Managing Sport and Leisure

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Football and politics: the politics of football

Martin J. Power, Paul Widdop, Dan Parnell, James Carr & Stephen R. Millar

To cite this article: Martin J. Power, Paul Widdop, Dan Parnell, James Carr & Stephen R. Millar
(2020) Football and politics: the politics of football, Managing Sport and Leisure, 25:1-2, 1-5, DOI:
10.1080/23750472.2020.1723437

To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/23750472.2020.1723437

Published online: 24 Feb 2020.

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MANAGING SPORT AND LEISURE
2020, VOL. 25, NOS. 1–2, 1–5
https://doi.org/10.1080/23750472.2020.1723437

Football and politics: the politics of football

a
Martin J. Power , Paul Widdopb, Dan Parnellc, James Carra and Stephen R. Millard
a
Department of Sociology, University of Limerick, Limerick, Ireland; bManchester Metropolitan University, Manchester, UK;
c
Management School, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, UK; dSchool of Music, Cardiff University, Cardiff, UK
ARTICLE HISTORY Received 24 January 2020; Accepted 27 January 2020

How often have we heard the old adage that and modes of masculinity since its inception.
sport and politics should not mix? Indeed, the Through its local connections and global
New Year was only days old when the Inter- appeal, football is an important platform for
national Committee of the 2020 Tokyo sociopolitical distinction and regulation. Foot-
Olympic Games warned that athletes engaging ball also offers a unique space for the public per-
in political acts of protest would face disciplin- formance of identity, both for hegemonic
ary action (Guardian, 2020). The editors of this groups attempting to demarcate normative cul-
special issue of Managing Sport and Leisure tural values, and alternative and diasporic
insist that sport has always been political. groups who use football to critique the status
Taking Association Football as its focus, this quo and celebrate their alterity (Millar, 2016).
special issue is devoted to “Football and (P)poli- In recent years, political actors have capitalised
tics” and was inspired by the Football, Politics on football for both social mobilisation and pol-
and Popular Culture conference held at the Uni- itical propaganda, which often evidence a
versity of Limerick in November 2016. While network of relationships between football, poli-
capital “P”, Politics is concerned with govern- tics and society (Dunning, Murphy, & Wadding-
ment, world trade agreements and global capit- ton, 2002; Spaaij, De Waele, Gibril, & Gloriozova,
alism, politics with a small “p” focuses on the 2018).
everyday micro-politics of life and our every- Clubs, players and fans are enmeshed within
day decisions. This is not to suggest that politics politics. Clubs have been formed as a result of
has nothing to do with Politics. Indeed, as Janks population upheavals and migration; have
(2012, p. 150) outlines: been associated with ethno-national and reli-
gious communities, and political ideologies
the socio-historical and economic contexts in
which we live produce different conditions of
and parties. In the contemporary context, foot-
possibility and constraint that we all have to ball continues to be tied to political events
negotiate as meaningfully as we can. While and symbols. The continuing migration of
the social constructs who we are, so do we people seeking refuge in Europe has seen foot-
construct the social. This dialectic relationship ball supporters raise their voices both in support
is fluid and dynamic, creating possibilities for
of and opposition to such migration (Spaaij,
social action and change.
2015). Football has been a mobiliser for
Football has been inscribed with tribalism, various offshoots of populism, particularly
protest, military propaganda, political symbols those from the far right of the political spectrum

CONTACT Martin J. Power martin.j.power@ul.ie Room F1011, Department of Sociology, University of Limerick, Limerick, Ireland
© 2020 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group
2 M. J. POWER ET AL.

in more recent years. Racism and anti-racism Research Handbook on Sport Governance
practices play out on and off the pitch (Winand & Anagnostopoulos, 2019). Indeed,
(Cleland, 2014; Cleland & Cashmore, 2016; recent articles within Managing Sport and
Doidge, 2018). Broader contemporary inter- Leisure include a variety of football-based
national political controversies or the wearing articles including an examination of footballs
of “political” symbols continue to spark contro- global trade network (Bond, Widdop, & Chad-
versy among player, fan and political commu- wick, 2018), the education pathways for football
nities alike (See for example Kelly, 2013, 2016). managers (Morrow & Howieson, 2018) and gov-
Playing, and participating in football as a fan, ernance in national football federations (Finne-
are also welcome forms of escapism from gan, McArdle, Littlewood, & Richardson, 2018),
social isolation, with ongoing debates examin- amongst others. The Routledge book series
ing the rationale for investment in sport as a Critical Research in Football which is associated
mechanism to promote social inclusion (see with The Football Collective has received unpre-
Coalter, 2015; Collins & Haudenhuyse, 2015; cedented interest and is proving a valuable
Parnell & Richardson, 2014; Parnell, Pringle, outlet for scholars from many disciplines to dis-
Widdop, & Zwolinsky, 2015; Rich, Misener, & seminate research findings and influence the
Dubeau, 2015; Schaillée, Theeboom, & Van Cau- football community. The first publication in
wenberg, 2015; Spaaij, Magee, & Jeanes, 2014). the series covered fan activism, protest and poli-
On a football pitch in Yugoslavia on 13 May tics in post-socialist Croatia (Hodges, 2018) and
1990, one iconic moment, provided a symbolic the most recent one examines the development
example of these potent bedfellows. Against of women’s soccer in Germany (Meier, 2020).
the backdrop of Croatians voting for indepen- The breadth of topics featured and method-
dence, and a riot between the Bad Blue Boys ologies deployed in football research and scho-
Ultras of Dinamo Zagreb and the Delije Ultras larship is an exciting time for the field and also
of Crvena Zvezda (Red Star Belgrade), the prompts us to continue to reflect, understand
Zagreb captain and future star of European hea- and inform future research.
vyweights’ AC Milan, Zvonimir Boban, kicked a The purpose of this special issue of Managing
police officer who had allegedly been mistreat- Sport and Leisure is to provoke a broad, interdis-
ing Croatian fans. Some continue to argue that ciplinary, and critical discussion about (P)politics
this moment symbolically marked the end of and / of Association Football (as a form of enter-
Yugoslavia, with a devastating Civil War follow- tainment, recreational or occupational activity).
ing later and many of the protagonists on that To move the scholarship in these areas
day swapping the terraces for the front lines forward, the SI editors encouraged submissions
(see Milekic, 2016 for an interesting discussion from scholars both inside and outside of the
of this event). sport management domain. Our call for papers
There is a growing body of literature explor- asked scholars to submit papers that spoke to
ing the management, marketing, and govern- the management, marketing or governance of
ance of association football. A number of association football at elite, community and
dedicated texts have captured the growth in grassroots levels in the context of migration,
this area and represent an extensive body of racisms, ethno-national formation, conflict
research undertaken by contributing scholars, (Ethno-national, Ideological, Sectarian, class
including the Routledge Handbook of Football etc.), identities, gender, and fan culture. Our
Studies (Hughson, Moore, Spaaij, & Maguire, initial focus was simple: What is the relationship
2016), the Routledge Handbook of Football between football and (P)politics? We asked
Business and Management (Chadwick, Parnell, authors to consider the ways in which we
Widdop, & Anagnostopoulos, 2018) and the might explore that relationship in a given time
 MANAGING SPORT AND LEISURE 3

and place, and in what ways we could produc- Study of Legia Warsaw, they ultimately argue
tively talk about, theorise, and assess it. The that the relationship between a football club
eight articles presented in this Special Issue and its Ultra-fans is both co- and inter-depen-
respond in various ways to these questions. dent, with each side impacting on how the
The first three articles examine football and other exists.
Politics. Joel Rookwood’s “The politics of Daniel Torchia’s (2020) article “Creating and
ConIFA: Organising and managing international Managing Community in a Community Football
football events for unrecognised countries” Club” explores how community is understood,
(2020) offers unique insights on the politics made operational and managed at Football
and impact of three “international” football Club United of Manchester (FC United). The
tournaments which were organised for article clearly highlights how the utopian politi-
“countries” not recognised by football’s estab- cal goal of creating a community through the
lished governing bodies, and the role of the football club is repeatedly constrained by estab-
Confederation of Independent Football Associ- lished standards, bureaucracy and
ations (ConIFA) in wider mega-event contexts. managerialism.
Jon Darts’ (2020) article demonstrates how In “More than a Club, More than a Game: The
sport and national identity are manifest in Pales- Case of Diverse City”, Carr and Power (2020)
tinian football and how football is being used as explore the politics of participation in football
a mechanism to draw attention to the struggle when that participation may be policed by com-
for a Palestinian state. In essence the article munity members monitoring behaviour(s) in
attempts to stimulate a discussion on the role accordance with the groups preferred norms.
that football plays for people living under The article provides rich insights on issues relat-
occupation. ing to female participation in sport, particularly
“The Premier League-Globalization nexus: in an international context where securitised
notes on current trends, pressing issues and practices and discourses are discouraging the
inter-linked ‘-ization’ processes” by Ludvigsen socio-civic participation of young Muslims.
(2020) examines how entwined processes of Finally, Ahn and Cunningham (2020)
globalisation, commercialisation and securitisa- examine the politics of gender in their paper
tion continue to influence the ways in which “Standing on a Glass Cliff? A Case Study of
football is organized, played and consumed in FIFA’s Gender Initiatives”. Crucially, the authors
the English Premier League. address the practical and theoretical impli-
The Special Issue then shifts focus to the poli- cations and future directions for women’s lea-
tics of football. Lee Tucker’s (2020) “Football dership in the sport. Their paper is timely in
Capital: What is it and why is it important?” light of the chants of “equal pay” after the
employs a predominantly Bourdieusian analysis USA beat the Netherlands in the 2019
to consider how male players from a Sunday Women’s World Cup final.
league football club in the north-east of We hope that this special edition expands
England accumulate and operationalise “Foot- upon the existing knowledge in this area and
ball Capital” through a diverse range of beha- offers new materials for, and new approaches
viours, competencies and connections to gain to, contemplating the intersection of associ-
status and influence in this community. ation football and (P)politics. In conclusion, we
Choluj, Gerard, and May (2020) examine how believe that this special issue will bring
the increasing commercialisation of football has enhanced and renewed attention to football
been impacted by the “Against Modern Foot- and the relationship it has with politics and
ball” (AMF) movement in Poland. In their Case society.
4 M. J. POWER ET AL.

Disclosure statement Dunning, E., Murphy, P., & Waddington, I. (2002).

Towards a sociological understanding of football
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the hooliganism as a world phenomenon. In E.
author(s). Dunning, P. Murphy, I. Waddington, & A.
Astrinakis (Eds.), Fighting fans: Football hooliganism
as a world phenomenon (pp. 1–22). Dublin:
ORCID University College Dublin Press.
Martin J. Power http://orcid.org/0000-0002-6207- Finnegan, L., McArdle, J., Littlewood, M., & Richardson,
3390 D. (2018). Somewhat united: Primary stakeholder
perspectives of the governance of schoolboy foot-
ball in Ireland. Managing Sport and Leisure, 23(1-2),
48–69.
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