A field of politics: the relationship between political values and club allegiance in the cases of Hibernian and Heart of Midlothian from Scotland

Football is one of the most popular and socially influential sports worldwide. While there is noticeable interest from other social sciences, political science research rather neglects the topic in their studies. The rare political studies on football usually relate to the politics of fan communities regardless of their club allegiance or cases of highly politicised club identities. The paper aims to of the gap of knowledge in political science on football by focusing on the relationship between political values and club allegiance of football fans from Edinburgh's two major football clubs: Hibernian and Heart of Midlothian. Both clubs are known to maintain a noticeable sports rivalry with some political overtones, although not of the same magnitude as Glasgow between Celtic and Rangers. To what extent do the fans’ political values foster their club allegiance, and does the fans’ club allegiance harness certain political views with it? To what extent do the communities in which their football clubs are situated shape the political values of club supporters? This largely exploratory study relies on a series of semi-structured interviews with regular fans, organised supporters, club officials, journalists, and political representatives. Its findings shed a closer light on the relationship between political values and football identity and serve as the basis for further investigation into the role of football clubs as political actors.