An alternative football club in a liquid modernity: FC United of Manchester

Critical management studies have taken an interest in ‘utopian’ models of
management, especially within alternative organizations. This article focuses on
FC United of Manchester, a small football club with 5000 members, whose
principles of inclusion, affordability, community, and friendship evoke ideas of
utopianism and collectivism. About 30 fan-owned football clubs exist in the UK,
each with their own raison d’eˆtre, but all discontented with the commodification
of the game. Bauman’s concept of ‘liquid modernity’, in which individuals find
self-realization through consumption, is used to analyse how FC United reacts to
the individualization and commercialization of football. This analysis employs
CMS concepts to evaluate whether FC United is a genuine alternative to
standard business models, and gives an empirical and critical dimension to liquid
modernity as a framework for understanding society.