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This case study deals with Ultras Dynamo, the leading group in the active fan scene of Eastern German (the term Eastern Germany is used within this paper to refer to the territory on which the GDR ...

This chapter deals with the responses made by the clubs enclosed in the case study to the economic crisis and is concerned with the creation of financially sustainable structures in terms of professionalisation processes, the creation of academies and the ways in which clubs react to the presence of larger clubs in their vicinity.

This chapter describes the research agenda, method and scope, state of research and key concepts which are employed in the further course of the study.

The third chapter of the qualitative case study analysis discusses strategies which can be seen as part of an agenda to improve a club’s status as a socially relevant actor, namely in the form of community programmes that clubs have launched as well as the networks they build in the form of public-private partnerships.

The chapter deals with the first of three crises; the economic crisis, which is marked by the tense financial situation in lower league football that is the result of meagre league revenues and competitive pressure, leading to a constant threat of liquidation.

The cultural crisis described in this chapter is characterised by the rupture between clubs and their communities. That this crisis is not a recent phenomenon and how the crisis materialises in the lower leagues will be demonstrated, mainly by drawing on stadium-related notions of ‘loss of place’.

The final chapter concludes the study, wrapping up the results of the individual chapters into an overall argument and assesses their consequences for the academic debate and open questions that will require further research. Employing hybrid organisation theories the chapter calls for more studies on lower league clubs and poses the question as to whether contemporary clubs and football need to be perceived as supermodern.

This chapter presents a comparison of the broader processes which can be drawn from the findings of the previous three chapters. While the study hardly shows generalizable results, the comparison indicates that the membership association is more creative and flexible in its adaptive measures than the company model. Furthermore, an institutional alignment between German and English structures as well as the trend towards hybrid organisations in football is assessed.

The third crisis which adds to the legitimisation dilemma is the social crisis, which is marked by political interventions and increased regulation of the football business, by the wider public pressure that football clubs encounter, and the spread of community programmes in lower league football as a means to meet this pressure.

This chapter introduces the eight case studies, four in England and four in Germany, in the form of concise club profiles. Further, it presents a first comparison of the basis of structures, membership development and attendance figures.

This chapter shifts the focus to strategies which can be regarded as part of the community-building function of football clubs, that is, strategies to engage the cultural crisis, for example by creating new anchor points for collective identities. The chapter analyses club branding strategies, statutes and agendas as well as questions of ground ownership and the creation of ‘sense of place’.

In Germany as in many other European countries, fans demand a greater say in their clubs. Following the question how fans are currently involved and represented within the decision-making processes at club level, Ziesche offers an insight into the alignment of fan-related structures in and around German professional football clubs. After starting his chapter by introducing recent developments with regard to fan politics in Germany, he moves to the results of his empirical study. By employing a two-step analysis, Ziesche first presents a categorisation of three different models existent in Germany and then presents findings from selected cases from the first and second Bundesliga. The chapter concludes by controversially discussing whether the German case can serve as an example of Good Governance with regard to fan representation and involvement.