Digital media, football fans and communications : a case study of Salford City FC, a ‘digital football club’

This paper is written in year one of a five year longitudinal ethnography, six months into my PhD studies. Significant progress has been made so far. I am currently part way through my literature review and I am currently refining my research questions. I have recently obtained ethical approval for my study from the University of Salford. The PhD study focuses on a new era for Salford City Football Club (SCFC). SCFC currently sit in the 8th tier of English football but have recently been taken over in a high profile move by ex-Manchester United players the ‘class of ‘92’ and are more recently joined by billionaire Peter Lim. The new era heralds an unusual case of a non-league football team having such high profile owners with reported ambitions to turn SCFC into a ‘digital football club’. The study poses the question of how digital media impacts on this football club and its brand. This paper evaluates the relevant literature related to digital media and football at this early stage and highlights potential gaps in both academic research and managerial understanding in this area. One particular gap noted at this stage is the role of social media on sales and football club brand. The study reflects on the current gap in understanding with regard to SCFC and provides an appraisal of the current situation and the next steps. The research design so far is discussed and proposes a method of netnography and interview using a grounded theory approach with CAQDAS (Computer Assisted Qualitative Data AnalysiS), qualitative data analysis and coding