Comfort In The Crowds

Men’s mental health is known to be linked to sport – so how much has the pandemic and its impact on spectatorship harmed football fans? 

 

As there is an increasing focus on mental health in the sporting sphere, particularly amongst men, the devastating impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic are yet to be wholly felt in the psychological wellbeing of sports fans up and down the country. 

 

When The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge launched the Heads Up campaign in 2019, as part of their Heads Together initiative, men’s football became a stage for mental health discussions on a whole new scale. Partnering with the FA to sponsor the FA Cup Final, the Heads Up campaign aimed to get men talking about their mental health and break the stigma around mental health problems amongst the male population.  

 

Similar high-profile partnerships have been established between English footballing bodies and mental health charities in the meantime, such as Mind charity’s partnership with the EFL, which reaches every tier of professional men’s football in the country, and subsequently their fan bases. Football has more commonly become a tool for mental health organisations to tap into a large-scale audience of men who may not otherwise address their mental health. With suicide now the leading cause of death for men under the age of 45, the responsibility of sporting bodies to nurture a healthy discourse around mental health has never been greater.   

 

According to a 2016 YouGov survey for the Mental Health Foundation, men are also much less likely to seek medical help for their mental health, with only a quarter of men disclosing their mental health problems to those closest to them compared to a third of women. Household sporting names are therefore playing a crucial role in raising awareness of mental health. The FA’s statement on football and mental health explains, ‘We want to make coaches and teammates confident and comfortable about talking about mental health problems […] Sport can help in people’s recovery, help to manage symptoms and can radically improve the quality of people’s lives.’ 

 

To understand how strong the correlation is between men’s mental health and football, there are plenty of case studies of fans that have been saved by the sport and the intense community that surrounds it. 

 

Liam experienced the very lowest days of his life when his mental health hit rock bottom. After struggling to cope with an ongoing battle with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD), he attempted to take his own life. During his recovery in hospital, Liam sought comfort in the simplest of distractions, mainly in the form of football. “Whilst recovering in hospital, football began to play an important role in my healing” Liam explains. 

 

“I watched the Champions League final of that year. It struck me at one point that the intrusive thoughts had quietened for the first time in a very long time - I had lost myself in the game.”  

 

Liam also explained how, “I was very aware that [football] had a big role to play in my recovery. It’s something that has been a huge presence in my life in good and bad times, it’s the basis on which my relationship with my dad is built, it is a very important part of my existence.”  

 

Knowing how much football has helped Liam in his recovery and life since discharge from hospital, it is difficult to imagine the impact that no football must have on people like him who have formed such an incomprehensible connection to the sport.  “Football has just always been there, I have leaned on it in the past when I have struggled mentally” he said, adding that “I can lose myself and become totally in the moment with football, whereas my mind can feel very busy at other points.” 

 

The full extent of the pandemic’s psychological impacts is not yet known, but the role of sport, in particular football, is important for many men who struggle to manage their mental health. “I think that society is battling a dual mental and physical health crisis at the moment” Liam explains, highlighting the difficulties of balancing the threat of COVID-19 and the impact of restrictions on mental welfare.  “Losing the matchday experience, as with other freedoms, has negatively impacted my mental health. Luckily, I am in a good place mentally at the moment, but for others the impact is likely to be much more severe.” 

 

Without the comfort of a crowd of forty thousand surrounding them, cheering in unison and chattering at every given opportunity, the life of a dedicated football fan has been flipped upside down into a lonely, virtual reality in the wake of the pandemic. To cope with the loss of sociable and therapeutic matchdays, Liam has taken to enjoying the sport in different ways; “I have written about football and allowed myself to become more engrossed in it, which has allowed me to retain my enjoyment.” 

 

With football fans being forced to embrace the virtual matchday experience, there is much to be considered about how social media plays a part in men’s mental health. A 2019 Mind study showed that 37% of men found that social media negatively impacted the way they felt mentally. As Liam has adapted to using social media as a tool for connecting with other fans, he has found that there are negatives and benefits to football communities online – particularly with what is known as ‘football twitter’. He explains, “On the one hand it can be a very negative place, one where footballers are abused, and fans abuse fans - people are emboldened by the relative anonymity of it. The other side of it is that football twitter can bring people together.” 

 

“Men’s elite level football can still have a very toxic culture of masculinity around it and it’s vital to keep pushing the conversation forward” he added.  

 

In the last twelve months, the pandemic has changed the way in which people care for their mental wellbeing, as limits on social contact and activities such as sports have restricted support networks and methods of escapism. A Samaritans study of men’s mental health during the pandemic found that 42% of the male participants had felt negatively impacted by the lockdowns and restrictions. An earlier study by The University of Essex, on behalf of Mind charity in 2019, found that 94% of those questioned felt that outdoor exercise benefitted their mental health. England’s lockdown restrictions have limited such outdoor recreation for the general public and those at grassroots level, meaning a vital form of mental health support has been hindered. 

 

During the COVID-19 era, in which football culture is more twitter threads and television than pints and chants, mental health is under an even brighter spotlight than before. With the efforts of charities and organisations to widen the discussion of mental health, particularly in men, football has become key in tapping into an even broader demographic of people.  The sport is loved by millions, and the distance between fans and their clubs is now at its widest in the period of empty stadiums. A combination of social isolation, lack of physical exercise and increased use of technology to access the sport and fellow fans can only suggest a negative impact on football fan’s mental health during the pandemic.  

 

It will indeed be interesting to examine whether men’s mental health will recover immediately once they are able to access their beloved sport, or whether there will be lasting damage from spending an extended period away from stadiums and local fan communities.