Introduction: reflections on the context of ‘Left Wing’ fan cultures

At a time when institutional levers are being pulled to counter the twin threats of racism and rampant commercialism, traditional grassroots radicalism amongst football supporters committed to opposing these long-standing problems in European professional football are in danger of being overlooked. Football is a cultural form, which carries with it the possibility of promoting the voices of the disenfranchised and the marginalized, and as such the potential is always there for nurturing solidarity against a dominant discourse that buttresses the existing social order. The intention of this paper is to highlight the tradition of left-wing political thinking in the culture of fans of professional football.