Hammers, Lions and Yids: Identity and Ethnicity on British Football Grounds : A Critical Discourse Analysis of the Terrace Chants of West Ham United FC, Millwall FC and Tottenham Hotspur FC

Abstract: This essay will show how manifestations of local identity, ethnicity and community in the terrace chants of the three football clubs West Ham United Football Club, Millwall Football Club and Tottenham Hotspurs Football Club are created. By featuring a collection of chants from each club, a connection to the clubs’ geographical areas, the home grounds and ethnic features will be described. By featuring a critical discourse analysis of the language used in the various clubs’ chants at their respective home ground, this essay will display aspects of above mentioned aspects and how these are upheld in language and interaction between people. Each club’s supporters acknowledge allegiance to various communities. West Ham United is traditionally a club of working class Londoners who often relate to themselves as ‘the cockney boys’, while Millwall (although being set in working class London) identifies more with the geographical area (South London) where they are situated, than with their heritage. Tottenham is one of the clubs in Britain most strongly influenced by religion, as many of the supporters are Jews.