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The Political Economy of SportPlaying an Aerial Game: The New Political Economy of Soccer

The Political Economy of Sport: Playing an Aerial Game: The New Political Economy of Soccer [Association football, otherwise known as soccer, is without question the world’s most popular sport. Globally soccer is played and watched by more people than any other game. While the American professional basketball (NBA) and football/gridiron (NFL) leagues struggle to cultivate a massive European following, soccer has been successfully transplanted into the apparently infertile territory of the United States, resulting in 18 million direct participants (Andrews, 1999). Soccer’s flagship tournament, the World Cup finals, is fast approaching the Olympic Games as sport’s most extravagant mega-event. Soccer constitutes a lingua franca qua body culture to peoples otherwise divided by language, religion or custom. Politically the game has been considered to spark wars in Central America and revolutions in Eastern Europe (Kapuscinski, 1992),1 as well as promote ceasefires and conflict resolutions in Africa (Murray, 1996; Richards, 1997). Yet soccer’s global centrality is most commonly measured in financial terms. Some estimates valued annual soccer-related business at over £250 billion in the year 2001.] http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png

The Political Economy of SportPlaying an Aerial Game: The New Political Economy of Soccer

Part of the International Political Economy Series Book Series
Editors: Nauright, John; Schimmel, Kimberly S.
Giulianotti, Richard
The Political Economy of Sport — Sep 29, 2015
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18 pages

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Publisher
Palgrave Macmillan UK
Copyright
© Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited 2005
ISBN
978-1-349-41624-0
Pages
19 –37
DOI
10.1057/9780230524057_2
Publisher site
See Chapter on Publisher Site

Abstract

[Association football, otherwise known as soccer, is without question the world’s most popular sport. Globally soccer is played and watched by more people than any other game. While the American professional basketball (NBA) and football/gridiron (NFL) leagues struggle to cultivate a massive European following, soccer has been successfully transplanted into the apparently infertile territory of the United States, resulting in 18 million direct participants (Andrews, 1999). Soccer’s flagship tournament, the World Cup finals, is fast approaching the Olympic Games as sport’s most extravagant mega-event. Soccer constitutes a lingua franca qua body culture to peoples otherwise divided by language, religion or custom. Politically the game has been considered to spark wars in Central America and revolutions in Eastern Europe (Kapuscinski, 1992),1 as well as promote ceasefires and conflict resolutions in Africa (Murray, 1996; Richards, 1997). Yet soccer’s global centrality is most commonly measured in financial terms. Some estimates valued annual soccer-related business at over £250 billion in the year 2001.]

Published: Sep 29, 2015

Keywords: Transnational Corporation; Premier League; Rich Club; Satellite Television; Champion League

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