This paper explores the contemporary nature of association football consumption. In particular, we argue that the coronavirus 2019 pandemic reveals the contemporary and particular nature of the relationship between football and its supporters, which is increasingly focused on the consumption of themed digital participatory experiences. During this pandemic, what fans missed was not only live football, but also the sporting ‘experience’ and the opportunities for participation that this provides. Hence, here we saw fans, clubs and media providers employing new digital technologies to create themed experiences that facilitated (and mediated) participation and interaction. Following Žižek (2014), we suggest that the coronavirus 2019 pandemic can be understood as a global mega event that creates a seismic, reality alerting schism, whose aftermath requires new ontologies and theories. Our response is to utilise a number of key and illustrative examples and to offer a new synthesis of theories and literatures, most notably, on the experience society, theming, participatory culture, neoliberalism and digital culture. This new context and (re)combination of theories then provides a new, and essential, perspective that reveals a great deal about the contemporary nature of the sport, what fans buy into, and also, how this may change post pandemic.

本文探讨了足球消费的当代性质。特别是，我们认为 2019 年冠状病毒大流行揭示了足球与其支持者之间关系的当代和特殊性质，这种关系越来越关注主题数字参与体验的消费。在这次大流行期间，球迷们错过的不仅是现场足球，还有体育“体验”和由此提供的参与机会。因此，在这里我们看到球迷、俱乐部和媒体提供商使用新的数字技术来创造促进（和调解）参与和互动的主题体验。继齐泽克（2014 年）之后，我们建议将 2019 年冠状病毒大流行理解为一个全球性的大型事件，它会产生地震、现实警报分裂，其后果需要新的本体论和理论。我们的回应是利用一些关键和说明性的例子，并提供理论和文献的新综合，尤其是关于体验社会、主题、参与性文化、新自由主义和数字文化。这种新的背景和理论的（重新）组合提供了一个新的、重要的视角，揭示了这项运动的当代本质、球迷的购买方式以及大流行后这可能如何改变。