis of Hapoel Tel Aviv’s fan protest suggests that the volume of fans’ online activities remains steady, while forum and message board discussions are attended by a large group of fans who do not actually show up at the stadium for team matches. In other words, modern sport fans, contrary to their traditional predecessors, can actively partake in sport fandom and immerse themselves in the fan community just using the Internet’s various content and media platforms at their disposal. Gal argued that the Internet era has radically altered the nature of her fandom, in that she has seen Hapoel Tel Aviv go from being a weekly to a daily watercooler topic, with much buzz surrounding it on multiple online platforms (A. Gal, personal interview, 27 May 2013). The growing prevalence of this online discourse may affect fans’ levels of engagement and involvement with the team, in addition to also having potential financial, social, and sports-related implications. References Armstrong, A., & Hagel, J. (2000). The real value of online communities. Knowledge and Communities, 74(3), 85–95. Bennett, L. (2006). Communicating global activism: Strength and vulnerabilities of networked politics. In W. van de Donk, B. D. Loader, P. G. Nixon, &
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Author biographies Orr Levental, PhD, is a Lecturer and Dean of students at Ohalo College of education, Israel. His main areas of research are geosport and sociology of sport, in particular, the collective symbolism of sports places. Yair Galily, PhD, is the Founder and Head of the Sport, Media and Society (SMS) Research Lab at Sammy Ofer School of Communications, Interdisciplinary Center (IDC) Herzliya, Israel. Yair is an Applied Sociologist, Mass Media and Management Researcher. Moran Yarchi, PhD, is a Senior Lecturer at the Sammy Ofer School of Communications, IDC Herzliya, Israel. Her main area of research is political communication, especially the media’s coverage of conflicts and public diplomacy. Ilan Tamir, PhD, is a Sport and Mass Media Researcher and Lecturer at Ariel University in Israel. Ilan is the Dean of the School of Communication in the University.
