Negotiating Identity Conflict Through Football: Experiences of People Living with Type 1 Diabetes

Diabetes has become a condition which is acknowledged for its global impact on healthcare and society. However, much of sport research has followed a physiology- focus that has increased awareness of the condition’s effect on the body with a limited understanding around its socio-cultural consequences. This chapter fills this gap by exploring the identity conflict that footballers with Type 1 Diabetes (T1D) experience. Six male T1D football players were recruited and interviewed. Data were captured utilising a netnographic approach. The data were then put to a narrative thematic analysis. Participants demonstrated that athletic identity and elitism in sport adversely impacts their identification with T1D. The data also revealed that the social-relational model of disability’s connection with identity is the closest replication of identity negotiation between disability, T1D and participants. Stigma surrounding T1D was shown to have a significant impact on reducing identification with the condition, which was also linked to behaviour that negated medical advice and adherence to it. The Neo-Tribe concept offers an explanatory framework as to how identity conflict was negotiated through the temporary identification with T1D and the positive lever of football, driving an increased uptake in peer support and subsequent medical adherence.