The Football and Society Podcast

In this episode, we’re looking at unpaid work in football scouting in men’s professional football in England, joined by Jacob Griffiths of the University of Chester. 

While football in England has long been professionalised, with all but two of the English football league’s 86 members registered as private companies, the work of scouts seeking out new talent is often voluntary. A recent study interviewed scouts in unpaid roles to find out more about their motivations and experiences. Jacob Griffiths and Daniel Bloyce interviewed 12 football scouts; these included scouts who had previously worked or were currently working in an unpaid role, along with individuals working in senior roles who had experience employing unpaid scouts. 

For several participants, unpaid work as a scout was an extension of their passion for football as a spectator, though there was also an underlying hope for many of them that with enough experience they could land a professional, paid role. This was despite the lack of evidence indicating that working unpaid will guarantee full-time, paid scouting work. The authors of the study saw this as an example of the romanticisation of football, whereby individuals are led to build fantastical hopes on the prospect of ‘making it’ in the game; indeed, several participants perceived their unpaid scouting work as an escape from the mundane routines of ‘normal’ life. As the article notes, however, scouting remains on the periphery of football clubs: the scout operates at an outsider level because they are not traditionally part of the ‘inner sanctum of the backroom staff’.

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Football and Society, a podcast exploring societal issues through the lens of the beautiful game. In this series, we’ll be covering topics such as the Safe Standing campaign and football fan activism in the age of anti-politics

If you like the podcast, please leave us a review so that more people can find it.

The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (known as the FARC) were formed in 1964, and for over half a century they were locked in a gruelling, bloody struggle with Colombia’s government. During this time, the Colombian authorities attempted to use the national football team as a means of unifying its citizens against the perceived threat of the FARC.

In this episode, Peter Watson joins us to discuss how successive Colombian presidents presented the FARC as the significant Other threatening a sense of national unity - symbolising what he calls ‘Narco-lombia’: the darker, notorious world of drug trafficking, violence, and criminality. 

For decades, the FARC was also associated with Communism; early on in the national football team’s history, a draw with the Soviet Union in the 1962 World Cup was heralded as a triumph over Colombia’s Communist foes, with one magazine describing the draw as ‘the most glorious page of Colombian sport in history’. 

In later years, Colombia’s political and criminal feuds had a direct and sinister impact on events on the football pitch; Andrés Escobar, who scored an own goal during Colombia's World Cup campaign in 1994, was murdered by men with cartel links on his return to Colombia, a tragedy that rocked the footballing world. 20 years later, as a new national narrative was emerging during peace negotiations between the FARC and the government, President Juan Manuel Santos was using football as a bridge and means of conciliation to incorporate the FARC back into the idea of a national ‘us’.

• How did drug cartels infiltrate Colombian football?
• How did the Colombian government undermine the guerillas using football?
• How optimistic should we be about Colombia's future?

...all this and more in the 36th episode of the Football and Society podcast.

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***

Each week, Ash, Chris and Norman explore societal issues through the lens of the beautiful game. From the ethics of gambling sponsorship to what a stadium move means for fans, we’ll be covering it all each week with expert guests from the worlds of sports journalism and sociology.

In 2018, statistics showed that nearly 400,000 girls in the US played high-school soccer, making it the fourth most-played sport among girls. However, those playing the sport skew towards those who live in areas that are whiter, less black or Latino, more suburban, and less socioeconomically disadvantaged than the national average.

In this episode, Dr Rachel Allison joins us to discuss this disparity and the extent to which soccer is 'a rich white kid sport', as former National Team player Hope Solo claimed in 2018. In the US, a key factor is the ‘pay-to-play pipeline’ where access to the youth club soccer system - a vital stepping stone - is a pathway most available to white and middle-class women from wealthier families. Even those players receiving subsidies in the form of grants and scholarships tended to come from white, affluent places with higher per capita and median household incomes.

• Does the US education system offer any opportunities for girls from economically deprived backgrounds to engage in the sport and is the notion of a meritocracy a fallacy?
  
• What are the origins of the term 'Soccer Mom' and what does it say about how soccer itself is regarded in the US compared to other sports?
  
• To what extent is capitalism and the flood of money into women's soccer in the US to blame?

…all this and more in the 35th episode of the Football and Society podcast.

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Follow Rachel on Twitter: www.twitter.com/rallis2

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Each week, Ash, Chris and Norman explore societal issues through the lens of the beautiful game. From the ethics of gambling sponsorship to what a stadium move means for fans, we’ll be covering it all each week with expert guests from the worlds of sports journalism and sociology.

The rivalry between the two Glasgow-based teams Celtic and Rangers is one of football’s fiercest, and one that has been marred by sectarian divisions between the city’s Catholic and Protestant communities in the past. But how do Glaswegians from other religious and ethnic backgrounds view the ‘Old Firm’ derby?

Today Dr Kieran James joins us to discuss the experiences of Glaswegians of Pakistani descent for their views on the derby. The majority of fans of Pakistani descent who Kieran has spoken to preferred Celtic, for a variety of reasons, including the club's support for the state of Palestine, which includes campaigns and donations made by supporter groups, was highly influential in some of the respondents opting for Celtic over Rangers as their preferred team. 

• How have the Old Firm clubs engaged (or alienated) fans of Pakistani descent?
• To what extent is the situation in Scotland similar or different to other countries?
• Given that Celtic have recently condemned displays of support for Palestine, how has this been perceived in the Muslim community in Glasgow?

…all this and more in the 34th episode of the Football and Society podcast.

***

If you like the podcast, please subscribe and give us a review via your platform of choice.

Follow us on Twitter: www.twitter.com/footballsocpod

***

Each week, Ash, Chris and Norman explore societal issues through the lens of the beautiful game. From the ethics of gambling sponsorship to what a stadium move means for fans, we’ll be covering it all each week with expert guests from the worlds of sports journalism and sociology.

Éder Lopes’s goal in the 2016 European Championship Final won Portugal its first ever major football trophy, and catapulted him to the status of a ‘national hero’. A recent article argues that the celebration of Éder, born in the former Portuguese colony Guinea Bissau, and other racialised players depends on their ability to perform and assimilate ‘Portuguese culture’.

In this episode, Pedro Almeida joins us to discuss the relation between football, race, nation and colonial past.

Pedro has studied press discourses in Portugal, particularly the narratives that emerged during the 2016 European Championship; in addition, the study draws on interviews with various agents including journalists and former professional players. While the success of the national team in 2016 was perceived and presented by some as a symbol of the re-definition of Portuguese national identity to reflect a multiracial and diverse society, in reality it hasn’t weakened the idea of ‘a national ‘we’, Portuguese and implicitly white, as opposed to ‘they’, African and implicitly black. Pedro writes that Portugueseness is still conceived of today as something innately white in the national imagination.

• How does Portugal see is colonial past as somehow different from other nations?
• To what extent are media stories about populations of Portugal's former colonial possessions enthusiastically celebrating Portugal's success true?
• How much has the Black Lives Matter movement impacted Portugal?

…all this and more in the 33rd episode of the Football and Society podcast.

***

If you like the podcast, please subscribe and give us a review via your platform of choice.

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***

Each week, Ash, Chris and Norman explore societal issues through the lens of the beautiful game. From the ethics of gambling sponsorship to what a stadium move means for fans, we’ll be covering it all each week with expert guests from the worlds of sports journalism and sociology.

In 2016, Iceland stunned the footballing world with its performance in the European Championship Finals. The nation of 340,000 reached the quarter-finals of their first-ever major tournament, claiming the scalps of England and Austria along the way.

In this episode, Vidar Halldorsson joins us to discuss Iceland's position as a ‘Black Swan’ in modern elite sport: because of their extraordinary performances

In Iceland, there is no distinction between ‘participation sports’ and ‘performance sports’ as there is in many other countries, and resources tend to be channelled into youth sports rather than elite sports. Regarding Iceland’s success at elite football level, Vidar argues that ‘the key characteristics of the Icelandic national teams, such as players’ enthusiasm, character, sacrifice, friendships and agency, are in part a result of their socialization in the youth sport system.’ He also notes that countries who once adopted the customary international sports model are now turning to the Icelandic model as a way of organising and playing sports.

• To what extent have Icelandic coaches been asked to advise other countries?
  
• Is Iceland's community-oriented success due to its small size?
  
• Are there other nations who may emerge as a ‘black swan’ in the near future and what is behind this being a possibility?

…all this and more in the 32nd episode of the Football and Society podcast. 

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If you like the podcast, please subscribe and give us a review via your platform of choice. 

Follow us on Twitter: www.twitter.com/footballsocpod 

Follow Vidar on Twitter: www.twitter.com/VidarHalldrsson

*** 

Each week, Ash, Chris and Norman explore societal issues through the lens of the beautiful game. From the ethics of gambling sponsorship to what a stadium move means for fans, we’ll be covering it all each week with expert guests from the worlds of sports journalism and sociology.

In 1967, Celtic became the first ever club from Britain to win the European Cup. At the Estádio Nacional near Lisbon, the team that became known as the ‘Lisbon Lions’ beat Internazionale 2-1; 10 of the 11 players in the team were born within 12 miles of Celtic’s stadium in the east end of Glasgow.

John Kelly and Joseph Bradley, in an article for the journal Soccer and Society, highlighted how significant this was for the Irish diaspora residing in Glasgow. 

Most contemporary discourse, however, neglects to acknowledge the symbolic nature and iconographic character of this famous victory. The triumph of Celtic, a team with strong connections to the Catholic area of Glasgow in which it is based (as well as other Catholic areas overseas), was a proud moment for the Irish Catholic diaspora in Scotland negotiating and forming its own identity, after suffering the consequences of British colonial legacy, mass starvation, and revolution in Ireland. 

Whilst it is not a Catholic club, there would be no Celtic Football Club without Catholics, Catholicism, and the Catholic Church in Scotland. It was an Irish immigrant and Catholic teacher, Brother Walfrid, who saw in the development and popularity of football an opportunity to raise money to feed poor immigrant Irish Catholics in Glasgow. Celtic’s distinctive identity contrasts sharply with dominant forms of Scottish and British identities. Over several generations, the club has become part of a shared biography for thousands of Irish-descended Celtic fans, and the Lisbon Lions’ victory in 1967 is a key moment in this collective narrative.

• Does the term 'sectarianism' need a rethink?
  
• To what extent is Irish identity and history suppressed by the Scottish school curriculum?
  
• How do fans of other Scottish clubs, including Rangers, Hibernian and Hearts feel about Celtic's pioneering 1967 side, and what does this tell us about Scottish society and footballing loyalties?

...all this and more in the 19th episode of the Football and Society podcast.

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Follow us on Twitter: www.twitter.com/footballsocpod

Follow John on Twitter: www.twitter.com/JohnKellyEdin

Find out more about John and his work: https://edinburgh.academia.edu/johnkelly

***

Each week, Ash, Chris and Norman explore societal issues through the lens of the beautiful game.

From the ethics of gambling sponsorship to what a stadium move means for fans, we’ll be covering it all each week with expert guests from the worlds of sports journalism and sociology.

The influence of the mafia is widely acknowledged on the Italian island of Sicily, where the mob gained influence in the 19th century when rising demand for Sicilian products led to the growth of the agricultural sector. The involvement of these groups in local football, however, remained obscure until a court case in 2007 exposed interactions between the mafioso and employees of the Sicilian team Palermo FC. 

Dr Vincenzo Scalia explored the implications of this court case in an article published in Soccer and Society in 2020, and he explains that the practices of the mafia sit awkwardly with the culture and practice of football management. The article describes the roles of two individuals with connections to the cosa nostra, a local mafia group: one of them is a lawyer employed by the club, and the other manager of Palermo’s youth team.  Both provided information as ‘supergrasses’ before the court, exposing the dynamics inside the criminal organisation and testifying to illegal activities such as securing free tickets for mob members and building contracts for the new stadium.  

Palermo experienced great success as a club at the start of the millennium, reaching the round of 16 in the UEFA Cup in 2006, yet the cosa nostra has shown limited interest in taking advantage of the economic benefits of such success. It seems that, for the Mafioso, involvement in football is a political rather than economic affair, concerned more with control over the local territory.  

• Will the cosa nostra try to maintain its involvement in Sicilian football? 
• To what extent are clubs soliciting involvement from organised crime? 
• Are the football authorities turning a blind eye to the mafia's involvement in football? 

...all this and more in the 18th episode of the Football and Society podcast. 

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If you like the podcast, please subscribe and give us a review via your platform of choice. 

Follow us on Twitter: www.twitter.com/footballsocpod 

Follow Vincenzo on Twitter: www.twitter.com/ScaliaVincenzo 

*** 

Each week, Ash, Chris and Norman explore societal issues through the lens of the beautiful game. 

From the ethics of gambling sponsorship to what a stadium move means for fans, we’ll be covering it all each week with expert guests from the worlds of sports journalism and sociology.

In the midst of the Covid pandemic, we have clearly been missing that familiar pilgrimage to the stadium on a Saturday afternoon. Equally, many of us have been impatiently awaiting the chance to meet our friends to watch the game over drinks at a pub or bar, rubbing shoulders with supporters of all persuasions.

Dr Daniel Buffington has studied the social dynamics of an American sports bar. His ethnographic study of supporters watching the 2006 Men's World Cup explored the social interactions that took place among the patrons of the bar while they watched televised broadcasts of the tournament taking place in Germany. 

Influenced by the work of Robert Putnam, sociologists have underlined concerns at the loss of community in the face of increasing mediatisation; combined with other changes in society, they argue that Americans’ growing love affair with television has reduced participation in civil activities that generate much-needed social capital. 

In his research, however, Buffington found that the spectators in the sports bar constituted a type of community in themselves. 

He noticed a hierarchy implicit in the race to obtain prime seats before the match, and described the ways in which spectators used visual icons to signal their allegiances; sometimes, this led to tension and confrontations, as well as opportunities for bonding and joint celebrations. Equal importance was therefore given to watching the televised games and interacting with fellow patrons: the act of individually consuming the broadcast was intertwined with the social experience surrounding its consumption.

• Does the coming together of football fans to watch matches remotely disprove the notion that a sense of community is in decline in the 21st century?
  
• To what extent are the 'rules' of the sports bar universally understood, and are they fixed or might they change over time?
  
• How has the rise of social media changed the remote-viewing experience?

...all this and more in the 17th episode of the Football and Society podcast.

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If you like the podcast, please subscribe and give us a review via your platform of choice.

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Find out more about Daniel's work: https://uncw.edu/soccrm/buffington.html

Buy Daniel's book 'The Global Migration of Soccer Players': https://uk.bookshop.org/books/the-global-migration-of-soccer-players/9781498572811

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Each week, Ash, Chris and Norman explore societal issues through the lens of the beautiful game.

From the ethics of gambling sponsorship to what a stadium move means for fans, we’ll be covering it all each week with expert guests from the worlds of sports journalism and sociology.

In Poland, the term ‘hooligan’ refers specifically to supporters who focus on competitive violence with rival fans, while ‘ultras’ are those who engage in the more performative aspects of fandom. Traditionally, hooligans command respect from non-hooligans due to their dominant position in the supporters’ hierarchy, but in recent years the behaviour of hooligan groups has isolated them from the wider fanbase.

In this episode we speak to Radosław Kossakowski, who with his colleague Mateusz Grodecki has studied the rise of a hooligan ‘bourgeoisie’ in Poland and the subsequent resentment among non-hooligans. 

They note how a hooligan elite emerged as football-related violence evolved, from ‘confrontations of beery hooligans with bellies somewhere in and around stadiums into organized gang fights involving martial arts fighters’. This shift intensified hooligans’ sense of being ‘the elite of the stands’ and their sense of separateness from the remainder of the fanbase. Alongside this hegemony on violence, the hooligans began engaging in (largely illegal) money-making practices, often exploiting the resources of the other supporters and using their power over the stands to serve their own economic interests. 

Because of this, there is growing resentment towards this elite hooligan class among non-hooligans. Are hooligans therefore making a tactical error, breaking the norms of ‘stands culture’ and exposing the false character of the dominant ideology that legitimizes hooligan power?

• How do the hooligan bourgeoisie reconcile two apparently contradictory terms?
  
• How do individuals rise to the top of Polish hooligan firms?
  
• Are political groups using Polish football grounds for recruitment in the same way that the British National Front did in the 1970s and 80s?
  

...all this and more in the 16th episode of the Football and Society podcast.

***

If you like the podcast, please subscribe and give us a review via your platform of choice.

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Follow Radosław on Twitter: www.twitter.com/R_Kossakowski

Buy Radosław's latest book 'Ultras: The passion and performance of contemporary football fandom': https://manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/9781526127624/

***

Each week, Ash, Chris and Norman explore societal issues through the lens of the beautiful game.

From the ethics of gambling sponsorship to what a stadium move means for fans, we’ll be covering it all each week with expert guests from the worlds of sports journalism and sociology.

In August 2015, Jose Mourinho criticised his first-team doctor, Eva Carneiro, for running onto the pitch to attend to an injured player, and she was subsequently dropped from Chelsea’s medical staff. Carneiro later took Mourinho to court for his use of abusive language, but the incident had also brought to the fore a debate about managers’ attitudes towards injured players.

Very little is known about football management strategies, particularly in academic literature. Graeme Law and his colleague Daniel Bloyce have explored the views of managers with regards to player injuries. They had interviewed 10 managers across the five professional English leagues in 2013, asking them questions on aspects such as playing through pain, taking risks with team selections in important games, and ‘inconveniencing’ injured players. 

Managers interviewed revealed that they did not expect their players to be 100% fit for games, and in some cases they faced difficult decisions about whether to play ‘key’ players for important games when there was a risk of injury. There was scepticism among managers generally towards those players who missed action due to minor injuries, or those who feigned injury. 

• How concerned are clubs for players' long-term health?
  
• How do managers weaponise 'gossip' to ensure player complicity and maintain control over a squad?
  
• Are managers becoming more sympathetic to players in an era of social media?

...all this and more in the 15th episode of the Football and Society podcast.

***

If you like the podcast, please subscribe and give us a review via your platform of choice.

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Follow Graeme on Twitter: www.twitter.com/g_law14

***

Each week, Ash, Chris and Norman explore societal issues through the lens of the beautiful game.

From the ethics of gambling sponsorship to what a stadium move means for fans, we’ll be covering it all each week with expert guests from the worlds of sports journalism and sociology.

The 2019 Women’s World Cup semi-final between England and the USA was watched by a record television audience of 11.7 million in the UK. It lived up to the hype, with England missing a penalty in the final minutes of a tense and fiercely fought-out match; fans were left agonising over what could have been, as the Lionesses rued a lost opportunity to reach the final and potentially win the most prized trophy of them all for the first time.

Kath Woodward argues that the 2019 World Cup was a pivotal moment for women’s football, which until then had largely been ignored by mainstream media in comparison with the men’s game. Indeed, football fandom has tended to focus on memorable achievements in the history of men’s football. 

In the UK, women were actually banned from establishing their own league by the FA in 1921, despite matches drawing tens of thousands of spectators. This, combined with the difficulties female players faced in finding the time to practice the sport, made it increasingly difficult for the women’s game to become accepted in wider society. 

In the second half of the 20th century, however, women’s football became immensely popular in North America; its popularity gradually spread across the globe and captivated audiences worldwide. On the world stage, English players such as Kelly Smith and Lucy Bronze have produced some memorable moments, and there will undoubtedly be more to come. Defining moments are stories that bring fans together, creating communities as well as legends.

• How important is the media in creating moments relating to the women's game that endure in the collective memory?
  
• To what extent do the Men's World Cup and Women's World Cup reinforce a binary view of gender?
  
• How optimistic should we be for the future of the women's game?

...all this and more in the 14th episode of the Football and Society podcast.

***

If you like the podcast, please subscribe and give us a review via your platform of choice.

Follow us on Twitter: www.twitter.com/footballsocpod

Follow Kath on Twitter: www.twitter.com/woodward_kath

***

Each week, Ash, Chris and Norman explore societal issues through the lens of the beautiful game.

From the ethics of gambling sponsorship to what a stadium move means for fans, we’ll be covering it all each week with expert guests from the worlds of sports journalism and sociology.

Soweto, located in the city of Johannesburg, South Africa is a township beset by crime and unemployment. In the midst of all this, however, its residents - especially the youngest - find an escape from the danger and violence of the ‘street’ through football.

Jo Grønlund embedded himself in Soweto's grassroots football scene and in the process discovered the ways in which local, small-scale football helps to create meanings and identities for township dwellers. 

In this podcast, he discusses the (perhaps naive) distinction that residents created between the danger zones of the ‘street’ and the footballing arena, where it was perceived that discipline and responsibility reigned. 

Jo also built strong relationships with local coaches, who presented themselves as father-like figures, and the players in turn treated them as paternalistic figures of authority; in this way, grassroots football clubs operate as ‘families’ where a hierarchical power structure is in place to manage relationships. 

• How does the legacy of Apartheid still affect those living in South African townships like Soweto?
  
• What can western sporting coaches learn from those who coach in the townships
  
• How effective are these youth clubs in generating the professional players of tomorrow?

...all this and more in the 13th episode of the Football and Society podcast.

***

If you like the podcast, please subscribe and give us a review via your platform of choice.

Follow us on Twitter: www.twitter.com/footballsocpod

***

Each week, Ash, Chris and Norman explore societal issues through the lens of the beautiful game.

From the ethics of gambling sponsorship to what a stadium move means for fans, we’ll be covering it all each week with expert guests from the worlds of sports journalism and sociology.

The history of sports participation for people with visual impairments can be traced back to the early 19th century. Since then, sport for people with visual impairments has become accessible across the world thanks largely to institutional developments, including the creation of the International Blind Sports Federation in 1981.

In this episode, we speak to Keon Richardson about his involvement in introducing blind football to Zimbabwe. Keon, working with Zimbabwe’s National Paralympic Committee, spearheaded one-day coaching clinics for specialist teachers and students with visual impairments; the sport is now played in all ten of the country’s provinces. 

Keon's study highlights how students’ physical health improved and their participation allowed them to challenge dominant ideas about being visually impaired. These findings offer national governing bodies, schools, and organisations rich information on removing barriers to participation not only in Zimbabwe, but across the rest of the world.

• How is Blind Football played and how does it differ from the association rules?
  
• To what extent has a sport which features both disabled and non-disabled participants changed perceptions?
  
• How do cultural perceptions of disability differ around the world?

...all this and more in the twelfth episode of the Football and Society podcast.

***

If you like the podcast, please subscribe and give us a review via your platform of choice.

Follow us on Twitter: www.twitter.com/footballsocpod

Follow Keon on Twitter: www.twitter.com/finallykeon

***

Each week, Ash, Chris and Norman explore societal issues through the lens of the beautiful game.

From the ethics of gambling sponsorship to what a stadium move means for fans, we’ll be covering it all each week with expert guests from the worlds of sports journalism and sociology.

While women’s football has grown in popularity in the last few decades and female superstars now grace our television screens alongside the stars of men’s football, there remain significant challenges in altering attitudes towards wider female participation in the sport, as well as limited discussion of the experience of female footballers who take part in mixed-sex football.

Kate Themen has explored notions of physicality and the gendered body in the context of mixed-sex football. By participating in mixed settings, female players are actively contesting the dominant discourse whereby physicality is undesirable in female bodies, and mixed-sex football therefore allows female players to challenge gender stereotypes which define the masculine as the doer and the feminine as the non-doer. 

The research for this study was conducted in the north-west of England, and involved narrative interviews with 8 participants aged from 23 to 58. Many of the participants revealed they had started playing football much later than is normal for male players, due to a lack of opportunities to do so that consequently restricted their access to ‘physical capital’. The difficulties in obtaining and employing physical capital for women are exacerbated by a system that provides limited resources for them to practice and receive guidance from professional coaches. 

Mixed-sex football, however, provides a ‘third space’ in which the boundaries of gender and physicality are tested, and the precariousness of ‘gender’ as a construct is challenged by the female players’ physicality.

• How are bodies 'gendered' and how does this influence the experience of female players?
  
• What can football learn from other sports which do have a history of mixed participation, such as tennis?
  
• To what extent does the current split into men's and women's sport reinforce gender binaries, and how might we break these down?

...all this and more in the eleventh episode of the Football and Society podcast.

***

If you like the podcast, please subscribe and give us a review via your platform of choice.

Follow us on Twitter: www.twitter.com/footballsocpod

Follow Kate on Twitter: www.twitter.com/KateThemen

***

Each week, Ash, Chris and Norman explore societal issues through the lens of the beautiful game.

From the ethics of gambling sponsorship to what a stadium move means for fans, we’ll be covering it all each week with expert guests from the worlds of sports journalism and sociology.

As women’s football has grown in popularity, there has been a corresponding growth in attention on female players, yet little attention has been paid to non-playing roles. One recent study, however, explored the experiences of female officials in men’s amateur football in the UK.

Alison Forbes, Lisa Edwards, and Scott Fleming explored the experiences of four officials in Warwickshire and Somerset. They used participant observation and in-depth interviews to analyse the techniques employed by female officials to overcome hostile attitudes and sexist abuse. The study identified tensions between the officials’ gendered and refereeing identities; in the face of sexist comments, some participants noted that male officials also encounter abuse and considered it normal in football for people to criticise officials in this way. 

However, the participants also felt that they were representing female football officials in general when they officiated, and there was therefore additional pressure to conquer negative stereotypes concerning women’s participation. Because of this negative stereotyping, it is argued that female officials must actually perform better than their male counterparts to become accepted within male football culture. The authors state that, while women remain a minority within men’s football, if female officials do not complain about or confront abusers there is little incentive to rid the sport of sexism; it also means that other female officials in the future, especially those younger and with less confidence, may suffer as a result.

• To what extent are female officals' performances scrutinised to an extent that would never happen with a male official?
  
• What are the FA and football authorities doing to empower referees and help them combat abuse?
  
• How far away are we from female managers working in the men's game, and how might this improve the standing of female referees? 

...all this and more in the ninth episode of the Football and Society podcast.

***

If you like the podcast, please subscribe and give us a review via your platform of choice.

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Follow Alison on Twitter: www.twitter.com/allygg99

***

Each week, Ash, Chris and Norman explore societal issues through the lens of the beautiful game.

From the ethics of gambling sponsorship to what a stadium move means for fans, we’ll be covering it all each week with expert guests from the worlds of sports journalism and sociology.

Throughout the history of modern football, dictatorships have attempted both to suppress football and to use major footballing events on the world stage to showcase their power.

Whilst the ‘people’s game’ provides opportunities for resistance and solidarity, ‘states of exception’ pose a genuine threat to players, supporters, and democratic movements seeking to challenge authoritarian regimes.

‘States of exception’ is a term used by Tamir Bar-On in an article published in 2018, referring to states experiencing war, revolution, terrorism, or severe economic and political disturbances, where any existing order is suspended indefinitely. 

Salvador Allende’s Unidad Popular, who governed Chile prior to the 1973 coup, was a keen advocate of football’s role in creating and promoting ‘spaces of popular sovereignty and participation’. The arrival of General Pinochet, however, marked a new era of repression and brutality towards civil society, including amateur football clubs. 

In this podcast we explore the careers of two Chilean players, Elías Figueroa and Carlos Caszely: one of whom was a vocal supporter of the regime, and the other of whom was a fierce critic. 

Today, with changes in the world order resulting from globalisation, the focus has shifted from sovereign states to global networks of power and influence. We are now in a ‘neo-medieval era’, Tamir claims, where states share power with international organisations such as FIFA or the UN.

• Why do authoritarian regimes spare some high profile critics and not others?
  
• How has Chilean football addressed the legacy of the Pinochet regime?
  
• Given its power, has FIFA created its own state of exception?

...all this and more in the eighth episode of the Football and Society podcast.

***

If you like the podcast, please subscribe and give us a review via your platform of choice.

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Follow Tamir on Twitter: www.twitter.com/OnTamir

***

Each week, Ash, Chris and Norman explore societal issues through the lens of the beautiful game.

From the ethics of gambling sponsorship and the trauma of a stadium move to the experience of female officials and what a stadium move means for fans, we’ll be covering it all each week with expert guests from the worlds of sports journalism and sociology.

At the turn of the 21st century, the UK’s New Labour government championed ‘Football in the Community’ initiatives as a way of addressing issues such as crime and unemployment among so-called ‘hard-to-reach’ young people. One such initiative, Premier League Kicks, was launched in 2006.

Thomas Fletcher and Keon Richardson conducted a case study focussing on a Premier League Kicks initiative run by Tottenham Hotspur in the London borough of Haringey, interviewing young participants as well as coaches who had once been participants themselves. 

Thomas and Keon suggest that participants need to create and convert various forms of capital, including social and sporting capital, in order to establish connections with people from outside their community as well as those within. In theory, these connections would then allow them to make the most of opportunities for social mobility and ‘get ahead’. 

However, the study revealed that although Premier League Kicks offers one-to-one mentoring and individual guidance on career and education choices, the participants themselves lacked the necessary social competencies and knowledge of the systems governing football:

• In what ways does a ‘deficit’ of social capital hinder young people?
  
• To what extent do those involved use such projects to gain trials at football clubs?
  
• And are initiatives such as Premier League Kicks just lip service to a local community by clubs who have become billion-pound corporations?

...all this and more in the seventh episode of the Football and Society podcast.

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If you like the podcast, please subscribe and give us a review via your platform of choice.

Follow us on Twitter: www.twitter.com/footballsocpod

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Each week, Ash, Chris and Norman explore societal issues through the lens of the beautiful game.

From the ethics of gambling sponsorship and the trauma of a stadium move to the experience of female officials and what a stadium move means for fans, we’ll be covering it all each week with expert guests from the worlds of sports journalism and sociology.

Watching football games being played behind closed doors lately has highlighted how important supporters are in creating that unique atmosphere on a matchday. But have you ever thought of supporters as ‘magicians’?

This is the view proposed by Katarzyna Herd who has explored the practice of magic among Swedish football supporters. 

Katarzyna’s work builds on the notion of ‘magic’ as described by the French sociologist Marcel Mauss, who defined magic as a means of creating a socially constructed space, in which certain rites are performed to foster a collective belief in the power of these practices to influence events.

Drawing on her experience attending games with the radical supporters of Malmö, Katarzyna argues that the core elements of magic as Mauss describes it are present at matches with the most radical fans engaging in behaviour considered taboo by other supporters (boisterous chanting, lighting flares, and displaying aggression towards the opposition).

• How essential is suffering to being a football fan?
  
• Does supporters’ magic operate in the same way in a virtual space online, or is it only present in the ground itself?
  
• Are football’s magical elements reduced in corporate football cultures such as in the English Premier League?

...all this and more in the sixth episode of the Football and Society podcast.

***

If you like the podcast, please subscribe and give us a review via your platform of choice.

Follow us on Twitter: www.twitter.com/footballsocpod


***

Each week, Ash, Chris and Norman explore societal issues through the lens of the beautiful game.

From the ethics of gambling sponsorship and the trauma of a stadium move to the experience of female officials and what a stadium move means for fans, we’ll be covering it all each week with expert guests from the worlds of sports journalism and sociology.