LAUSR

The book authored by Tom Gibbons and published from Routledge in 2016 – the first edition dates from the year 2014 – analyses the challenges facing contemporary English national identity, through an examination of football, and mainly through exploring the perceptions of English supporters in relation to the English national team. Basically, Gibbons tries to challenge the argument that the recently increasing display of the English Saint George’s Cross flag – to the detriment of the United Kingdom’s Union Flag – by England supporters is clear evidence of the emergence of an English national consciousness. It is certain that England has currently the need to differentiate from overall British identity, due to devolution of political power to the other nations comprising the United Kingdom, namely, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, by the end of the twentieth century. However, Gibbons claims that English identity is of a more complex nature in the context of rising globalisation and European integration processes. The fieldwork research was carried out during the 2006 World Cup in the pubs showing England’s matches, and subsequently on a national internet discussion forum for football fans in 2008 and 2009. Thus, one could argue that the findings presented in the book may be to some extent outdated, especially taking into account recent political developments in relation to the UK’s withdrawal from the European Union and the Scottish independence referendum held in 2014. Nonetheless, the rich theoretical reflection on the multi-layered identities around the English national team significantly contribute to understanding the diversity of expressions and the situational nature of some allegiances in football fan culture.