The Heart of a Football Disciple: a radio documentary narrating the tales of football fans in 2019.

Simon, Jeff (2019) The Heart of a Football Disciple: a radio documentary narrating the tales of football fans in 2019. masters thesis, Griffith College.

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Abstract

Football is the most popular sport in the world. Bar none. Over four billion people follow it in varying degrees and for the vast majority of fans, the process of fandom is straightforward in that they “inherit” it from their family but this is not necessarily the case for every fan as the gathered research and findings have highlighted. This documentary is an attempt to unearth and reveal what causes fans to fall in love with this sport. Among the four fans interviewed for this piece, this thesis primarily aims to ask and answer the question: ‘What caused you to fall in love with football?’ In addition to the primary research question stated above, the documentary also delves into the emotions, memories, relationships and passion associated with the sport. Furthermore, this documentary is aimed at people of varying age and interest groups including non-football fans. It is well understood that there are people who dismiss this sport and don’t see much, if any worth in its existence; this piece also aims to ‘justify’ the existence and need for football in the face of naysayers and it is hoped that the emotions and humour expressed by the interviewees will facilitate people of all backgrounds to empathise with them and enjoy the listening experience. The voices sourced for this documentary include a Manchester United fan (Louise Berney) from Ireland, a River Plate supporter (Leonardo Blanco) from Argentina, a Barcelona fan (Nazeel Juvale) from India and a Real Madrid supporter (Majda Elharrek) from Morocco. This establishes diversity in terms of fandom and club culture. Additionally, it is a gender-neutral cast of voices which lends further validity to this research endeavour.

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