Colors and Scarves: The Symbolic Consumption of Material Possessions by Soccer Fans

(eng) Merchandising today represents a substantial part of the income of professional soccer teams. In this paper, we investigate the reasons why merchandising is becoming so successful: why fans are increasingly buying and consuming shirts, scarves or hats of their preferred colors. The consumption of football-related items is considered from a naturalistic interpretive perspective. Participant observation and interviews are used in order to get a better grasp on this problem. The paper shows that action and possession are strongly connected in football consumption and that merchandise fulfil four symbolic functions: identification, integration, expression and sacralization. Football fans express their identification with their team as a unified community during sacred sport moments.