Object, Legitimacy and Inability: Reflections on 100 Years of Footballing Nothingness

In the winner-loser culture that defines football, it is in the interest of the game that traditional underperformers sometimes overturn that status and win a major trophy. How that task is attained provokes debate about the layered systems of management and governance that define a football club. The football club that is the focus of this chapter was once a force in the English football system; the past 100 years however have seen that club win nothing of note. How this situation came to be is considered alongside a reflection that winning need not be everything when one analyses what a football club might represent and facilitate. In light of the inequality that impacts politics and citizenship affecting the institution of football clubs, the discussion draws on ethnographic material from Sheffield, UK, to develop an analysis of the legitimacy of governance in this field.