Leeds United on Trial

Abstract

In these increasingly ‘libertarian’ though conservative times I want to raise a question about the nature of contemporary state intervention in popular cultural industries like football, especially through the judiciary, magistracy and police, but also in terms of a wider governance, indeed ‘governmentality’, of popular culture by governing bodies and by private and public companies like professional football clubs. I want to take as a case study the so-called ‘Leeds United trial’, although it is by no means the only example 2 we could select. First let us set the scene for the case study.