Football Globalization, Fans of European Leagues and the Spatiality of Viewing Centers in a Nigerian City

Football is arguably the world’s most globalized sport, and is implicated in the continuing efforts of social scientists to understand current globalization processes. In cities across the world, transnational broadcast of live matches of European leagues, involving elite clubs like Manchester United, Chelsea, Barcelona and other elite teams/players, is engendering ritualized television spectating, which in turn is leading to the proliferation of ‘football bars’ or football viewing centres (FVCs). Globalization-induced telemediation of urban social life and subculture formation is specialized in these ‘virtual stadiums’, entertainment/socializing centres, and ‘windows’ to the outside world, where fan-ship behaviours are both formed and reinforced. The current article attempts to fill the yawning spatiality gap in contemporary literature on football globalization and media transnationalism by exploring FVCs as ‘spatial coordinates’ of globalization, and unpacking its geospatial, socio-demographic and land use change attributes in a typical Nigerian city. The explorative results revealed significant clustering around the central areas with orientation in the direction of the major transportation corridors.