Football, Tactics, and Communities

Football, Tactics, and Communities

Football and Global Societies

As the world's most popular sport, football plays a significant role in global society. Its stars are global celebrities who earn millions from their clubs and endorsements.

 

The major clubs are global brands worth billions and can afford to spend more and more every transfer window, and the money made from merchandising, sponsorship, video games and media rights is enormous.

 

It transcends borders, race, and religion to unite us all, particularly during major international events like the World Cup.

 

Yet, at the same time, it divides us. Clubs and national teams represent so much more than the name on the shirt. They represent cultural, political, and even racial identities.

 

Its fiercest rivalries stem from seismic issues as varied as social class (such as Boca-River); regional pride and nationalism (like Real Madrid-Barcelona); cross-town division (such as the Derby Della Capitale in Rome); religion, culture and national identity (like the Old Firm in Scotland) or power struggles between different arms of the state (such as Serbia's Eternal derby).

 

Football plays a complex role today, and you will explore this in-depth during this module. You will look at the key debates about the social and cultural origins of sport and its ‘meaning’ in late-modern life.

 

You will examine the ever-growing role of the media, especially television, in the production, mediation and consumption of football and other sports in late modernity.

 

You will explore the role of football in relation to the expression of national, racialized, and gendered forms of identity and identification, the importance of fandom and a sense of ‘place’ in modern life. You will also develop your research skills when collecting data and analyzing sport and its issues.

 

Football and Employment

Youth unemployment is a critical problem facing Europe, with recent figures showing unemployment rates for young people being more than double than that for the entire population.

Helping these young people improve their chances of finding work, especially those who have little to no qualifications or specialist vocational skills, is a vital task for European policy makers and one which presents considerable challenges.

Football-based Employ-ability Programmers

Over recent years, football-based employ-ability programmes, focused on marginalized youth in Europe, have been increasing in both quantity and variety. The impact of these programmes has become a topic of substantial European interest due to economic stagnation and soaring unemployment rates.

This pan-European study will examine the extent to which these programmes can influence the employment, and/or re-offending rates of their participants and evaluate the impact they may have on the wider community.

The report comprises several sections, each exploring various aspects of football-based employ-ability programmes that focus on peer-to-peer approaches.

 A total of eight organizations running football-based employ-ability programmes were chosen for the study; four from the UK (Sport4Life, Albion in the Community, Street League and Start Again), two from Germany (Rheinflanke and KICKFAIR), one from France (Sport dans la Ville) and one from Portugal (CAIS).

Throughout the report attention is made to the impact of the programmes aimed at young people not in Education, Employment or Training (NEET’s), with more than 7.5 million young NEET’s in the European Union – Over 13% of the youth population (Thompson, 2013).

Football and Economy

Football has changed. Teams continue to form part of the cultural and sentimental heritage of cities and national teams, which continue to arouse passions. They can be considered another national symbol. But, beyond this cultural dimension, recent decades have been dominated by the importance of the financial and media dimensions of the sport.

The parallels between economics, finances and football are clear. As a financial business, the football economy has also been affected by global economic conditions, especially its middle class, the average clubs.

Football too was forced to sell assets, make internal devaluations, and rely on exports. We know that the revenues come from ticket sales, sponsors, and television rights, but it is not always easy to decipher the logic and interests hidden behind them. Let us try.

The Gate

According to Internet portal DeportesyFinanzas.com, the English Premier League and the German Bundesliga top the gate rankings year after year among the top five European leagues (over 90% of capacity this season), ahead of the Spanish and French leagues (70%). The Italian series A is fifth in the rankings with 60%. The Germans and English fill their stadiums, but their success is based on different models.

German clubs have not raised ticket prices despite the increase in demand from the public and they keep prices affordable. Clubs owned by members comply with German legislation that forces them to keep a majority stake in their brand, preventing the entry of oligarch owners and reinforcing how Germans identify with their teams.

 The Premier, with a more balanced share-out of television rights, has generated a more even competition that arouses greater interest among fans and, therefore, larger crowds in stadiums.

Sponsors and Their Economic Impact

The football economy is undergoing change. The influence of countries is replacing the top commercial brands, but their investments show different traits. Paul Kagame, president of Rwanda, has invested €30m in sponsoring Arsenal.

Chad (number 122 in the ranking of countries by GDP according to the IMF) signed an agreement with French club Metz. These are two examples of the tourism promotion strategy initiated by countries with few economic resources.

If we look at the Middle East, the tactic of diversifying their economy from oil (United Arab Emirates) or gas (Qatar) to tourism and leisure is combined with other interests.

The Qatar Foundation, former sponsor of Barcelona, paid the Catalan club €150m in 2011. Tamin bin Hamad Al-Thani, the Emir of Qatar, bought Paris Saint Germain in 2011.

Experts agree that the intention behind these moves is to weave commercial networks in the west in preparation for a modern, post-gas economy, making enough noise to overcome the shadow of threat represented by Saudi Arabia.

On the one hand, the influence of the Abu Dhabi United Group, owner of Manchester City and New York City among others, all sponsored by Etihad.

Fly Emirates is the brand with the most teams sponsored among the top 50 in Europe, followed by Etihad and Qatar Airways, who have put their money on the European football giants (Real Madrid, Milan, Roma, Arsenal…)

In 2015, 38% of the 2.7bn spectators of the Premier League were Chinese, a situation that is repeated in the other European leagues. Commercial brands know this and, like Chevrolet with Manchester United, they no longer look to increase sales in their own countries, but to boost consumers in Asia, Africa, and the Middle East.

However, neither the car industry nor airlines are the dominant sectors in the economics of football. Betting shops are on 20% of the top 50 most valuable teams’ shirts according to Brand Finances, although most teams are qualitatively less important.

Written by - Mohammed Hassan

Edited by – Adrija Saha