The young people are often regarded as being filled with hopes and ambitions for the world and hence, they are the drivers of the cultural changes. Sport is a universal element in all the cultures and this is why people often chose to include it as one of the theme for compassing. Culture and sport, both falls under the human rights and they are often the grounds upon which the human rights are abused and challenged. Furthermore, Community engagement is considered to be one of the important aspect on which the sports can leverage. There are plenty of advantages regarding the engagement of the communities with various activities of the club. It can able to generate more donations and profits and boost up the image and popularity of the club. However, this report is going to figure out the specific issues regarding the engagement of the fans in Richmond Football Club and in course of the discussion the report also introduces theories to mitigate issues of cultural underpinnings among the fans. Moreover, the report also highlights another method to deal with the issue and ensure better community engagement framework.
Research question
How far the RFC will be able to mitigate cultural issue among fans in order to ensure a better community engagement?
As per Santoro (2016), culture refers to that special artistic and intellectual products or endeavours that is, in present date, called “high culture” instead of “popular culture”. According to him, the sense of culture is related to the aesthetics rather than to the social science. Furthermore, according to Hoffman (2015), culture is the complex whole that comprises of art, knowledge, law, belief, custom, morals and any other habits and capabilities that are acquired by human beings as a member of the society. De Mooji (2015) also in this context have stated that ‘[Culture] is the collective programming of the mind which distinguishes the members of one group or category of people from another.” Culture is said to be universal among every groups and it also exists among some of the primates.
It is to note that culture has a total of five basic characteristics. Culture is learned, share, integrated, dynamic and is based upon the symbols. Each and every culture share these five basic features. As per Chua (2018), culture is learned and it is not biological in any way. Human beings do not inherit it. In fact, most of the culture is unconscious. Man learns about culture from his families, communities, institutions, friends etc. The process of learning about the culture is said to be enculturation. As every individual has a basic biological requirements like food, sex and sleep, the manner in which they fulfil these needs differs cross-culturally. Secondly, culture is being shared. Man shares culture with his peers and the other members of his group and this is why he could act in socially appropriate manner and could also predict how others would act to it. Thirdly, culture is integrated and it is known to be holism. It is to state that each and every aspects of culture is inter-related and in order to understand them in true terms, one must learn about each of their parts and not only some. Fourthly, culture is dependent on the symbols. Symbol refers to something which stands for something else. They differ cross-culturally and they are arbitrary as well. They contain meanings only when the individuals in a culture agree about their use. Art, money and language are all stand for symbols. It is to mention that language is the most important symbolic component of the culture. Lastly, culture is dynamic in nature. It interact and gets changed. As most of the cultures are in contact with one another, therefore, they exchange the symbols and ideas. Every cultures get changed. Or else, they might have issues adapting to the changing environments. Furthermore, it is also to mention that culture is being shaped by the beliefs, institutions, faith, society and perceptions of a community.
Why is culture so important to the industry and RFC?
Cultural traditions and traditional perception also play a very significant role in this aspect. In this context, Hodges (2016) puts emphasis on the class distinction among male and female fans of footballs so that it can be a possible reason behind the arrogant attitude of the fans. Class consciousness and social inequality are considered to be one of the major determinants in this regard. Therefore, the transformational class theory proved that in case of the English football fans there are still a discriminatory practice bestows among the English fans that has a significant impact on the violent attitude and hooliganism among the fans. Taylor et al. (2018) pointed out that male chauvinism and chivalry is identified as a part of the football fans that created a transparent demarcation between the fans on the basis of gender. In addition to this, Pope (2015) proved that the connection between the footballers and the criminals staged the way for further violence in sports. In fact, the arrogant fans sometimes got support from the mafias and antisocial and as a result of that the fans were instigated to spread atrocities and ransacked the environment.
Cultural traditions and traditional perception also play a very significant role in this aspect. In this context, Hodges (2016) puts emphasis on the class distinction among male and female fans of footballs so that it can be a possible reason behind the arrogant attitude of the fans. Class consciousness and social inequality are considered to be one of the major determinants in this regard. Therefore, the transformational class theory proved that in case of the English football fans there are still a discriminatory practice bestows among the English fans that has a significant impact on the violent attitude and hooliganism among the fans. Taylor et al. (2018) pointed out that male chauvinism and chivalry is identified as a part of the football fans that created a transparent demarcation between the fans on the basis of gender. In addition to this, Pope (2015) proved that the connection between the footballers and the criminals staged the way for further violence and hooliganism in sports. In fact, the arrogant fans sometimes got support from the mafias and antisocial and as a result of that the fans were instigated to spread atrocities and ransacked the environment.
In his research on the fundamentals and different approaches regarding fans’ behaviour Pope (2015) argued that a cultural underpinning was an prerogative that facilitated a violent and radical attitude among the players. Moreover, a sense of superiority complex is also coupled with these violent attitudes where the players felt that their team is the best and tried to outplay the other teams and fans. For an example, in the Balkan region, the football fans are resembled with a sense of orientalism that ushered hatred for the other teams and passion for the team that they loved. As a matter of fact, hooliganism is considered to be a common phenomenon in the sports industry where fans are alleged with criminal activities like breaking cars and fired it up, antisocial activities and shouting with offensive slogans. In this regard, it can be argued that with the development in the technologies the fan culture has become transcended to a great extent where the fans started attack through social media as well. Besides this, the daily vandalism and torched up materials are seen as common methods that the fans use after the end of the game.
On the other hand, Strang et al. (2018) exposed the practice of illegal activities by the fans during the game is set to play. In this study, the author puts emphasis on the National Football League (NFL) in London. This rugby sport is highly famous in the international arena with a large amount of fans estimated up to 80,000. Moreover, it can be argued that NFL has come under the scrutiny of the government due to the allegation regarding the gambling, alcohol and taxation among the fans. On the contrary, Doughty (2015) portrayed the case study of Polish football fandom and their fearsome attitude in stadium as well as outside the playground. Kossakowski (2017) further carry forwarded the understanding to a new dimension by incorporating the presence of the female fans in the practice of hooliganism. In addition to this, identity issues, racism and homophobia are also intertwined with the issue that escalated the problem in intensely. In Poland despite of having a strong cultural background, the hard core football fans became intensified by their destructive attitude. However, in case of evaluating the role of the fans and their behaviour in sports Scholz (2016) articulated that the violent attitude of the fans in football has been prevalent in England since 13th century. The medieval sports in the form of blood fight between animals or men or between men and animals were extensively formulated violence in sports. in course of the discussion, Steen (2016) put focus on the behaviour of the football fans in Czech republic where the verbal and non-verbal communications between the fans from different teams turned into clashes and subsequently it incorporated the ethnic and religious questions and creating atrocities. On the other hand, Numerato and Giulianotti (2018) convicted the teams to instigate their fans to a certain extent that the fans felt superior and created hatred to other clubs rigorously. In fact, the purpose of the teams to create such a fan base that would be beneficial for the clubs to demonstrate their prowess and popularity though in a negative way. Moreover, the hooliganisms fostered by the fans was also influenced by political underpinnings. Cleland and Cashmore (2016) argued that the political colour in games and sports is an essential factor that influenced the fans directly or indirectly. As a matter of fact, the political interests and purposes are scrupulously intertwined with the fan behaviour that enabled the fans to spread violence and atrocities in a rigorous manner. Therefore, it is important to understand the role of the politics and club endorsement in order to envisage a more detailed and cleared picture of the activities carried out by the club fans worldwide.
Based on this understanding, it can be argued that the Richmond Football Club is facing severe challenges regarding violent behaviours of the club fans. The club is popular profound establishment in the Australian football sport and achieved a number of success in this regard. However, the hooliganism and vandalism conducted by the fans of the Richmond Football Club damaged the popularity of the club. As far as the report of vandalism by the RFC fans in Melbourne it exposed a clear picture of the arrogance and psychic nature of the RFC fans. As far as the news report published in Herald Sun, two men were brutally ambushed by three Richmond fans after the finale at MCG with Hawthorn. The incident was happened 6th of September, 2018 when two men at an age of 61 and 45 were attacked and pinned down near the Pullman Hotel, Melbourne (Simonis 2018). The video footage of the assault proved that the attackers were Richmond fans wearing a beanie involved in the punching and beating of two innocent civilians. The brutal attack lasted for a minute and after that the victims were severely injured and one of them had a surgery for broken arm and facial injuries (Gleeson 2016). Moreover, as per the report the Richmond Club fans were also convicted with betting and gambling and the RFC authorities are now wanted to end this evil practice by signing a responsible gambling charter and agree not to have any further commercial tie ups with sports beating companies.
In this regard, the Marxist approach can be identified as an important aspect to understand the economic factors behind the emergence of the hooliganism and gambling practice. Moreover, the political paradigm in the Marxist approach enables the researcher to perceive a clear picture regarding the root causes of the practice. The political paradigm incorporates the elements of representative of the state, ruling class, waste time and resource policing (James 2018). As a result of that it will become an effective framework for the study to incorporate the economic and political aspects as well to cover up all the possible elements in the process. Furthermore, the behaviours of the fans are also an important aspect that is covered up by the Marxist approach.
Conclusion
The report developed an understanding regarding the role of the culture in creating community engagement in the Richmond Football Club. However, the club was facing severe challenges regarding the culture of the fans. Therefore, the report tried to point out all the possible aspects of those practices through the means of Dunning’s front line theory. Moreover, the report also mentioned the Marxist approach as an alternative method to identify the possible outcome regarding fans’ behaviour. In a conclusion, it can be stated that the report clearly underlines the role of the culture of the fans in creating a community engagement and in this regard proves to be rational and justified.
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