The aim of this event is to examine the culture that develops around football, with particular focus upon the influence of the sport on other cultural media. Football is a prominent part of contemporary culture, and the strong influence that it has on social and political identities is often reflected in wider cultural production. Despite this, it is sometimes argued that football is an example of low or "mass" culture, removed from "high" cultural forms. This event will interrogate this viewpoint and attempt to demonstrate the sport's influence upon a wide variety of cultural forms.

The sport and its associated cultures have been an inspiration for the production of novels, poems, short stories, plays, films, television programmes, dance, music and visual art. We welcome abstracts examining any aspect of the role that football plays in cultural production.

We feel that it is vital for this event to be inter-disciplinary in outlook and we therefore encourage submissions from not only literary scholars but historians, sociologists, cultural theorists and political scientists. We welcome submissions for panels or papers centred around (but not limited to) the following themes:
- Football in modern and contemporary fiction, poetry, drama or visual art.
- Football journalism
- The football "industry"
- Football broadcasting
- Football, film and television
- Football and music
- Football and politics
- Football and national identity
- Football's interaction with the politics of race, gender and sexuality
- Fanzines
- Fan culture
- We particularly welcome papers on obscure footballers from the 1990s

Conference fees are yet to be decided, but our aim is make this an affordable event. We do not want to price anyone out of the market with prohibitively high fees.

Unfortunately, we are not able to assist with accommodation, travel, conference fees, or associated costs. We can, however, offer advice on travel and suitable accommodation.
Please send abstracts to the event organisers, Dr Anthony May (Kingston University) and Dr Christopher Daley (University of Westminster): footballfictionandculture@gmail.com.

The deadline for abstracts has been extended to 15th August 2014. Papers should be the standard 20 minutes and panel proposals should consist of three speakers.

We are hoping to publish an edited collection based upon this event and would be eager for speakers to contribute to this subsequent publication.

We look forward to receiving your abstract and seeing you at the event.