‘No one likes us, we don’t care’

In this qualitative research (master thesis) the question ‘What motives do supporters of Feyenoord Rotterdam give for engaging in online discrimination and how do these motives relate to their ideology?’ is answered.

In-depth interviews have been held with thirteen carefully selected Feyenoord supporters about their online behavior, what meaning they give to this behavior and what motivates them to participate.

The results showed three discourses can be distinguished; a first one which argues their behavior cannot be described as discrimination, the second that does describe their behavior as discrimination, but still choose to participate and lastly, a third discourse that chooses consciously not to participate, because they agree it is discrimination.

The discourses had various motives in common, such as emotion, humor, the impersonal and anonymous aspect of social media, mocking and insulting, but a few motives were specific for certain discourses.

There were two things the respondents had in common over-all; how their motives to discriminate do not lie within an ideological belief and the misunderstanding they feel people have about them as football supporters.