Football is ingrained in British culture, there’s no arguing that.

However, just how big of a place does the beautiful game hold in the people’s everyday lives? The delayed arrival of the 2020 UEFA European championships and the threat of the newly formed breakaway European Super League shoved football right back onto the forefront of people’s minds. Headlines splattered with talk of commercialization, money and even a new wave of hooliganism.

But football culture runs deeper than that across any borough or region of England, acting sometimes as a catalyst for a resilient, localized culture that persists well past 90 minutes, promotion, relegation, recession or just any about any challenge thrown at it.

“Boroughs, Grounds and Billions: Regionalism, Community, Commercialization, and the Socio-Cultural Evolution of Domestic Football in London” sought to explore the relationship domestic football culture holds within the London boroughs and see how that relationship between localized culture and broader national identity has evolved two decades into the Premier League era.

Submitted as a final dissertation project for an MSc in Sociology and Global Change at the University of Edinburgh in the Summer of 2021, it featured more traditional research within the greater themes of nationalism and regionalism theory as well as a photo essay and interviews with representatives of supporters groups from West Ham United, Brentford, Chelsea and AFC Wimbledon.

I would like to thank my supervisor, Ross Bond, for his amazing support, Sociology and Global Change program directors Angelica Thumala and Sophia Woodman as well as Micheal Rosie, Gëzim Krasniqi, ASEN and the rest of the Nationalism studies ensemble at Edinburgh. Lastly, I would like to extend my thanks to Niall from the Don’s Trust, Paul Cobourne from Hammers United, Stewart Purvis from Bees United, David the “Stamford Chidge” from the Chelsea Fancast/Chelsea Supporter’s Trust and Gemma Teale from LGBeeTs for taking the time to be interviewed.